When someone like Tim Keller passes away we get a glimpse into the current state of public discourse and the way social media reveals our country’s deep differences. Here are some representative tweets and links. George W. Bush Christian music...
public discourse
When “a sixty-minute episode featuring an actor, a novelist, and a champion boxer might attract an audience of nearly 10 million”
Over at Literary Review of Canada James Brooke-Smith reflects on the lost art of public conversation. Here is a taste of his piece, “Where’s Johnny?“ Executives at ABC tried to scotch the first episode of The Dick Cavett Show before it was...
Why I almost came to see Josh Hawley as a sympathetic figure
Notice the word “almost” in the title. As most readers of this blog know, I am not a Josh Hawley fan. In fact, the guy usually makes my skin crawl. But the other day I actually found myself, at least...
“We need more nuance and respect for complexity in our public debates”
Over at Inside Higher Ed, historian Steven Mintz writes about bringing critical thinking to public life. Here is a taste: As Malcolm Gladwell observed in his 2005 best seller, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, intuition and snap judgments can...
Thinking in paragraphs
Jonathan Jacobs, a philosophy professor at John Jay College in New York City, wants his students to think in paragraphs. He is profiled at The Christian Science Monitor. A taste: …he pushes first-year students in his classes at John Jay...