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Empathy is Not a Bad Word, Really

"Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2-3 is the foundation I use to introduce my research to students related to empathy. To me, the verse exemplifies empathy. Empathy is often defined as the ability to understand another’s emotions and experiences. What is often missing from this affective…
April 28, 2026

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Guest Post – Pride and Humility in Christian Educators

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. (1 Peter 3:8) Pride, like love, is a funny thing. Maybe it’s academics in general or Twitter exclusively or the dangerous combination of the two, but it seems like pride is a distinguishing mark of the new…
October 18, 2021
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COVID-19 and Romans 15, Part 2: Pauline Solutions

Coming back together for education this Fall is a long process that is more a marathon than a sprint—and we’ve already run uphill for a year and a half. This leads to the problems we’re now facing, described in Part 1. How do we continue to navigate these conflicts, divisions, and needs, without enough staff…
October 14, 2021
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COVID-19 and Romans 15, Part 1: Problematic Reunions

A year and a half ago, in the middle of lockdown, it seemed like reunion would never come. Now, it is coming and has already come, in an “already/not yet” sort of dichotomy. Our campus communities are experiencing the joys, and problems, of reunion, as people like me keep an eye on my university’s COVID-19…
October 13, 2021
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Tactile Interface

Author’s Note: This is a slightly revised version of the Presidential Address delivered to the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Southern Section, in November 2004. At that time, the iPhone was but a gleam in Steve Jobs’s eye. As we theorize about the many ills facing our nation’s youth (and their possible…
October 12, 2021
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Golden Age

In 1863, five years before his death at age 86, the French painter J-A-D Ingres completed a small, jewel-like canvas he titled The Golden Age. It is a gentle, luxuriant fantasy, this little picture. Blue mountains rise in the distance, and the air seems hung with gilded mist. The afternoon light burnishes green trees to…
October 11, 2021
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The Meaning of Technology

The book of Genesis opens with the creation account describing a beautiful world of sea, earth, sky, plants, fish, birds and other animals. And then God places a human in the garden. Immediately following this part of the story is a curious verse, which at first seems out of place. The verse is Genesis 2:12,…
October 8, 2021
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Responding to Student Excuses with the Wisdom of Solomon

These years are rough, no doubt, with both students and faculty altering daily life in order to survive the pandemic—and grieving those who didn’t. While many challenges are novel, and hopefully temporary, one is perennial: the student excuse. Faculty may see student excuses as annoying time-drains that divert from the real work of education and…
October 7, 2021
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Shouting at Your Neighbor: Why We Bother with Other People’s Languages

This essay was published in 2012 in the book Practically Human: College Professors Speak from the Heart of Humanities Education edited by Gary Schmidt & Matthew Walhout (Grand Rapids: Calvin College Press, 2012, 133-145). It asks why we invest time and resources in learning other languages and seeks to look further than pragmatic motivations based…
October 6, 2021
BlogReviews

The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous

Joseph Henrich’s big, impressive, and fun book should appeal to scholars across a broad spectrum. Historians, sociologists, economists, church historians, psychologists, cultural historians, and educators will find much to ponder and process in The WEIRDest People in the World. Henrich tells the story not of how the West was won, but how it was born.…
October 5, 2021