Several of these blog entries are reflections of various aspects of the holocaust-studies tour. These essays are designed to provide the reader with specific information about various memorials and locations as well as a personal reflection of meaning associated with a location or feature of a memorial. Some blog entries will not be animated by the holocaust-studies tour.
Additionally, I recently completed a writing project overhauling a behavior and social sciences statistics textbook. Some selected sidebar essays that may be of interest to a more general audience have been extracted and placed in this section of the website.
Book Review: The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self
by Carl R. Trueman; Crossway Books, 2020 (425 pages) Accessibility rating 3 (out of 5) Recommendation rating 5 (out of 5) (Note: This first book review is about two-parts description [to inform a potential reader] and one-part analysis and critique. This ratio may change with subsequent reviews.) Description Carl Trueman, professor of biblical and religious studies at Grove City College, offers a rather extensive analysis of the historical roots that have yielded the contemporary understanding of the western self. Trueman argues modern selfhood is understood as a predominately-psychological structure, and fully detached from any sense of the sacred. It is
Pride Before a Brawl
In the heart of Berlin sit three landmarks that reflect the multifaceted power of historic Germany, each one being just a short walk from the other two. The Brandenburg Gate is, perhaps, the most well-known symbol of the city. This iconic 18th century neoclassical monument featuring Quadriga, an ancient symbol of victory, represents well the prodigious military power that Germany and her Prussian fore-bearers exercised over the past quarter of a millennium. One city block to the north of the gate is the Reichstag, a legislative building that served as the center of German political life from 1871 to the
A Memorial and the Measure of Humanity
In Berlin, just one block south of the Brandenburg gate, sits a relatively new holocaust-related exhibit, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This installation, which opened in 2005, is massive, taking up an entire city block. Yet curiously, as one looks at it from the street, at no point does any part of the display rise above eye level. The exhibit consists of an assembly of over 2,700 rectangular concrete blocks, or stelae, ordered in grid-like rows and columns, spread across an area of 19,000 square meters. The blocks all measure the same in width and length with
Some Thoughts on Diversion and Hurried Living
Recently, on numerous occasions and across a variety of contexts, I’ve had my attention drawn to the topic of time; specifically, how I treat (and mistreat) it; that is, my time, my slowly but quite certainly expiring life. These referents have served to remind me of how easily I give up my time to practices that, while they may be healthy if well-regulated, far too often eat up significant chunks of my day. For me, the temptation typically takes the form of watching sports, playing games, and just thumbing through social media. To be clear, I do not believe there
An Evening with Dr. James Tour
Recently, several Asbury University Honors Program students were privileged to spend an evening with world-renowned scientist, Dr. James Tour. Dr. Tour, named in “The 50 Most Influential Scientists in the World Today” by TheBestSchools.org in 2019, is the T. T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science & NanoEngineering at Rice University. Having spoken earlier in the day to the entire campus in chapel, Dr. Tour spent his evening mealtime with a selection of our AUHP students where he reviewed some of his work on the synthesis, unique properties, and unbelievably exciting applications of graphene.
Interview with Dr. Devin Brown
Author of A Life Observed: A Spiritual Biography of C. S. Lewis, as well as the official Discussion Guide for The Most Reluctant Convert, the movie about C.S. Lewis currently playing in theaters Recently Dr. Devin Brown, a Professor of English at Asbury University and author of a number of books related to C. S. Lewis, accompanied a group of Asbury University Honors Program students to a showing of The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C S. Lewis, a film about the early life and conversion of one of Christianity’s most famous writers and apologists. Afterwards, Dr. Brown