Christopher Benson

Either I’m a leisured aristocrat or a political geek, but I’m probably one of the few Americans this week who has the time and interest to watch C-SPAN’s coverage of Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing. She once remarked that the hearings are a “vapid and . . . . Continue Reading »

Independence Day can take on new meaning this year. While your neighbors are declaring their independence from the British crown, why not declare your independence from tacit assumptions and unexamined presuppositions?Between BBQ chicken and fireworks, I encourage you to watch Astra Taylor’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Terry Teachout, the drama critic for The Wall Street Journal, wrote a fascinating article that was buried in the weekend edition of the June 26th newspaper, “Too Complicated for Words: Are our brains big enough to untangle modern art?” Here is a condensed version:The novels of [James] . . . . Continue Reading »

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, “Jeroboam Sacrificing to the Golden Calf” (1752), École des Beaux-Arts, ParisWhat if the intractable problem of evil, in which evil and suffering make the existence of an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God extremely dubious, isn’t a problem after . . . . Continue Reading »

Belief: Readings on the Reason for FaithEdited by Francis S. CollinsHarperOne, 2010352 pp., $19.99What kind of flowers does Francis S. Collins—one of the world’s leading geneticists—gather? His new anthology, modestly entitled Belief, answers this bizarre question. The etymological . . . . Continue Reading »

Here’s an instructive passage from one of my favorite contemporary Christian writers.From Lauren F. Winner, Real Sex: The Naked Truth About ChastityChristian tradition has historically articulated a threefold purpose for sex: sex is meant to be unitive, procreative, and sacramental. That . . . . Continue Reading »

Today I’m going to reflect on a passage from Willa Cather’s achingly beautiful novel, O Pioneers! (1913), a title inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem. The Library of America offers a short description of the book in case you’re not familiar with it:O Pioneers! is the story of a . . . . Continue Reading »

Because my blog post on the role of disgust in the debate on same-sex marriage has generated some controversy, I thought an excerpt from Martha Nussbaum’s book, From Disgust to Humanity, would be helpful. She challenges the conventional view that disgust is only a visceral emotion that is not . . . . Continue Reading »

Justin Taylor, our fellow blogger at Evangel, has already posted a blog that brought attention to J. Ligon Duncan’s address at Together for the Gospel 2010 conference, “Did the Church Fathers Know the Gospel?” At the risk of redundancy, I am compelled to bring further attention to . . . . Continue Reading »

Martha Nussbaum, one of America’s leading public intellectuals, has devoted considerable attention in the last few years to the role that disgust and shame play in our individual and collective lives, particularly in the law.The book that got it all started was Hiding from Humanity: Disgust, . . . . Continue Reading »