Author: John Hobbins

  • Vigil: The Intertexts of a Poem by Jennifer Agee (Part 4)

    “Vigil” The evening and the morning are the first day. After darkness and the silence of God in the death of Jesus Christ, a new day breaks and the shadows flee away. The light shines on a great mountain that fills the new earth. The light gleams green in the garden of God and blazes…

  • Canons of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament

    Judaism is a religion of the book. When and where did that begin to be the case? The various historic Christian churches treasure various collections of Jewish writings. Why is that? A collection of authoritative religious texts may have begun to be assembled early, in the 6th century BCE, among Judahite refugees in Babylon. By…

  • On the Inexorable Decline of the Study of Religion in Secular Institutions

    Every individual situation is different, the solutions to many problems are complex, the responsibility for the way things are should be parceled out in several directions, and boy do things stink. But I am still left wondering. From the point of view of a prevailing viewpoint in academia that sees religion as a needless accessory at best…

  • Abide with Me

        The events of Holy Week sound the depths of human existence. Helplessness and sacrifice, patience in tribulation, despair and hope, sit side by side.     One poem above all others captures the combination. Henry Francis Lyte wrote it in 1847 and set it to music while he lay dying of tuberculosis.

  • Vigil: The Intertexts of a Poem by Jennifer Agee (Part 3)

    “Vigil” This God loves and redeems all creation. This God says, Look, I make all things new. This God plucks us from the waters of chaos and sets us on the Living Rock.