Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4577 )

• Witches in History

  

  In a rationalistic society, the concept of witches has no place. If only we knew what witches were. Sadly fascinated by the unfortunate—evil would be the more... Read more

  Posted on 12 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Rosemary by Any Other Name

  

  With NBC’s remake of Rosemary’s Baby into a mini-series in the news, I sat down to watch the original again. I’ve blogged about it before, but with most... Read more

  Posted on 11 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Myth of Infinity

  

  There are only five major trade publishing houses left. Despite the bewildering number of publishers around, five corporate giants own most of the industry... Read more

  Posted on 10 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Atheist Deities

  

  An atheist who created gods. That’s the basic skinny on H. P. Lovecraft. Perhaps all gods are thus created. I can’t know; I wasn’t there at the beginning. Read more

  Posted on 09 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Hotel Nowhere

  

  1977. I was in junior high school and I wore my hair long. I hadn’t yet donned the cross that I carried through my high school years with a constant fear of Hel... Read more

  Posted on 08 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Not Child’s Play

  

  Games reveal quite a bit about a culture. That’s a little takeaway from my undergraduate anthropology class. Different societies favor different types of... Read more

  Posted on 07 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• East of Nowhere

  

  There was a time when you could assume a lot about your readers. Although it was only a little more than a half century ago, John Steinbeck could assume a... Read more

  Posted on 06 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Cow Jumped

  

  While digging through the attic for some reference material for a colleague this weekend, I came upon a box of Bibles. I actually have many Bibles around the... Read more

  Posted on 05 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Firer Bearer

  

  Part prequel and part religious odyssey, Prometheus both treads familiar ground and explores new territory. In keeping with my invariable sense of timing (I... Read more

  Posted on 04 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Take Twice Daily

  

  Once in a way, when I feel a dusty archaism settling over me, and I realize my eyes don’t focus as well as they once did and that sedentary life in front of a... Read more

  Posted on 03 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Lord Have Mercer

  

  Samuel Alfred Browne Mercer was an Assyriologist who failed to establish an academic legacy.  I quickly learned, when consulting his The Tell El-Amarna Tablets... Read more

  Posted on 02 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Science Fiction Double Feature

  

  Two news stories last week—one from the Associated Press and one from the Chronicle of Higher Education—hit upon a common theme: scientific illiteracy. Read more

  Posted on 01 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Education for Hire

  

  Capitalism takes no survivors. Ironically, the very concept of capitalism was the result of deep, intellectual reflection. Not that trade hadn’t existed before... Read more

  Posted on 30 April 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Irrational Reform State

  

  Since 1954, after the cut-off date for new religions (see yesterday’s post), American children have been making a pledge to an inanimate object with the words,... Read more

  Posted on 29 April 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Irrational Revelation System

  

  In an article on Obamacare in last week’s paper, Kathleen O’Brien pointed out an interesting dilemma. Some religions, such as the Anabaptist traditions (Amish,... Read more

  Posted on 28 April 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Targeted Management of Information

  

  Social justice has always been a concern for me. Call it my primate sensibilities. I grew up in humble circumstances, in a religion that helped to ameliorate th... Read more

  Posted on 27 April 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Fleeting Meaning

  

  Just a year before I had been unceremoniously dismissed from a fourteen-year teaching job at Nashotah House, devastating everything I thought I knew. Read more

  Posted on 26 April 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• To Thine Own Self

  

  Among the books that I would rate very important, Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá’s Sex at Dawn would need to be on top, or nearly so. As I’ve often... Read more

  Posted on 25 April 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• New York Calvin

  

  So I’m standing at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 29th Street, gazing at Marble Collegiate Church, of the Reformed Church in America.  A cold breeze is... Read more

  Posted on 24 April 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• History Department

  

  Rather like an embarrassing personal blemish, many universities tend to hide the fact that they were originally servants of the church.  Ouch!  I know that... Read more

  Posted on 23 April 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY