Musings of a Christian Humanist

      My wife is a librarian and daily interacts with children and books. If I were not a Professor, I cannot think of a more appealing calling. We talk daily about the little ones in her school, books, and the relationship between bookish children and their overall demeanor. A picture book that we recently became aware of is The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore .       For all bibliovores, regardless of age, this book is for you. It is beautiful in form and content, it is good in form and content, and it is true in form and content. Rarely does one find a children's picture book that so throughly celebrates a bookish life, but also deals with some grand humane themes. In addition to this unique book, there is an app (sorry Luddites) that is interactive with the book.  For the critics of such apps, one can make the case that this app encourages greater interaction with the book and other books.  For short film lovers, t...

     While I have joked about this for years, it is time to be as serious as one can be about such things. While nihilism or your garden variety atheism (not the fundamentalist version of recent years) are options, the reason they do not make sense to me is because nihilism sees only abyss where there are mountains. I do understand on one level how people opt for atheism, but there are too many signals both around me and within me for me to embrace unbelief. Hobbits clearly love life.

     Henry Petroski's,  The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance , is among the most important books I've ever read. It perfectly illustrates the insight of Neil Postman that everything can be studied, and should be, in terms of history and philosophy.       Leonard's Read's charming and insightful essay, I, Pencil has been turned into a wonderful little  movie that can supplement Petroski's rich book and Read's marvelous essay about one of mankind's most brilliant inventions.       In truth, if you have grown up writing with a pencil, there is certainly a pleasure in thoughtfully using one. While I do put things on Evernote and increasingly use Google Docs, I still often find myself reaching for a pencil to scribble down notes and there are times, when I need to carefully and in a most leisurely mode compose, in those special moments, nothing is better than the pencil.

      My habit was this--wake up, make breakfast with my wife, and as she was going to work, I would read the day's headlines from the "news," and we would talk about it over the phone. Over recent months, especially the last several days, I felt like I was reading more news, and watching more news, and getting dumber as I slipped into a greater ennui.     So taking a partial cue from Walker Percy's Dr. Thomas More in Love in the Ruins who gathered "cases of Early Times and Swiss Colony sherry . . . [and] the Great Books" for what More felt might be the end of the world, I plan on a modified version of this activity. Minus the Early Times, Swiss Colony, and staying at a Howard Johnson's, but certainly with a mega dose of the Great Books, a resolution has occurred.     Some additional motivation comes from remembering a Neil Postman book I had read some years ago. Going back and looking at that marked up book, I was ashamed how much I had f...

     Finally, after years of planning and a great deal of hard (mental) work, the PhD that is profoundly grounded in the Great Books is here. It was a dream I had about five years ago to offer a fully accredited Great Books based PhD. Originally the degree was to be a DLitt, but with some possible confusion out there, the degree was slightly altered to conform to the requirements of a PhD.      We received word late afternoon on Oct. 29th. We have everything in place and will be taking applications immediately. With already more than 100 people having seriously inquired about the program for the past year, we anticipate admitting the top forty-five. A candidate can opt to concentrate in History, Literature, Philosophy, or aspire to be a generalist in the Liberal Arts. The tutorials are ideal for in-depth research in an era, person, idea, or select writings.       This PhD is literally o...