John G. Stackhouse Jr.'s Blog, page 13

Holy Week Prayers: What Do We Really Want?

Holy Week brings into focus a number of Big Questions. Among the most searching is this: What do we want? In particular, what do we want from God? From life? The Gospel according to Mark opens the Jesus story with … Continued

Falwell Named President of Harvard University

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (AP)— Harvard University spokesperson Thurston Howell V announced today to a packed news conference that Jerry Falwell, Jr., has been appointed President of that university, effective immediately. “President Trump recently suggested to the Harvard Corporation that delivery of …

Cushioning the collisions of self-isolation

Progressive deprivation brings our values to light. Most of us Canadians don’t have to think much or often about what we most want because we’re able to enjoy at least some of almost everything in Abraham Maslow’s famous “hierarchy of … Continued

Muddling through the Pandemic

“Keep calm and carry on” was printed on millions of bright red posters in 1939 to help prepare the British public for anticipated air raids in the Second World War. Few ever got posted, but the graphic and dozens of … Continued

What Can COVID-19 Mean?

Adam Gopnik, a charming writer for The New Yorker who is fascinated by theological questions, takes on the moral meaning of COVID-19 in a recent musing. He gently mocks the human desire to find sense in suffering, and particularly to find divine method … Continued

The Disciplined Free Creativity of Freeman Dyson

Freeman Dyson, legendary mathematician and theoretical physicist, died at the end of February, aged 96. The New York Times remembered him as a 24-year-old genius who, while riding a Greyhound bus in Nebraska, saw that two very different, and stupefyingly recondite, ways … Continued

What Does It Mean to Have Abundant Life?

In the summer of 1997, France mourned the death of Jeanne Calment. Why was her passing so remarkable? Jeanne Calment was older than the Eiffel Tower. She was born in Arles in 1875, while work began on France’s most famous … Continued

First Nations and Canada’s Priorities

The current Wet’suwet’sen controversy is vexing and perplexing in equal measure. Eventually, with the rest of Canada, I may get all that figured out. What is infuriating and not at all confusing, however, is an issue that seems, and I … Continued

Quebec, Education, Parents, Religion: A Recipe for Conflict

The Coalition Avenir Québec continues its remarkable record of concentrating power in the provincial government on behalf of its pure laine base. (Who says that it is only leftists who press for a strong centralized state? Only those who don’t know political … Continued

Last Words on Last Week’s Super Bowl Show

Despite the storm of charges and counter-charges over this past week, I conclude that it isn’t racism, or prudery, to find yourself appalled at the Super Bowl halftime show last Sunday. You just have to be a decent human being. … Continued