Seasonable Doubt
What atheists don't understand about understanding religious belief.
Philosopher Tim Crane explains what atheists miss when they view religion from the outside - from the personal and social meanings of faith beyond the cosmological or historical, to the realities of a deep commitment to perceiving the transcendent, in this world and perhaps a world beyond.
Tim is author of The Meaning of Belief: Religion from an Atheist’s Point of View from Harvard University Press.
Beneath the master class: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South
Historian Keri Leigh Merritt examines the lives and labor of landless Whites in the Antebellum Deep South - as an impoverished underclass situated outside the immediate bounds of chattel slavery, but under a brutal, stratified, undemocratic regime with the violence and exploitation of slavery at its heart and in everything it touched.
Keri Leigh is author of Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South from Cambridge University Press.
Christmas has always been whatever you want it to be. Merry Christmas.
Historian Judith Flanders explores the populist, adaptive, multi-purpose, meaning of Christmas - as an enduring holiday that has always looked backward to a better (imaginary) time while adapting to the culture and commercial realities of the present, and a mirror reflecting ourselves and our wishes about the world around us.
Judith is author of Christmas: A Biography from MacMillan.
The smokey, sour, confusingly-named year in craft beer.
The Hopleaf's Michael Roper talks about the year in craft beer news - from the rise of barrel-aged beers and the return of 'popular price' options in response to years of rising prices, to the surprisingly enduring trends of new breweries opening in already saturated markets, and beer names surrending to total, non-descriptive chaos.
Michael is owner of Chicago's The Hopleaf Bar, in its 25th year. Try the Bitterballen.
Some thoughts on the Socialist Leisure work ethic and the spirit of falafel.
In a Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen dines out on the thin gruel of life in the year 2017, in a vast, soulless restaurant with but one exit, and a few tiny olives to tide you over until the final service.
