• Haiku #1

    Lightest breath of wind;Light inches down mountain face.Crisp winter morning.

  • Frame Narrative

    Jason Farley gave a talk recently on frame narrative, using The Princess Bride as an example. The story of Wesley and Buttercup is set within the frame, the encompassing context, of the Grandfather and his Grandson. At the beginning, the boy doesn’t understand the Grandfather’s signs of affection, but moans—he’ll pinch my cheek—and reluctantly agrees […]

  • Tyrant and Idol

    I was recently listening to a discussion on the book of Exodus, and one of the key themes that emerged was tyranny, oppression, and slavery, and the willingness and need to stand up against it. Naturally, this is relevant today. The thought occurred to me as I was listening that throughout the biblical narrative tyranny […]

  • Bear the Name

    Thou shalt not take the name of Yahweh thy God in vain. Ex 20:7 Who are the elect? or, rather, to what are they elected? From the beginning, God has made distinctions; he has chosen some and not others. Eve and her seed are chosen over the serpent and his. Seth was chosen, appointed, as […]

  • Sheep and Goats

    Matthew [23] records Jesus’ lamentation over Jerusalem, “how often would I have gathered you together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wing, but you would not. See, your house is left to you desolate.” Pointing to the temple buildings, he said, “not one stone will be left upon another that will not be […]

  • Dying You Shall Die

    A question arises: is the death that follows the eating of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil a penalty? The language used in the law—he shall surely be put to death, or the like—is not used here. The same emphatic verb doubling is used but the form of the […]

  • Wages of Sin

    It is interesting that Paul calls death the wage, the earned payment, of sin, not the penalty. Sin as master pays death as the wage to those who work for it, who serve it. An eye-opening metaphor. We gain death incrementally—what we accrue as we work in, for, and to sin is death. The lusts […]

  • The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

    One fatal tree there stands, of knowledge called,Forbidden them to taste: Knowledge forbiddenSuspicious, reasonless. Why should their LordEnvy them that? Can it be sin to know?Can it be death? Paradise Lost, Book IV Adam was given only one rule or commandment regarding food: he may eat fruit of any of the trees of the garden, […]

  • Sons of God

    In a straight reading of the first part of Genesis 6, verse 3 seems oddly placed. Verses 1 and 2 are beginning to tell about men multiplying on earth and the Sons of God taking wives of the daughters of men. Then comes verse 3, where God interjects that his spirit will not always strive […]

  • Sun, Moon, and Stars

    The sun moon and stars created on day four give light to the earth below. They are called rulers of the day and of the night, symbols or types of the spiritual and temporal rulers on earth. When Joseph dreams of the sun, moon, and stars bowing down to him, Jacob immediately and rightly understands […]

2023 Reading List
Currently Reading

Oxford Book of English Verse
Life of Moses by St. Gregory of Nyssa
Hell Under Fire ed. Christopher Morgan
The Love of Learning and the Desire for God by Jean Leclercq
30 Poems to Memorize ed. David Kern
The Book of Pastoral Rule by St. Gregory the Great
Learning Biblical Hebrew by Karl Kutz & Rebekah Josberger
The Bible

Finished

Deep Exegesis by Peter Leithart
Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace
The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson
The Aeneid by Virgil
The Pivot of Civilization by Margaret Sanger
The State and Revolution by V. I. Lenin
The Theopolitan Vision by Peter Leithart
The Anchor Holds: Poems from the Shipwreck by Jason Farley
Love in the Ruins
by Walker Percy
Orthodoxy
by G. K. Chesterton
The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
Archimedes and the Door of Science by Jeanne Bendick
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Gashmu Saith It by Douglas Wilson
In Pursuit of Kindness by Jason Farley
Henry VI, Pt II by William Shakespeare
Well Met: Poems of Companionship by Joffre Swait
Collected Poems of Carl Sandburg
Theopolitan Liturgy
by Peter Leithart
The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin
No One Doubts a Belly Laugh by Jason Farley
Maximus Confessor: Selected Writings
The Life of St. Benedict
by St. Gregory the Great
The Rule of St. Benedict