Blog Archives | Page 14 of 40

Passover, Easter, and COVID-19

April 2020

On Wednesday and Thursday nights last week, as Jews gathered in some virtual way around the Seder feast, they asked, “How is this night different from all other nights?” Christians would do well to reflect similarly. The Jewish celebration of Passover and the Christian celebration of Holy Week overlapped this year. Both traditions recall dark nights from long ago when desperate people of faith gathered to face a scary future. Both, however, are overshadowed by a global threat from a ...

Living in Plague Times

March 2020

It’s my own fault. Because I’ve written books with titles like Where Is God When It Hurts, Disappointment with God, and The Question That Never Goes Away, my phone starts ringing when there’s a mass shooting, a tsunami…or a rogue virus that spreads across the world. Would I please comment on this radio show, or that podcast? I’ve done little else this frightful week, as a tiny virus from the other side of the world has brought modern civilization to ...

The Power of Love and the Love of Power (Shakespeare: Part II)

March 2020

William Shakespeare knew love, and also its complications. At the age of eighteen he married Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years his senior. Six months after the wedding, Anne gave birth to a child, which no doubt sparked local gossip. Later, he wrote love sonnets to a man—Was the playwright a closet homosexual?—and then composed 26 sonnets to a married woman known only as the Dark Lady. His plays give words to the stirrings that every romantic feels. In Love’s ...

What Makes Shakespeare Great? (Part I)

February 2020

Some years ago I read through all 38 of the plays by William Shakespeare. I chose one night per week, drank lots of coffee, and used an edition that explained his archaic words and allusions. The first few weeks it seemed like homework, but soon I found myself swept up in the plays, which were both witty and profound—and oddly up to date. His use of the English language struck me first. Computer studies reveal that Shakespeare used 17,677 different ...

A Time to Doubt

January 2020

In December I was interviewed by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, who devotes an annual Christmas column to a conversation with a believing Christian. Kristof asked honest questions about such issues as miracles, failures of the church, and the reliability of the Bible. Within two days, 830 Times readers posted comments, and taken together they offer a snapshot summary of the skeptical culture we live in. How can any sane person defend medieval texts! The church does far ...