Philosophy, notoriously, can be abstract and obscure. Yet philosophy is also a noble effort to grapple with some of the most difficult and pressing questions humans can face. What is the good? What is real? How can we know and be certain? In A History of Western Philosophy C. Stephen Evans provides a model of …
One of my favorite YouTube videos spoofs what a medieval help desk would look like as monks sought to transition from the traditional technology of the scroll to the new technology of the codex. Keeping the debate alive between eBooks and pBooks is Lev Grossman in the New York Times. His observation? That eBooks are …
For the last ten years I have lived with the Gospel of Mark–poring over its text, tracing down every Old Testament allusion, reading books, commentaries and journal articles, teaching the book in week-long intensive courses, letting its currents roll over me. All this is no accident, because I am the inheritor of a tradition.
Maybe I’m old fashioned. Maybe I’m out of style. Maybe I’m the hipster culture’s worst nightmare. But I still think books make a difference. David Brooks’s piece in the New York Times cites another study that shows the power of print. When students take books home for the summer, the impact is as great as …