Back on campus- senior year edition

Last month I moved into a house for my senior year. It’s three floors with 10 bedrooms, plus a basement. It’s going to be a great year, I can feel it. All the pieces are in place. I have my positions of leadership on campus, a great community of roommates, a bit of newness (joining

Christian Reflections on the Lord of the Rings

Preface The Lord of the Rings is not escapism. Tolkien’s masterpiece engages the senses and imagination in a story that is infused with religious themes. Tolkien himself saw his work this way, as a “fundamentally religious and Catholic work,” but this is not to be confused with understanding the Lord of the Rings as a

Climbing The Seven Storey Mountain

If a book’s greatness is measured by the impact it has on its readers, then Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain can be considered one of the best. No book has influenced my spiritual life as much as this 1948 autobiography of a Trappist monk. Merton is a talented writer, but it is more so