by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Nov 28, 2013 | Living the Liturgical Year, Raising Christian Kids
While shopping today, my three-year-old pointed to a Christmas tree and asked, “why can’t people wait for Christmas”? She didn’t ask it critically but out of curiosity, interrogating the expression “oh, they just can’t wait for Christmas” more than the theology. It...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Aug 29, 2013 | Fostering Faith
“Moralistic-therapeutic deism” is the phrase University of Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith uses to describe the religious beliefs of North American teenagers. It is the belief that God wants people to be good, play nice, feel happy and go to heaven when they...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | May 16, 2013 | Reading Well, The Christian Imagination, Victorian Studies
Recently, I’ve spent quite a bit of time with Charles Dickens’s least-read work: The Life of Our Lord. It is a slim volume that re-tells the story of Jesus, drawing much of its language directly from the gospels. As I wrote in my post last month, despite Dickens’s...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Apr 11, 2013 | Reading Well, The Bible, Victorian Studies
Between 1846 and 1849 Charles Dickens wrote The Life of Our Lord, a simplified version of Jesus’ life for his children, who ranged in age from newborn to 11 years-old at the time of its completion. The work was never intended for publication—it was a family text,...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Nov 29, 2012 | Living the Liturgical Year
The Christian year begins on Sunday, December 2nd this year, with the beginning of Advent—so for western Christians, now is the time to take stock of the year past and to make resolutions for the future as we once again begin to communally join ourselves to the story...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | May 4, 2012 | Reading Well, Victorian Studies
Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations details the maturation of Pip, a young man specially selected by an unknown benefactor to become a “gentleman.” It is easy to read the tale as a rags-to-riches story, with Pip moving from his apprenticeship to his brother-in-law,...
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”...
Recent Comments