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Closing Up Shop, or The Erstwhile Erstwhile Philistine
Well folks, the time has finally come for me to bid you adieu. I have been running a blog called The Erstwhile Philistine for close to a decade now, first via Blogspot and now on WordPress. It has been...
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Babette’s Feast and the Uselessness of Grace: A Eulogy for The Dissolve
Last night provided me with the rare opportunity (in an age where repertory screenings have dwindled, especially outside major markets) to see a film I love in an actual theater. Columbia’s excellent...
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David Benedictus Deserves to Have a Milne-stone Tied Around His Neck
I try not to get too upset about the vagaries of the culture industry, even when “best practices” extend to include abhorrent customs like the continuation of classic works by other authors. I never...
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Fish in a Barrel: Special “Worst Song of 2014 Crapathon” Edition
I have an embarrassing confession to make for someone with my pretensions to being cultured: I listen to a lot of top 40 radio. Like, tons. I’m more likely to be listening to my local mix station than...
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Take Shelter and the Shame of Mental Illness
I spent this past weekend in Waco attending Baylor’s Symposium on Faith & Culture, where I presented a paper, and heard many other good ones. The topic this year, Faith & Film, was of course...
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Teach Us To Die: The Holy Week Structure of John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary
This post involves a close reading of the recent film Calvary by John Michael McDonagh. Of necessity I will be discussing some plot points that could be considered SPOILERS. In my opinion this is a...
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Some Inadequate Thoughts on Ferguson
Editor’s Note – this post originated as a status I put up on Facebook. Though I feel social injustice deeply, I rarely speak up about it, for a complex set of reasons. I feel like the line between...
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Boyhood, Buzzfeed, T-Shirts, and Shakespeare: On Criticism, Tribalism, and...
If you use Facebook, you’ve probably noticed an incessant sort of targeted ad popping up in your feed of late, a targeted ad very specific in its targeting. For me, it takes a rather hideous hybrid...
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My Greatest Orchestral Hits
As noted in my previous post, this month is the 20th anniversary of me learning to play the cello. Over that time I’ve had the pleasure of playing in a number of different ensembles. Not counting...
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Twenty Years With My Oldest Friend
Twenty years ago this month, I began the longest continuous non-familial relationship of my life. At a school in the infamous burned-over city of Flint, Michigan, I started attending a summer music...
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Some Reasons to Read Middlemarch
As I prepare to enter a PhD program in the fall, at which point presumably I won’t have much leisure time for reading what I want when I want it, I’ve decided to dedicate my summer to checking off some...
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Redeeming Patriotism, Herodotus Style
Yesterday was the day after my birthday. To those less in the know, this is commonly referred to as “The Fourth of July”. Per usual, my eyes were treated to a barrage of tweets and status updates...
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Is George R.R. Martin’s Moral Vision Really More Complex Than Tolkien’s?
I went on a tiny Twitter rant the other day. It was prompted by this article on The A.V. Club. Otherwise a decent article, it is marred by a passing reference by one of the writers to a common...
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We Are All Marxists
Yesterday, as I tried to keep three or four different Twitter controversies de jour straight, a random thought entered my mind: we are all Marxists. Allow me to explain, especially to those for whom...
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My Speech to the Graduates
Last night I had the privilege of giving the commencement address at my school’s graduation. As I am leaving to start my graduate studies, it was an emotional and profound opportunity for me. And hey,...
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Who Should Our Public Intellectuals Be?
This is a continuation of a post I made last week titled, Should Scientists Be Public Intellectuals? I got a fair amount of feedback on that post, and I’m afraid I may have ruffled a few feathers,...
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A Short Post About Mother’s Day (From a Motherless Son)
My mother, sporting a wicked ‘do, with the rest of us in tow. Every Mother’s Day I have the chance to reflect on the women who have had an impact on my life in one way or another. Losing your mother at...
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Should Scientists Be Public Intellectuals?
Regular readers of The Erstwhile Philistine know that one of the themes I keep coming back to, like a dog worrying a bone, is the question of knowledge in the public square. Do we have thinkers and...
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Fish in a Barrel: “My Happy Ending” by Avril Lavigne
Sometimes I get so caught up in thinking about serious things that I forget to step back and have a little fun. So I’ve instituted Fish in a Barrel to help me keep my sanity. The feature is designed...
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A Christian Defense of Natural Religion
As my title states, I want to attempt here a Christian defense of “natural religion” – or at least the beginnings of an attempt at a defense, since one that treats the subject completely and with...
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