Monthly Archives: February 2009

Billiard Balls, Wisdom, and Other Connections

Posted on 2009/02/28 by ngilmour

Yes, that’s all from one class, namely Thursday’s Enlightenment class.? After giving them a brief talk about revising research papers (that some of them, judging by what they’re asking me via email, have not yet started to write), we dove … Continue reading →

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American Evangelicalism, Then and Now

Posted on 2009/02/27 by ngilmour

I’m back in town from Toccoa, Georgia and from the “American Evangelicalism: Then & Now” conference that officially wraps up tomorrow but whose second day I won’t be attending, having to work at Bogart Library. My paper was in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Travel | 2 Comments

Falling into a Mystical Ditch

Posted on 2009/02/26 by ngilmour

First of all, my sophomore lit survey class proved again today just how bright they are–taking on a text that could not but be alien to them, they imagined their ways inside of it, and they made me look really … Continue reading →

Posted in medieval, teaching | 2 Comments

Teaching Lit Crit

Posted on 2009/02/25 by ngilmour

Yesterday’s lesson on Sidney turned out better than I deserved. ?Because I’m more interested in intellectual history than I am in court intrigue, I’ve not spent as much time as I probably should have on Sidney’s works and biography. ?(O … Continue reading →

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The Decline and Fall of the Gilmour Empire

Posted on 2009/02/24 by ngilmour

I’ll admit that I’m getting tired of my comp students’ not reading for class.? I knew, signing on to teach a required class in the spring, one that most folks take in the fall, that I’d not likely have the … Continue reading →

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Why I’ll Take the Room Full of Professors

Posted on 2009/02/23 by ngilmour

I’m aware that I could just be getting overly sensitive as I get closer to completing the Ph.D, but I’ve been thinking lately about all the folksy sayings there are disparaging teachers and comparing us to children.? Ten-year-olds on their … Continue reading →

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Back to Egypt

Posted on 2009/02/22 by ngilmour

When Mary and I returned from Indiana and West Virginia at the beginning of January, we started a new series on Exodus for the teens at church, and we decided fairly early on in the planning process that we’d do … Continue reading →

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Taking Books Seriously?

Posted on 2009/02/21 by ngilmour

A New Day for Intellectuals I’ll admit that I was one of the schmucks who didn’t see much changing about a month ago.? Certainly a great symbolic event was taking place, though I have my suspicions that, except for its … Continue reading →

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The Real Kings of the GOP

Posted on 2009/02/20 by ngilmour

U.S. Congressman Phil Gingrey Kowtows to AM Radio Hosts Someone asked me recently if I’d heard about this incident, and I hadn’t.? So I read up on it.? And I wanted to laugh, and I wanted to cry. Apparently at … Continue reading →

Posted in Political Entertainment | 5 Comments

Watching my Class Happen

Posted on 2009/02/19 by ngilmour

Today’s English literature survey was a good one, but I don’t remember anything earth-shattering. ?We spent a good bit of time on Jonson’s “To Penshurst,” talking about the magical, anti-urban, anti-Puritan vibe of the piece, and we looked at a … Continue reading →

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Book Review: The New Media Frontier

Posted on 2009/02/18 by ngilmour

The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ I realize, now that I’ve read this book, that it’s possible to expect to be surprised, and when I read this book, I was surprised precisely where I expected.? The … Continue reading →

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My Inadequacy, Donne’s Perversity, or Some Mixture Thereof

Posted on 2009/02/17 by ngilmour

Whenever I teach John Donne, I always leave class feeling like I’ve communicated nothing but the incapacity of my own soul. In the abstract, I’ve read and agreed with theologies that say that there ought not to be, for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Renaissance, teaching | 2 Comments

Postman on Technology, the Short Version

Posted on 2009/02/16 by ngilmour

As some of you no doubt know, I’m teaching a special section of freshman composition for the first time this semester, one on the writings of the Enlightenment.? Along with the Viking/Penguin Portable Enlightenment Reader (our main textbook), I’ve also … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, teaching | 4 Comments

Abolishing Something, but I’m not Sure What

Posted on 2009/02/15 by ngilmour

Thirteen years do make a difference.? When I was a nineteen-year-old church camp counselor and took C.S. Lewis’s short book The Abolition of Man with me to read during down times, I marked myself immediately as the most intellectual church … Continue reading →

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Valentine’s Day

Posted on 2009/02/14 by ngilmour

I remember what I did every year in high school on February 14–out came the black T-shirt (not that I was averse to the black T-shirt during the rest of the year), and whether I had a girlfriend or not … Continue reading →

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25 Beliefs and Un-Beliefs

Posted on 2009/02/13 by ngilmour

Twenty-Five Sortof Random Things I Do and Don’t Believe I found this little not-meme on Internet Monk’s site, and since I participated in the less-interesting “25 Random Things About Me” meme on Facebook, I figured there wasn’t any reason not … Continue reading →

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Geeking out on Herbert

Posted on 2009/02/12 by ngilmour

I finally felt like I taught a genuine poetry lesson today–we covered modes of allusion, variations on persona, meter, rhyme, and all sorts of good English-major-type stuff.? We also took on a handful of poems from George Herbert, probably my … Continue reading →

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Books and More Books

Posted on 2009/02/11 by ngilmour

I found this meme on Michial Farmer’s blog, and lemming that I am… One book you?re currently reading: On the Bondage of the Will by Luther. One book that changed your life: The Peaceable Kingdom by Stanley Hauerwas. One book … Continue reading →

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The Bible and Satire

Posted on 2009/02/10 by ngilmour

Today we did Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, a lovely poem that I’d never read before planning the lesson for this class.? It’s a poem that at the same time gets 2 Samuel and ventures outside of its bounds freely to … Continue reading →

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How I Teach on Sundays

Posted on 2009/02/09 by ngilmour

I’ve actually not taught a Sunday school lesson since 2008, and the break has been a nice one. I’ve been able to get more done on my own dissertation, get accustomed to the new courses I’m teaching at UGA, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Church stuff, teaching | 2 Comments