Since my youth, I have had a great love for history and literature. I remember being struck by the beauty of the poetry of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in the ninth grade but being embarrassed to admit it. Ninth-grade boys in small-town Indiana didn’t like poetry. I also was so captivated by an excerpt from William Jennings Bryan “Cross of Gold” speech that I read it over and over until I had memorized it.
My love for history and literature remained unfocused until my conversion to Christ at Butler University. A series of lectures by Dr. Terry Morrison, a chemistry professor there, convinced me that, rightly understood, the Bible was consistent with all truth. In the last lecture he read the description of the descent of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:1-5. I then saw that Christianity was not only true but beautiful as well. I gave my life to Christ.
My conversion to Christ inflamed a passion for truth and beauty expressed in literature and history, but especially in Scripture and theology. Following that passion, I attended Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and received a Master of Divinity in missions. Added to the love of history, which in some ways is traveling through time to other cultures, was an interest in contemporary cultures. Interest in theology, the Bible and contemporary cultures led to service as a professor in seminaries and Bible colleges in the Caribbean, Portugal and Costa Rica, with significant stints in Russia and India. It also led to further studies.
Besides picking up a graduate degree in history from Brown University, I received a Ph.D. in theological and religious studies from Drew University. Although most of my course work had been in Medieval and Reformation theology, my dissertation was on G. K. Chesterton, whose flamboyant use of paradox and vivid images fed my love for truth and beauty. Currently I am pastoring a local church, which, incidentally, is in no way responsible for the opinions expressed here.
Truth and beauty in the Bible and theology, truth and beauty in literature, truth and beauty in history and culture (and movies are a crucial part of our culture) these will be the themes to which this blog will return time and again. My plan is to write posts and even series of posts on the Psalms, spirituality, interpretation of biblical passages and favorite authors such as Athanasius, Anselm of Canterbury, C. S. Lewis, Chesterton, Charles Williams, and Russell Kirk, theological perspectives on contemporary culture, and help for skeptics (Doubting Thomas is my favorite apostle). I invite you to join with me.
