Dante places the ancient hero Ulysses into the eighth circle of hell. A fraudulent counselor of war, deception, and exploration beyond the bounds of God’s law, Ulysses suffers eternal encasement in flame. But Tennyson’s poem, great in its own right, calls Dante’s judgment into question. The tension between these two poems – one epic, one lyrical – gets at the very question of the meaning of life.
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Another Sort of Learning (Book Recommendation)
If I am concerned about teaching or lecturing or grading, it is because I am most concerned about the highest things to which we are called, called by being attracted to them in our souls, which are somehow open to what is beyond us.
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[Dis]placed Poet: Thomas Merton’s Pilgrimage
The humble act of limitation in the Incarnation means that not only can God speak to us through various times and places, but rather that time and place are now qualities native to the eternal and omnipresent God. To be a person means to be a person in a place.
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“Call it”
It’s nineteen fifty-eight. It’s been traveling twenty-two years to get here. And now it’s here. And I’m here. And I’ve got my hand over it. And it’s either heads or tails. And you have to say. Call it.
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On Binge Reading, Dinosaurs, Chromebooks, and Other Matters
Wonder from around the world wide web.
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Unity in Difference: Language-Learning and God’s Kingdom
Learning another language helps me not only understand, but better experience first-hand how another person thinks, feels, and interacts with the world