Author Archives: davetcourt

Having recently finished Ian Nathan’s biographical work on the famous Spanish filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro, I couldn’t help but note the overlap between Percy’s Bink Bolling and Del Toro’s own storied history. Boiling is a man caught between the devout dogmatism of his mother’s side and the cynicism and skepticism of his father’s side, findingContinue reading “The Moviegoer: Finding the Search For Truth in Walker Percy’s Imagination”

I have no idea how Macfarlane would feel about this basic matter of fact, but his works have been greatly influential for the way I understand my faith in God. As far as I know Macfarlane would categorize as a naturalist, albeit one who flirts with the appearance of a kind of pantheism (he hasContinue reading “Are Rivers Alive: How Macfarlane Has Influenced My Faith In God”

Both sets of my Grandparents have since passed, given now to the problematic nature of memory. Memory is a subject of which I’ve long been fascinated by. Some of that is rooted in an experience. Previous posts in this space have outlined that, but the summarized version is- I had what I call a WordContinue reading “Do Our Lives, Our Actions Make a Difference? How Can We Know?”

I often say, the key to good history is a good narrative. As the famous quote goes, of which I’ve forgotten the source, “all history is narrative.” If this is the measure, Gordon has written a very good history about the Bible. One of the marks of a good narrative is thematic cohesion. History booksContinue reading “What Is the Bible and Why Does it Matter: Reflections on Bruce Gordon’s The Bible: A Global History”

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.” (Colossians 3:15) “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7) “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” (1Continue reading “A Narrative of Peace: Exploring A Complicated Word With Profound Significance.”

Every once in a while you come across an idea that sort of reshapes the way you see the world or think about the world. A couple of years ago I read a book, a kind of travelogue, that offered a philosophical observation regarding how we experience the world. Everyone is shaped by two essentialContinue reading “The Places We Live, The Places We Are Drawn To: Exploring My Love For The Ocean and The Atlantic With John Haywood”

Is there irony in the fact of a renewed Christian not only locating his hero in a proposed angry athiest, but finding in his heros art a pathway to God? Maybe. On the surface at least it feels contradictory, and yet this is nevertheless true of my relationship to Spanish filmmaker/artist Guillermo Del Toro. AContinue reading “Unlikey Heroes: How An Angry Atheist Renewed My Faith In God”

“So much of the evil and hatred in this world could be countered by understanding that in every culture we name our storytellers.” (Alice Munroe in Brianna Labuskes’ The Boxcar Librarain) Munroe, one of three central chracters in Labuskes’ historical fictional rendering of the true history of the Boxcar Library, finds herself in dialogue withContinue reading “Narrative Philosophy and the Power of Story: How We Know What We Know”

I was listening to an interview with Rutger Bregman and The Good Fight Host, Yascha Mounk (Humankind, Utopia for Realists) on his newest book called Moral Ambition. Bregman is fascinating to me. While I don’t share his philosophy, I agree with much of his approach. More specifically, I find his critique of western civilization, and moreContinue reading “Moral Ambition, Effective Altruism, And Civilizations: Why We Need a Necessary Foundation”

Every once in a while I come across a concept or a word or an idea that helps illuminate and make sense of something I already knew to be intuitively true about myself. The term Orthorexia Nervosa was one of those. It is defined as an obsession with healhy eating that impacts ones life inContinue reading “Who am I? I Am a Word. I Am a Definition”