“Brilliant! … And completely wrong!” It is for this line that I am, apparently, remembered by a seminary class I taught two years ago. I encouraged my impressive young charges to speculate boldly on matters Shakespearean. I also encouraged them to rubbish each other’s speculations. “Creative destruction,” I suppose Schumpeter would...
My title this morning is another typical Warren conceit. Really this squib is not about beetles; really it is about something else. But this headnote is entirely between us, gentle reader. Meanwhile, please join me in pretending that we are discussing beetles. After yesterday’s effusion, it occurred to me to consult...
The feast of the Presentation of the Lord recalls and retrieves the dawning of a light: a light that enlightens and glorifies. The light is Christ, the same light of which St John speaks: shining in a darkness that cannot overcome it. But when Christ comes to enlighten and glorify...
Much as other porcupines, an Italian porcupine will be generous with his quills; one has only to come near and he will discharge several. Those who deal in book-binding, in paper-mounting and art conservation, will be grateful indeed for so fine a gift. Must it be an Italian porcupine? So...
A controversy smoulders in the life of letters, of which gentle reader may be unaware. It may be detected from distant little whisps of smoke; occasionally it blazes, but far, far away. It is one of those questions to which there can be only two answers; which promise no “middle...
