It’s no mean feat, telling the truth about history. History is politicized, covering contested terrain. It’s often told solely by the victors. It’s often grim, and sifting through the bones and ashes isn’t always the happiest endeavor. And it’s often received with a kind of snooty modern superiority. All that said, it’s important to carry…
I’ve always loved the final scene in the 2012 Batman flick The Dark Knight Rises. Gotham City is saved, and the camera takes us to a small café in Florence, on the banks of the Arno. Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred is on a much-needed holiday, sipping a glass of Fernet Branca, when, surprisingly, he meets…
I took an intro to drawing class some years back at the Button Factory, a brick factory turned community arts centre here in Waterloo. My teacher was a genial, white-bearded man with the sort of monastic disposition that comes with being resolutely attentive and devoted to a craft. He was pale, with white tissue paper…
Last time, I wrote about the possibility of a schism in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC). It certainly remains a live option, though should it come to pass, I expect it won’t be in the immediate future. Thanks be to God. In lieu of a schism though, some serious sifting and sorting has already begun….
One night, in the midst of the CRC’s Synod, I awoke with a word in my head. Vivisection. I’m not entirely sure what to make of this early morning revelation. Some folks dream lucidly, others sweat through nightmares. Me? Apparently I receive ten-dollar words. It might be just the peculiarity of my own gray matter…
I’m the proud owner of a small house. It was built in 1929 on a plot of land that was once an orchard, about a 10-minute walk from Victoria Park in the heart of Kitchener, Ontario. The architectural style is called “Germanic Cottage,” and it was designed by an architect named Edward Reitzel, whose blueprints…
These are lonely times. Not just because many of us are still navigating pandemic restrictions and limitations, either. We’re more isolated than any time in recent memory. Academia is no safe harbour from that loneliness – it’s as prevalent there as it is in the rest of society. That’s rather ironic, given the origins of…
Eight students died last year at the University of Waterloo. I should clarify that: eight students in the Engineering department alone. I don’t know the total number across campus. I don’t know much about the cause of death, either, though I understand only one of the eight was by suicide. It feels strange to say…
It’s pretty hard to pass up a good homecoming story, and the writer Paul Kingsnorth unspooled a particularly potent one in the pages of the Roman Catholic magazine First Things recently. Kingsnorth tells the story of his conversion to Christianity over the past year – he was baptized in the freezing waters of the River…
Maybe the answer seems immediately obvious – of course we do, we fight all the time! So much, in fact, that schism is one of our chief contributions to the broader history of the Christian church. But do we know how to fight well? I don’t mean tactically, or strategically. Instead, since I believe everything…
Dear reader: The end is in sight. Still, we’re not quite there yet. Dreaming of this pandemic’s end is a big help in getting though the fatigue and frustration of its latter days. Of course, that’s not the only helpful thing at our disposal. In this month’s review section, we thought it’d be great to…
I’ve always had a bit of an antiquarian sensibility when it comes to music, which can leave me feeling out of step with the times. But these days, it’s a wonderful relief to transport yourself – eyes closed, headphones on – to another era as a brief respite from our present tedium. It’s in that…
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