From the Canvas discussion for my Mimetic Teaching intensive: We were discussing Pascal’s statement, “Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except GOD. He is only found by the ways taught in the Gospel.” You asked, “Am I making it too simple?” I contend that it is impossible to do so because Christ is simple […]
“Watch me. Now you try.” These five words are constantly repeated by parents to their children. But they are for people of every age. We are mimetic creatures who learn by imitation. Every good baseball coach teaches a batting stance by modeling one for the athlete. Preachers provide examples and illustrations so their congregants can
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The hardest thing by far about my vocation is the travel, and the hardest thing about travel is coming home. No, it isn’t returning to my dear Penelope (nee Karen) that is so hard. It’s returning to a world that has kept on moving without me, both at home and at work. And it has
“Kids can smell morals. And they smell like Brussels sprouts.” That line summarizes, more pithily than most, the general attitude towards “preachy children’s books” reflected in a cursory Google search. It comes from an article by a published author giving tips for writing children’s books, and most articles of that sort seem to include, fairly
Three small marks, a blend of dirt and water, pocked the middle of the back patio. The small paw prints with elongated fingers, slightly larger than a quarter, did not appear before or after the three. My oldest three children, who always enjoyed following deer tracks in the backyard, saw me looking down at the
Godly teaching must begin with the teacher fixing his or her own eyes on the student. Then, and only then, can we justly say, “Look at us.”
The following is an edited excerpted from the fifth edition of The Lost Tools of Writing. MIMETIC INSTRUCTION applies the Christian classical idea that humans learn and become virtuous by imitation. However, in classical theory imitation is a far cry from mere aping. Mimesis is an imitation, not of the outward form, but of the
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St. Matthew composed his gospel primarily for the Jews of his day. In all likelihood, Matthew was a despised man. He was a tax collector (Matt. 9:9), which garnered as much admiration then as now. Both his Greek name (Matthew, which means “gift of Jehovah”) and his Hebrew name, Levi (Mark 2:13-14, Luke 5:27-28) rooted
