George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a Scottish clergyman and writer who profoundly influenced the fiction and non-fiction works of C.S. Lewis. One of Lewis’s lesser-known publications is an edited collection of MacDonald’s writings: the book can be hard to find in print now, but a dear friend gifted my a copy Read more…
As 2019 has come to a close, and a new decade is beginning, I have been thinking about a poem by Emily Dickinson – one of my favourites, for its enigmatic imagery and its expression of longing: ‘I did not reach Thee’. Here is the first stanza (you can read Read more…
One of the figures in the Bible who I’m most fond of is the prophet Daniel: mainly because, like me, he was a literature student. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it […]Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s Read more…
Last weekend in Oxford saw the second of this year’s Developing a Christian Mind conferences – an annual pair of events inviting postgraduate students to consider and deepen the intersection of their academic work with Christian faith. ‘Seeking Wisdom’ is split into multiple disciplinary streams (this year, Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Read more…
Guest blogger Audrey Southgate reflects on lessons drawn from studying a morally problematic figure. Some view the past as a shackle from which the present must free itself. By contrast, I grew up delighted by the stories that linked the present with the past. At church, at home, and at Read more…
In his recent post ‘Forays into finance’, Richard reflected on the challenges of institutional sin in his new context of the financial sector: an industry governed by forces which seem to tend towards exploitation of others, manifesting sin beyond the personal to the societal level. But, of course, you don’t need Read more…
This review is reprinted with permission (and some additional material) from The Glass, the journal of the Christian Literary Studies Group (issue 30, Spring 2018). See other selected articles and more information about the journal and Group here: clsg.org. Why Study? Exploring the Face of God in the Academy (Fellowship of Evangelical Students, Read more…
Does academic work matter? This is a question most academics come up against at some point in their career, and in day to day life: while most of us at least started because we love our subjects, everyday work in the lab or the library can be monotonous and frustrating, Read more…
In the week after Easter I had the privilege of travelling to the Republic of Macedonia to take part in a conference on ‘The Bible and Literature’. It was co-hosted by the Macedonian Academy of the Sciences and Arts – a research university in the capital city of Skopje – Read more…
‘Oh, you’re thinking of doing English at university? You’ll have to be careful about that. A lot of people lose their faith.’ I was seventeen. I had been a Christian for several years, and I had loved books for much longer. I was doing two English A-Levels and thoroughly enjoying Read more…