Category: Religion
We’re excited that you’ve joined the conversation! At HMU, we want to continue the great authors’ conversations in a contemporary context, and this blog will help us do that. We look back to Aristotle and the early philosophers who used reason and discourse to gain wisdom and now we endeavor to do the same every day.
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August 14, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
After Job loses everything (including his health), but before his friends come to “comfort” him, Job’s wife offers a rare sentence of advice. No other female speaks in the Book of Job so it caught my eye. She suggests that Job should end his misery. By the end of chapter 2, Job is in a truly pitiful state.
August 7, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Before I selected the Book of Job as the focus of the July Quarterly Discussion, I knew a little bit about Job. I’d heard snippets at church, an occasional reference to the plight of the unfortunate, and the question “why do bad things happen to good people?” Honestly, that’s all that I knew of Job. So, imagine my surprise to read forty-two chapters of gorgeous poetry!
August 1, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Charity is not one of Adler’s great ideas, despite the fact that St. Paul claims: “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (King James Version, 1Cor. 13:13). Charity is not one of Adler’s great ideas, despite the fact that many of the great authors construct entire sections of ethics based on charity itself.
June 13, 2025
Thanks to Estella Achinko, a 2025 HMU Fellow in Ideas, for today’s blog.
The question of what it means to “be” has fascinated philosophers for centuries. The essence of man—our nature, existence, and purpose—is layered with complexities. We are not merely physical beings navigating the world, but entities entwined with our surroundings, shaped by interactions, thoughts, and deeper realities. To truly understand ourselves, we must acknowledge both the tangible and the abstract—the seen and the unseen.
» Read more about: Man and the Pluralistic Essence of Being »
May 30, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Did Shakespeare’s Richard III believe in God? In the plays that lead up to Richard III, such as the First and Second Parts of King Henry the Fourth, a series of royal figures claim a divine right to the throne. Ironically, however, this “divine right” culminates in a very bloody culture of brothers killing brothers and cousins killing cousins known as the War of the Roses.
November 22, 2024
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
As usual, after completing the October Quarterly Discussions, I am left with more questions than answers. But more importantly, more vital to me, is the fact that many questions have been deepened. During discussion, these ideas evolve and morph into three and four dimensional figures, versus the two dimensional beginnings. Whether you call it Socratic dialogue or inquiry-based discussion,
September 13, 2024
Thanks to John M. Wiley, HMU 2024 Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post.
Two things that aren’t exactly trendy today are the humanities and church music, particularly historical hymns. At first glance, such a statement seems incoherent, if not utterly ridiculous. However, I believe there’s an intertwining of the two that gives us valid insights into some of the shortcomings of our postmodern age, as well as much-needed wisdom for today.
August 16, 2024
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
The Summer Quarterly Discussion on Erasmus covered a lot of territory. Participants brought a wealth of knowledge which we used to explore Erasmus’ language, satire, use of myth and religion, and social critique.
One of the questions that continues to interest me is why Erasmus uses a mythological figure to discuss religion. Folly goes through great pains to link herself to the Greek pantheon.
August 2, 2024
Thanks to 2023 HMU Fellow in Ideas Chad Greene for today’s post.
“We’re on a road to nowhere”?
Why was that line – seemingly depressing on a surface level – so inspiring to me that I unexpectedly found myself on my feet in front of the TV in my living room, dancing, singing, and even crying?
During my 2023 Fellowship in Ideas at Harrison Middleton University,
July 19, 2024
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Last week, I took a look at some of the uncomfortable humor in Aristophanes’ The Wasps. I wondered why (or how) a play can poke fun at the very group that it also needs to please. How does this type of humor please an audience? It’s pretty widely known that sometimes we like to laugh at ourselves,