Topics, Issues, Questions & News
Topics, Issues, Questions & News
Topics, Issues, Questions & News
The Bible & The Novel: Mark’s Gospel (& Netflix’s Messiah)
Resurrecting Jesus from the fog of familiarity can be hard—so hard, in fact, that we often gloss over the way each individual gospel text portrays...
Preaching the Household Codes in the #MeToo Era
Sometimes the Bible can be really difficult, especially when it talks about things like wives submitting to their husbands and slaves submitting to their masters. These “household codes” seem antiquated at best, and downright offensive at worst…
The Bible & The Novel: Netflix’s Messiah (& Mark’s Gospel)
Stories that reimagine Jesus, considering what his life would look like if lived in the modern world, have a long history in the Christian...
The Bible & the Novel: Ruth & Marilynne Robinson’s Lila
Too often texts fall silent because we think we know the story. Or because we find the barriers of time, place, and culture insurmountable. At...
A big move back to the Pacific Northwest
On August 15, I officially started a new tenure-track position as the Director of Liberal Arts and Assistant Professor of English and Theology at...
The Professor and the Pastor — An Experiment in Conversational Preaching
What happens when two trained theologians—one a pastor and one a literary scholar—work together to preach a text? Calls for...
Artificial Intelligence and the Image of God: A Conversation
Join us @ Holy Cross College for a Conversation about: Artificial Intelligence and the Image of God This term I'm teaching a class on the...
Re-Thinking Resources for the Liberal Arts: Adjunct Addiction
We all know that Higher Education’s dependence on adjunct labor is bad. Clearly, the labor conditions for adjuncts are a problem. Despite having...
Fortune 500 Company adopts my Students’ Writing Project
Earlier this month, Joey the Spotted Turtle was adopted by EmNet! After bringing Joey into the world as a class project, my Environmental Literature...
Re-Thinking Resources for the Liberal Arts: Program Design
This summer I was tasked with re-imagining the Communication Major at Holy Cross College. The nature of the Communication Major has been unclear for...
Solving Real World Problems with Writing: Introducing Joey the Spotted Turtle!
For my “Literature and the Environment” class (spring 2018), I tasked my students with a highly open-ended project. As a class community, they...
Mixing Water with Wine—Report on The Conference on Christianity and Literature
Last weekend I escaped the very brown and cold upper-Midwest for Oregon, where I presented a paper on Tim Winton’s Dirt Music at the Western...
Room at the Table: Limiting Ourselves to Make Space for Others this Lent
Where we live, its fish-fry season. If you live in the Americas, Europe, or Australia, you might also notice Friday fish-n-chip specials or the...
Lenten Flooding & Education Outside the Classroom
On February 19th it started raining…and raining…and raining…and raining. Northern Indiana had over six inches in rain in some places. While that’s a...
Waiting in the Dark
Happy New Year! Advent, the start of the Christian year, is upon us again. Rather than being a season for shopping and celebrating, Advent creates...
Preparing to Wait: A Conversation about Advent History & Practice
A Conversation about Advent Practices with Jason Miller of South Bend City Church.
#metoo
But of course… me too. This month’s scandal of a powerful man, Harvey Weinstein, using that power to manipulate, harass, and assault women spread...
New English Major for Holy Cross College
After a few months of work on the part of myself, Tyler Gardner, Dan Murphy, and Br. George Klawaitter, the proposal for the new English major at...
Learning from the Lives of My African Brothers
A previous post of mine was a confession that I fear chaos, I fear the brokenness of this world that seems to threaten at every term. Coupled with...
Making Old Truths New: Jesus and the Transgressive New Story
I recently got to be the keynote speaker for Saints and Scholars on the importance of literature for the church. As part of that, I found myself...
Rewriting the Story—Literature and the New Creation (Saints & Scholars Keynote Address)
On July 28th, I had the privilege of being the keynote speaker at Saints & Scholars. This Lilly Endowed program brings high school...
God with Us
Mary’s son was not the first time God dwelt with humans. An Advent Reading originally published in George Fox Universities’ Advent Project 2021.
![[NOW on Netflix] Exploring Nella Larsen’s “Passing”: A Conversation about Race in America with Bryce Coefield](https://i0.wp.com/jessicaannhughes.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Netflix-Trailer-Passing-Rebecca-Hall-Directorial-Debut-Nella-Larsen-Novel.jpg?resize=336%2C188&ssl=1)
[NOW on Netflix] Exploring Nella Larsen’s “Passing”: A Conversation about Race in America with Bryce Coefield
Nella Larsen’s novel Passing is now in movie form on Netflix. Use these recorded conversations as a watching/reading companion to the movie and/or novel, as you think about race in America.
Is the Bible Safe for Sunday School?
Christianity…particularly Protestant Christianity…and particularly Evangelical Christianity claims to take the Bible “seriously.” Yet, we seldom trust the text, particularly the harder passages, and particularly when our children are involved.
Celebrating a Badass Princess: Esther & the Feast of Purim
[Guest Post] A 10 Year old girl inhabits Esther’s story as we celebrate a two-day holiday dedicated to a girl whose courage and determination saved herself and her people.
Advent Rite & Prayers for Families Worshipping Together @ Home during Covid-19
Join our family with this prayer this Advent season, as we wait in the darkness, as we cry out for salvation, and as we continue in that certain hope that God will rend the heavens and come down among us.