Monthly Archives: July 2019

License to Act with Impunity

By Robin Bates | Published: July 21, 2019

Monday I’ve been reflecting upon a recent E.J. Dionne column about living in “an age of impunity.” Borrowing the phrase from International Rescue Committee head Dave Milland, Dionne looks at the horrors that arise when all moral inhibitions are swept away. Looking for an American author who depicts such a world, I settled upon Cormac […]

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A Map to the Next World

By Robin Bates | Published: July 20, 2019

Spiritual Sunday The latest news on climate change continues to be horrific as we battle through the hottest summer on record. The heat wave is hitting countries all over the world, with France at one point posting temperatures of 114 degrees. In other words, we are witnessing human impact on the earth as never before. […]

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Was the Moon Landing Poetic? A Debate

By Robin Bates | Published: July 18, 2019

Friday As tomorrow will be the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing, I went looking for literature that marked the occasion. A useful New York Times article, written 20 years after the event, surveyed the field and alerted me to the two poems that I share today. Interestingly, not much was written, leading to the […]

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Gothics Speak Truth to Denial

By Robin Bates | Published: July 17, 2019

Thursday Thursday morning I delivered the following talk to Sewanee’s Rotary Club. I entitled it “America’s Obsession with Gothic Fantasy, from Poe to Game of Thrones. When you hear someone mention gothic fantasy or gothic horror, what American stories, movies or television shows come to mind? Before I let you answer that question, let me […]

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Achilles, Obama–Can Anyone Save Us?

By Robin Bates | Published: July 16, 2019

Wednesday With Donald Trump’s racism becoming ever more overt (not that it was ever that hidden),  Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty finds herself pleading to President Obama to speak out and lift us up again. In doing so, she has reminded Esquire’s smart and extremely well-read Charlie Pierce of Odysseus pleading with Achilles to save the […]

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Graham Greene on Real Christianity

By Robin Bates | Published: July 15, 2019

Tuesday I applaud Washington Post’s conservative Michael Gerson, architect of George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservatism,” for a recent column using Graham Greene to critique Trump-supporting rightwing evangelicals. Applying Greene’s Power and Glory, Gerson essentially accuses these so-called Christians of opting for piety over love. Since Graham’s distinction may be unclear to many, I’ll let Gerson […]

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Poetry, a Road to the Spirit World

By Robin Bates | Published: July 14, 2019

Monday I’m currently writing a review of Norman Finkelstein’s poetry collection From the Files of the Immanent Foundation. As I noted in a recent post, Finkelstein, my best friend in graduate school, is a “New Gnostic” who uses poetry to get in touch with the numinous, the world of spirit. Reviewing the work has proven […]

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Poetry, a Mystical Key to the Beyond

By Robin Bates | Published: July 13, 2019

spiritual Sunday I’ve recently been reading Alex Owen’s The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern, which is helping me better understand how poetry aids us in our search for God—or if that sounds too institutional, for the numinous. Owen focuses on the spiritual exploration underway at the turn of the […]

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Children Dying in ICE Custody

By Robin Bates | Published: July 11, 2019

Friday Testifying before a Congressional committee investigating inhumane treatment of asylum seekers, Yazmin Juarez’s gave the tragedy an all too human face by recounting how she lost her baby daughter due to “neglect and mistreatment” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. I share an Edna St. Vincent Millay sonnet to acknowledge her heartbreak. According to an […]

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