Tag: 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.
CATEGORIES
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.
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.
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.
May 3, 2024
Thanks to John M. Wiley, a 2024 Fellow in Ideas, for today’s book review.
We often hear about whether someone is “left-brained” or “right-brained” to distinguish between one’s predisposition to either logical thinking or creativity. Perhaps many (if not most) people tend to favor one side, but the case of Isaac Watts shows a man who excelled in both sides of his brain. Watts was most often known for his work as the “father of English hymnody,” showing his brilliance as a wordsmith with hymns such as “Alas!
May 26, 2023
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Last week’s blog (https://hmu.edu/2023-5-19-reading-rabelais-part-i/) used Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel as the foundation to connect with contemporary works. Today’s blog continues in the same vein, connecting the old with the new. As I said before, however, Rabelais is not easy reading. The language feels foreign, even after translation. He prefers large, often obscure words, and includes anatomical puns whenever possible.
January 13, 2023
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Readers of Euripides might suspect that he disliked gods and heroes. For example, The Bacchae makes Dionysus appear like a megalomaniac. Hippolytus presents Aphrodite as a ruthless gamer. And in Heracles, the great hero returns from war only to brutally murder his family. Even many of Euripides’ contemporaries disliked his violence,
July 29, 2022
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s blog.
As I understand it, more than two hundred and fifty translations of the Tao te Ching exist. Looking for a chance to study language, poetry, and translation, I decided to compare a handful of versions of the Tao. Though there are a number of pre-existing published comparisons, I simply found some online versions. I selected some scholarly ones,
July 22, 2022
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Last week, we discussed C.S. Lewis’s “Meditation in a Toolshed” and the beginning of St. Anselm of Canterbury’s Proslogium. Though different in both tone and purpose, these pieces fit very well together in discussion. Proslogium begins with an explanation of its title, which translates to “A Discourse.” Since both pieces foreground the idea of meditation and discourse,
July 15, 2022
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
In studying up on St. Anselm of Canterbury for the July Quarterly Discussion, I keep thinking of the song “Sigh No More” by Mumford & Sons. The song repeats the idea that the heart cries out to be pure, to be what it was “made to be.” In concert with this, St.