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Wordy Professors, Woodland Elves, and the Wisdom of Tolkien

Modern (digital) life feels like drinking from a firehose. There’s so much content to triage. It was bad before the onslaught of generative AI. Now, the digital dam has burst. Our tendency to “give our two cents” about every issue—already increased by social media—has been further amplified by the AI-driven capacity for supercharged content creation.…
October 20, 2026
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Computers and the Good Life: Learning from Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry was a prolific writer, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. His recent passing encouraged me to reread some of his works and consider how they could be applied to my work in the field of computer science. If you know Berry’s work and life, you will already be aware of his refusal to…
October 19, 2026
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College Students Want Confidence: But Is It a Virtue that Can Be Taught?

Many of our students lack confidence and want more of it. For example, our research team gathered goals from almost 2,700 students nationwide from 14 institutions, for almost 6,500 goals. One clear longing they expressed was a desire for confidence, articulated in their goals such as the following:  “Improve my self-esteem/confidence.”  “Build my confidence.”  “Be…
October 16, 2026
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Frolicking in new Fields with AI

I had a question: could artificial intelligence (AI) help me visualise the textual form of my thoughts and help me re-work them in a picture. That way I could look at them again in a different light and also have a different medium through which to explain them to other people? I’m reasonably competent at…
October 15, 2026
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Freud and Suspicion

Sigmund Freud was born in 1856. This year, then, is his 170th birthday year. That’s not a significant marker, but having come across that fact, I was reminded of all that I read about Freud during the 150th anniversary, in 2006, when we were given many anecdotes about his life. Here is one that stuck…
October 14, 2026

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Share the Story of Chanukah With Your Students This Christmas

"Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the Temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade" – John 10:22-23 Beginning with their enslavement in Egypt, when Pharaoh ordered Hebrew midwives to murder all newborn Jewish males, throughout Israel's exile and captivity under the Babylonians and the Assyrians, to this…
December 13, 2022
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Students as Image Bearers of God: Preparing for the First Day of Class

“Recognition is the first human quest.” Andy Crouch begins his latest book with this statement and then expands on our desires to be recognized as persons—individuals who have a place in this world. In The Life We’re Looking for: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World, Crouch suggests that technology has not succeeded in promoting true…
December 12, 2022
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Am I a House Divided?

My dissertation and early scholarly research focused on investigating the issue of work-religion conflict (WRC). WRC is a specific type of inter-role conflict whereby the role pressures associated with one’s work and religion domains are perceived, in some respects, as being incompatible with one another. A man of faith who often comes to my mind…
December 6, 2022
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Dealing with Our Discouragement and Burnout

Decades ago, I was burned out. It was only weeks before a planned semester sabbatical that I’d been looking forward to. I had become disappointed in my university, my colleagues, and myself. I was deeply discouraged. I wondered why I was working so hard for students and a school that didn’t seem to appreciate my…
December 5, 2022
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Book Review – Wisdom-Based Business: Applying Biblical Principles and Evidence-Based Research for a Purposeful and Profitable Business

In Wisdom-Based Business, Hannah Stolze demonstrates that biblical wisdom is useful, indeed necessary, for modern business practices and that this has been confirmed by many business researchers. Stolze takes the perspective that the purpose of business is kingdom impact and then develops a model in which biblical wisdom forms the building blocks for that redemptive…
December 1, 2022
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Reclaiming Awe: An Advent Prayer Experiment with My Students

“Are you too comfortable with God?” The speaker’s comment took me by surprise and brought back a flood of emotions. Throughout the years, I’ve often wrestled with balancing the transcendence and intimacy of God. I’m not alone. In the same passage, the psalmist both states God is “the great King above all gods” and “we…
November 29, 2022
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Give Them the Gift of Hesed

She calls out to the man on the street Sir, can you help me? It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep Is there somewhere you can tell me? He walks on, doesn't look back He pretends he can't hear her Starts to whistle as he crosses the street Seems embarrassed to be there Oh, think…
November 28, 2022
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Gratitude Needs Direction

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Col. 3:16 For Christians, most virtue words do not describe virtues unless they are directed properly. To put one’s faith,…
November 23, 2022
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Right in Front of Your Face: A Thanksgiving Meditation

(John Everett Millais - Blind Girl)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blind_Girl#/media/File:John_Everett_Millais_-_The_Blind_Girl,_1854-56.jpg In 1856, the British artist John Everett Millais painted The Blind Girl, a captivating image of two young sisters in a rain-drenched field. Their clothes are threadbare, and the youngest has no cloak; she sidles next to her sister, sharing her covering. They clasp hands tightly and unconsciously, as…
November 18, 2022