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Charon’s Obol
One of the concomitants of spending time with religion is a non-morbid fixation on death. As a college student I was surprised to learn that other people my age did not think about death nearly every...
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Grand Delusion
“The problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world,” Rick memorably quoted in his once safe haven in Casablanca. Rick had fled his country for moral causes, only...
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Silver and Gold
“He has also set eternity in the human heart,” old Ecclesiastes lamented at the end of the most famous passage in his book, noting that it is nevertheless impossible to conceive. We mark the passing of...
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Of Cuckoos and Kings
Having a life-long phobia of mental institutions, I shy away from situations that refuse to make sense. Some have attributed this to my having had an alcoholic father and responding with an...
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Weathering Qohelet
Over the weekend I finished the initial formatting of Weathering the Psalms, my long-suffering book on the weather terminology in the Psalter. While I’ll have to give it another going over, a strange...
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Dark Sight
Barbara Brown Taylor is a name about which I wish to learn more. Although Time magazine predictably runs a religious-themed issue around Easter, the year’s cover story, “Finding God in the Dark,” hit...
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Psalms of Lament
Fate can be decidedly cruel sometimes. Accidental discoveries can be the most painful of all. As my regular readers know, I wrote a book on the Psalms (Weathering the Psalms, Wipf & Stock—on sale...
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Dog in a Manger
I’m easily amused. I suppose I never outgrew that sophomoric fascination with the little things that seem like big jokes. The other day, for instance, I was given a copy of the Chronicle of Higher...
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Buying the Kingdom
Who doesn’t admire the presidential wannabe who can take a personal hit without flinching? We are, after all, a nation of tough-minded individualists who think they know quite a lot about God and the...
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To Whom It May Concern
Everything we do is an investment in the future. Some times it’s intentional, and other times it’s purely accidental. My wife sent me a CNN story about what might be the oldest message in a bottle ever...
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Psalms of Lament
Fate can be decidedly cruel sometimes. Accidental discoveries can be the most painful of all. As my regular readers know, I wrote a book on the Psalms (Weathering the Psalms, Wipf & Stock—on sale...
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The Preacher
Ecclesiastes, I used to tell my students, is one of the most unusual books of the Bible. And that’s saying something. When we think of the Good Book we think of pious thoughts and lofty feelings—you...
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The Struggle for Relevance
Futility is a specialization of those of us who consider ourselves fans of Ecclesiastes. Thus it is that the blog of an editor gets so little attention among academics. Since you’ve been kind enough to...
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VFD
It’s been a few years since I read Fahrenheit 451, the classic novel by Ray Bradbury. Like so many dystopias, it’s seen a resurgence of interest since 45 was elected. (I can’t help but notice the...
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Qohelet’s Washcloset
Cast your bread upon the water, as Ecclesiastes says, and it will come back to you when you need it. Since bread is a common slang word for money, and since the toilet paper has arrived that I ordered...
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True Value
It’s a funny idea, net worth. (Who says Capitalism isn’t a religion?) We decide what people are worth by what corporate executives and small-minded economics determine what they will be paid. We...
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