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A Front Row Seat for the Nightmare Years Bonhoeffer’s Germany, Part Two Michael Jinkins “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing.” (Edmund Burke, 1729-1797) From 1934 till 1940, American journalist William Shirer had a front row seat to witness the era in Germany that […]
How Could It Have Happened? Bonhoeffer’s Germany, Part One Michael Jinkins “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” (Edmund Burke, 1729-1797, Irish political philosopher) Early on a gray spring morning in Flossenbürg, Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was taken from his cell, marched naked to the gallows, and hanged. The prison doctor […]
Intro to Bonhoeffer Series: Michael Jinkins Starting tomorrow, we will be posting a series of blogs that I wrote some years ago about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. These blogs first appeared on websites curated by Duke Divinity School, Huffington Post, and Louisville Presbyterian Seminary. The blogs, which appeared in 2015-16, originated in articles and lectures […]
Love and Knowledge Michael Jinkins At the close of worship recently I shared with the congregation a passage I came across probably a year ago. I had written it down on a post-it note and kept it on my bedside table. The passage is from St. Augustine of Hippo. Augustine said: If we […]
Living on Borrowed Time Michael Jinkins When I was a little boy I remember hearing older members of my family starting a sentence by saying, “If I die….” And I remember drawing the conclusion toddling around their knees that apparently some people don’t die. I hadn’t yet gotten the news that nobody gets out […]
Innocence and Experience Michael Jinkins Recently I read a fascinating essay in The New York Times by a philosopher who had suffered what her doctor described as a “minor traumatic brain injury.” The upshot of her injury meant that she wasn’t allowed for at least three months to do any heavy lifting with her […]
Banned Books Michael Jinkins Not long after we moved to Austin, Texas, the well-respected suburban school district of Round Rock banned Maya Angelou’s book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. I hadn’t yet read the book but went out and bought a copy immediately just to see what the fuss was about. […]
God the Artist Michael Jinkins Debbie and I were on our boat late one afternoon, heading back to the marina. The skies had been a marvel all day. Cirrus clouds, Mares’ Tails, had been sweeping across a sky of cerulean blue since early that morning. But as we turned west heading into the Intracoastal […]
“When Sorrow Falls Upon the Wise”* Michael Jinkins One is tempted to bemoan one’s own era and idealize the past. But, as any reader of classical sacred texts will tell you, when it comes to wisdom, today’s scarcity is nothing new. “Where can wisdom be found,” asks the Proverbs, as it searches […]
Is tolerance a Christian virtue? Part Four: From Enlightenment to Domestic Tranquility Michael Jinkins “Toleration has failed to capture the public imagination because it is not a passion.” — Theodore Zeldin Tolerance, as we know it, is largely an invention of the Enlightenment.* It grew from a dissatisfaction among philosophical, scientific and even […]