Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4648 )

• Missing Apocalypses

  

  Sharknados aside, we seem to be in a lull of apocalypses at the moment. In the run-up to the change of the millennium and 2012, we perhaps had our fill of dire... Read more

  Posted on 13 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Programming God

  

  Robots have been part of my world far longer than I ever recognized. Still, growing up in a small town in the 1960s, their impact was fairly minimal—they may... Read more

  Posted on 12 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• St. Ghost

  

  Since they combine two of my soft spots—local history and ghost stories—books telling the tales of home-town specters are compelling in a homespun way. Read more

  Posted on 11 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Real Reading Rainbow

  

  Libraries rule. According to recent studies libraries rate higher than religious institutions, according to public surveys, in their usefulness to society. Read more

  Posted on 10 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Clockwork Universe

  

  In a clockwork universe, time is an essential interpretive factor. Those of us constantly crushed for time hardly realize just how recent of an invention it... Read more

  Posted on 09 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Jonahado

  

  Some movies are so bad that they become classics. Some are just plain bad. The jury in my head is still out on Sharknado. The story, obviously tongue-in-cheek,... Read more

  Posted on 08 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Fault in Whose Stars?

  

  Theodicy. I’m no theologian, but the problem of suffering erects a wall ever higher between wanting to believe and actual experience. Many great thinkers have... Read more

  Posted on 07 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Uisge Beatha

  

  Water is essential for life. Life as we know it, in any case. It is no surprise, then, that many religions incorporate water into their rituals. Read more

  Posted on 05 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Inerrant, Indeed

  

  The other day at work, I discovered a huge Bible. This one was truly massive, in three volumes, almost too heavy to lift. As I pulled down the last fascicle,... Read more

  Posted on 04 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Vive La Compagnie

  

  I’m cleaning out the closet at work. I doubt that either J. C. L. Gibson or Nicolas Wyatt envisioned my future thus. Edinburgh University was exotic and... Read more

  Posted on 03 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Two Roads Divergent

  

  One of the most hopeful signs for culture is the quality of young adult fiction on the market. Since I’m now in the book industry, Publisher’s Weekly is require... Read more

  Posted on 02 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Singing the Truth

  

  Attending a local high school choral concert recently, I arrived late. That’s fairly common since the bus from New York is often quite tardy—arriving forty... Read more

  Posted on 01 June 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Transparent

  

  With its endless versatility, gold is many things to many people. Already at the dawn of civilization, both in the old world and the new, it was a valued... Read more

  Posted on 31 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The One That Got Away

  

  While looking for reviewers for a book proposal on Jonah, I had a strange realization. Few mainstream biblical scholars are interested in the book. Or at least... Read more

  Posted on 30 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• 31 Flavors

  

  Princeton Theological Seminary, nestled next to its Ivy League sibling university, has never welcomed my advances. Although I’ve long ceased keeping the myriad... Read more

  Posted on 29 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Back to School

  

  “We want to make certain that we view culture through the eyes of faith, that we don’t view our faith through the eyes of culture. Read more

  Posted on 28 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Saints and Serpents

  

  Santa Barbara feels like paradise.  To a guy who grew up under the gray clouds and sometimes cruel winters of the northeast, the sun-washed placidity of the... Read more

  Posted on 27 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Price of Flags

  

  As a child, Memorial Day signaled the start of summer. Most of the time it announced that the obligations of school were nearly over and that was sufficient... Read more

  Posted on 26 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Buttons and Bows

  

  I don’t remember what year it was, but I remember precisely where. On one of my countless trips out back—to or from school, to burn the paper garbage, pet the... Read more

  Posted on 25 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• How We Got Here

  

  Perhaps it’s because the Steampunk World’s Fair is still on my mind, or perhaps because I’m increasingly curious about the way we came to be how we are, I read... Read more

  Posted on 24 May 2014 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY