The Bibliovore's Wife

In terms of content I'm very familiar with, this post does not fit into that category. However, it's been a topic of marital conversation often enough that I wanted to pull together my ability to find and analyze sources to learn by writing. In my head, the best organization for the post works by starting with defining terms, then outlining three thoughtful steps or principles to help give a gentle answer to atheists one encounters in corners of the Internet. If you're looking for a solid apologetics course to prepare yourself, I plan to take this free 20-hour video course from the C. S. Lewis Institute over semester break this year. I'll likely write on it and work in the content if it goes well (which I fully expect that it will)! The publication date is significant: today is the Feast of St. Lucy . Traditionally, she wore candles on her head and brought sustenance to Christians in catecombs during the Diocletian persecution. Her feast day is also an ember day , i.e...

Up till about two years ago, I hadn't even heard of the term "Christian Platonism." Then, I was exposed to it a few times in the context of the Surprised by Hope book discussion class the Bibliovore and I co-led at a previous congregation. We didn't have time to get into the details at all, but named one of our children after an early Christian Platonist, so I figured that now is a good time for me to learn more about the concept with you. Definitions In order to define Christian Platonism, we need to have a sense of what its predecessors were/are. These are, mainly, Platonism, Aristotelianism, and Christianity. (Sources are, respectively,  Britannica , Britannica , and World History Encyclopedia .) Platonism developed out of Socrates' influence, because Plato was a pupil of Socrates. Both were Greek philosophers who thought, taught, and wrote about "the good life." Plato's surviving works are usually taken to summarize his views, but as the Bibliovo...

As of the writing of this post (about a month in advance of publication), I've just completed the "book" prereading I've set myself for the upcoming book! There's a lot more research and thought to be done, but the foundation is there. This post is the first one dealing specifically with my target audience, neurodiverse Christian homeschoolers. The fundamental question I am asking and (hopefully) answering: what should a father read to prepare for this venture? Neurovidersity in Adulthood One key term in this discussion is neurodiversity--originated in the 1990s or a bit earlier by high-functioning autistics (think Asperger syndrome as an approximation). The intent was to de-stigmatize autism and enable those in society to be more aware of the strengths of an autistic brain. A more recent term, intended to be both broader and more accommodating of the possibility that autism may be much more common than previously thought, is neurominority. According to  Ortega 20...

If you've read my blog for any part of the last year or so, you've probably noticed that I talk about fundamental or "core" Christian doctrines quite a lot, from a magisterial Protestant stance. This week, I'm going to try to tie a couple of those ideas together, using as my anchors a book we've recently finished at church, the Ecumenical Creeds, and the commonly accepted Ecumenical Councils. If you'd like, come along for a mini-book reflection on this ride! How do we Define a Core Doctrine? As the saying goes, the one who defines the terms is most likely to win the argument or debate. Between traditions, I get the strong impression that The List of core doctrinal positions of Christianity is still lively debated, so here are the parts of my definition as a reasonably well-educated lay Anglican. Sine qua non  for Being a Christian As an apple tree cannot grow except from (ultimately) an apple seed, a Christian cannot grow except from the "seed" d...

One part of learning about a subject is learning its vocabulary. It's been an uneven road for me as I have learned bits about philosophy over the last few years, starting with semester 1 of the PhD program where a course introduced the terms ontology  and epistemology . Somehow, I confused these terms for the next couple of years. I hope this post can prevent that for you, and introduce you to some of the most helpful terms to be familiar with if you're diving into philosophy! Selection Process: History of Philosophy One of the first problems in philosophy that I learned about when starting to read about it in earnest, was related to vocabulary. Reading philosophy as a neophyte is like learning a new language--with a twist! Over the centuries of philosophical writing, especially in the modern and postmodern eras, philosophers use many of the same terms as their predecessors and contemporaries do, but they'll also develop their own and use different definitions of some ...

Somehow, as the year progresses, posts get more difficult to write for me. Parts of this one felt out of my depth as I researched and drafted. Yet, writing is the best way that I know of to think, learn, and (hopefully) communicate. If you've made it this far into the blogging year, I thank you for your companionship and invite you on this short journey on a formal  (ish) introduction to philosophy--the study of wisdom--for non-philosophers, a.k.a., yours truly! The Bibliovore: An Introduction As the Bibliovore's Wife, I'd like to introduce you first to the Bibliovore's mind by way of academic background. The nickname came to him by way of his undergraduate academic advisor, who also taught most courses in one of his majors. His bibliographic contribution to our marriage was on the order of 900 books (to my ~300), and we have kept adding steadily to the home library to the point that our next major home improvement project will likely be installation of childproof floor...

In areas of my and the Bibliovore's life including work, reading, social interaction, and media consumption, we notice and are bothered by the Dunning-Kruger effect. I've been wanting to explore this topic fo a while--and am hoping to avoid a rant! Therefore, the sources for this post will be more on the academic/technical side than what I usually cite. I will also hone in on the blogosphere aspect, as a means of self-reflection. What is the Dunning-Kruger Effect (DKE)? Named for its namers, David Dunning and Justin Kruger, the Dunning-Kruger effect (abbreviated DKE throughout this post) is one of many possible cognitive biases. Not all biases are bad, but the DKE is fairly problematic.  Definition From one of my favorite references, Encyclopedia  Britannica , the DKE was described and defined in 1999 by Dunning and Kruger based on analysis of students' self-assessment scores compared to their self-ranking scores (within a peer group) and their actual competence scores in s...