The robots are coming
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The robots are coming

Could you tell if this editorial was written by a robot? I started asking this question in mid-December right around the time my husband, Jakob was spending his evenings talking to something (someone?) who wasn’t human at all. He had discovered ChatGPT, a large language model developed by OpenAI, a company co-founded by Elon Musk….

Strawberries and Cornels
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Strawberries and Cornels

“When we were boys, born and raised in inland regions, we could already imagine the sea, after seeing some water in a little glass; but until we tasted them in Italy, the flavour of strawberries and cornels could in no way come into our minds.” (Augustine, Ep. 7.3.6) When the first taste came…it was, I…

CC wins 10 awards!
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CC wins 10 awards!

On May 5, the Canadian Christian Communicators Association held its annual awards ceremony showcasing the best in faith-based writing, design and content creation for the 2021 season. Christian Courier (CC) competed against at least 18 other publications and received 10 awards, including first place in the Feature Article, Interview and Photo Essay categories. “They’ve combined…

Welcoming a Young Writer
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Welcoming a Young Writer

I first met Bert Witvoet at a collaborative art luncheon at church. He made me feel immediately welcome, not in the too-familiar style of an obligatory attempt to recruit a new member to church, but with sincere interest in who I was. We had a lot in common: he was a former Christian high school…

Linguistic crusade
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Linguistic crusade

Economy of writing involves using the fewest words necessary to make one’s meaning clear. (Personally, I think St. Paul must have missed rabbinical class when this lesson was taught; but I digress.) One of the chief sins against economy of expression is that of redundancy – writing or saying the same thing more than once without any apparent reason.

I owe you all a sabbatical
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I owe you all a sabbatical

As most people know, a sabbatical for academics is a period, typically one year or a half year, during which many of our normal responsibilities are put aside.

The cool reading place

The cool reading place

“In the richly imaginative world of this story, a tree is lonely and a girl needs a cool, quiet place to read. These simple but universal longings drive the narrative, which is enriched by its credible dialogue and plucky protagonist.” – comment by judge Angela Reitsma-Bick