Spiritual Sunday Today’s gorgeous Old Testament reading (Isaiah 11:1-10), which captures the spirit of messianic hope, has images that Milton uses in Paradise Lost. While Isaiah is envisioning the coming of the Messiah, however, Milton is looking back to the world before the fall. It can be again in the future asit once was in […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged C. S. Lewis, Isaiah, John Milton, Magician's Nephew, world peace | Comments closed

Teach Beowulf to Combat Violence

By Robin Bates | Published: November 21, 2019

To teach students how to understand and respond to violence, Beowulf is a go-to work.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Beowulf, Beowulf poet, John Milton, violence | Comments closed

Which Literary Conman Is Trump?

By Robin Bates | Published: September 15, 2019

To understand Trump as conman, I compare him to the King and the Duke, Mac the Knife, Melville’s Confidence Man, Satan & Iago.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Beggar's Opera, Confidence Man, conmen, Donald Trump, Herman Melville, Huckleberry Finn, John Gay, John Milton, Mark Twain, Othello, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Trump’s Satanic Plans for July 4

By Robin Bates | Published: July 2, 2019

Wednesday As Donald Trump will be doing his best tomorrow to transform our nation’s celebration of its founding ideas into a celebration of himself, I turn to another figure who is just as narcissistic. I’ve written in the past how both Satan and Trump are driven above all by spite. Today I focus on how […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Donald Trump, John Milton, July 4 celebration, pageantry | Comments closed

We Have Here the Stuff of Paradise

By Robin Bates | Published: April 6, 2019

Spiritual Sunday Spring has broken all over southern Tennessee, giving me the occasion to run Edwin Markham’s wonderful “Earth Is Enough.” His view, I believe, is similar to what Jesus meant by heaven on earth. We are to find heaven in ourselves and heaven in our surroundings, not wait until we die. To focus overmuch […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Earth Is Enough", Book of Common Prayer, Edwin Markham, John Milton, Nature | Comments closed

In Praise of Literary Biography

By Robin Bates | Published: November 29, 2018

I share a discussion I had with John Stubbs, author of riveting biographies on Swift, Donne, and the cavalier poets.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged John Milton, John Stubbs, Jonathan Swift, literary biography, Modest Proposal | Comments closed