Author Archives: hessd

I have a word I would like to share with New York Times columnist Pamela Paul. The word is “monolatry.” It is not as well known as “monotheism” but it is crucially necessary in Old Testament studies. Here is a … Continue reading →

I just finished reading a survey of opinions on forgiveness put together by Christina Caron, who writes about mental health issues for the New York Times. She, and the experts she cites, are looking at forgiveness as a tool. I … Continue reading →

My career has obligated me to hear a lot of commencement addresses. None, I will say, quite like this one. As a tennis fan, I’ve always found it easy to like Roger Federer and it would not have been hard … Continue reading →

Every now and then someone makes a remark that crystalizes a lot of information that was just sitting there unpatterned and unnoticed. A remark like that happened to me recently. I was describing a nagging difficulty I was having with … Continue reading →

The state of Louisiana intends to be at the forefront of a “growing national movement to create and interpret laws according to a particular conservative Christian worldview” according to journalists Rick Rojas, David Chen, and Elizabeth Dias. In a New … Continue reading →

When I got up this morning, I learned that Neil Goldschmidt had died. There will be stories now attempting to weigh his abuse of a young girl in the same scale as his imaginative and thrilling leadership in Oregon politics. … Continue reading →

The paragraph below is the final paragraph of Phil Klay’s Memorial Day column in the New York Times, The version I read had the headline”What Do I Owe the Dead of My Generation’s Mismanaged Wars?” “In the past when I’ve … Continue reading →

It is so easy to exaggerate the current antipathy between (some) men and (some) women in the U.S. today. Here is a political overview: For a growing percentage of young men, Cox [1] wrote: Feminism has less to do with … Continue reading →

A wonderful picture came into my mind this morning. I’m going to share it in the hope that you will enjoy it as much as I did. It will take a little setting up. I am listening to Jennifer Paxton’s … Continue reading →

I think I’ve passed a milestone of some kind. You’re never sure at the time, I suppose. I am basing this opinion on the fact that I find myself looking back at something that I have routinely looked ahead to … Continue reading →