by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Mar 7, 2012 | The Christian Imagination, Victorian Studies
Victorian Britain—especially from 1859-1901—it is often described in terms of a “crisis of doubt.” Today we assume that this crisis in Christian thinking developed because of Darwin but, as Owen Chadwick argues in his very long and frequently cited history of the...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Feb 17, 2012 | Fostering Faith
One of my children is in trouble with the law…. About midnight a few weeks ago, just as I was falling asleep, I awoke with a start as Ziva, our two-year-old Great Dane puppy began barking like mad. Instantly, I knew we had heard the same thing: the sound of someone...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Dec 30, 2011 | Fostering Faith, Living the Liturgical Year
While Christmas decorations are starting to come down and the world’s attention is turned to the celebration of the new year, I am still immersed in Christmas. Many people where we live try to observe the entire Christmas season—all twelve days of it—as a time of...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Dec 2, 2011 | Living the Liturgical Year
Black Friday—the traditional American shopping day that occurs the day after American Thanksgiving or the final Friday in November—has long been a tradition in the United States. For those who don’t know about it, it is the day that many retailers “go into the black”...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Nov 4, 2011 | Raising Christian Kids
Helicopter Parenting. Free-Range Parenting. Attachment Parenting. Natural Parenting. Feminist Parenting. I could list may more but the point in each is the same: each offers a way, a method for producing the perfect child…and if not the perfect child, at...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Oct 7, 2011 | The Christian Imagination
Steve Jobs’ death on Wednesday “provoked the largest online response of any event in recent history” according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Even the briefest survey of news outlets, Twitter, and Google seems to support this claim. I became a Mac user in the late 90s...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Sep 9, 2011 | Reading Well
James Joyce’s only play The Exiles is little performed because, well, it isn’t really very good. If it hadn’t been written by Joyce (who begged Ezra Pound to help him get it staged), the play would have probably never had a single staging, let alone the repeated (and...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Aug 12, 2011 | Fostering Faith, New Ideas and Research
Donna Simpson has been making headlines over the past few weeks for her goal of becoming the world’s fattest woman. News clips of the morbidly obese woman discussing her goal run like parodies of similar human interest stories: her partner “supporting” Donna in her...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Jul 15, 2011 | Fostering Faith
Recently, I’ve begun thinking that I may be too tired to be a Christian. Trying to juggle my PhD program, my husband’s home-based business start-up, a ten-month old who doesn’t like taking naps or sleeping generally, a Great Dane puppy, renovation work on our house...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Jun 17, 2011 | Fostering Faith
There is a version of faith that slides very nicely into middle-class, middle-aged life, giving those who are a bit insecure the answers that they need to be relatively confident members of society. In its Christian version, this sort of faith provides insurance...
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