Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Home / Dr. John Mark Reynolds /

A scan of Morgan's "His First Birthday" [1899]

Molding Our Betters, Not Stamping in Our Image

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Molding Our Betters, Not Stamping in Our Image

Successful parenthood is molding our betters, not stamping young souls in our image. If we do as we should, then they will be adults more virtuous and wiser than we are or were. We might be tempted to make freedom the goal: never crossing the will of...

Content EditorOct 22Comments Disabled

Elbert Hubbard ca. 1900

Avoid the Latest Elbert Hubbard

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Avoid the Latest Elbert Hubbard

College, as most know it, is Elbert Hubbard’s Scrapbook. Nobody reading this has heard of Elbert Hubbard, but he is education today. His “scrapbook” promised four thousand years of education in one slim volume with beautiful binding. How big was...

Content EditorMar 29Comments Disabled

What A Christmas Carol Taught Me About Holidays

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

What A Christmas Carol Taught Me About Holidays

Start at Luke 2 if you wish to know why there is Christmas, but if you live in hard times, then Charles Dickens might save your Christmas. The claim that Dickens invented Christmas in the English speaking world is nonsense—he revived it. The World Dickens...

Content EditorDec 10Comments Disabled

A photo of the school's icons and wooden doors.

The Third: Come Holy Spirit

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

The Third: Come Holy Spirit

Four years ago around Saint Valentines Day, my pastor, Father Richard, said: “Why not start a school?” That seemed . . . Crazy. Eventually I got an offer for a college presidency, but Father Richard kept saying: “Why not start a school?” I said:...

Content EditorAug 28Comments Disabled

T.S. Eliot lounges outside

T.S. Eliot’s Dry Salvages and the Christian Philosophy of A.E. Taylor

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

T.S. Eliot’s Dry Salvages and the Christian Philosophy of A.E. Taylor

Jesus saved a hurting T.S. Eliot. And Eliot, the greatest poet of the twentieth century, thought Jesus could save us as well. A person can hate the conclusion, but if English is your mother tongue, then you cannot ignore Eliot or his ideas. He shaped...

Content EditorJul 10No Comments

An artist's depiction of Brutus and the ghost of Caesar

The Good Man’s Bad Cause: A Lesson From Julius Caesar

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

The Good Man’s Bad Cause: A Lesson From Julius Caesar

The man fighting for a bad cause is always in a hurry, chased by the guilt of having chosen poorly. Or so Shakespeare says in his play Julius Caesar. Shakespeare had the courage to name a play for a character he will kill quickly, one that will follow...

Content EditorMay 01No Comments

A depiction of Socrates teaching his disciples by Josef Abel

Educating Young Socrates

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Educating Young Socrates

As parents none of us are Mary or Joseph, so educating a young Jesus is beyond our skill set, but what about a young Socrates? If you were his teacher, you could watch your former student invent classical education and shape the future of philosophy....

Content EditorMar 07No Comments

Math and Science from Plato’s Timaeus

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Math and Science from Plato’s Timaeus

Science started when Christians thought hard about two books: the Bible, and a book that began: SOCRATES: One, two, three –but where, my dear (17) Timaeus, is the fourth of my guests of yesterday who were to entertain me today? TIMAEUS: He’s fallen...

Content EditorFeb 19No Comments

Dante, The Exile Who Leads Us Home

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Dante, The Exile Who Leads Us Home

Only the exile can create a home where he cannot live, but where his people may find peace. Moses is the model: separated at birth from his people, raised an Egyptian, cast out to the desert, returns to lead the Children of Israel to a promised land he...

Megan MuellerJan 31No Comments

The Shattered Image of the Thirteenth Century

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

Dr. John Mark Reynolds

The Shattered Image of the Thirteenth Century

C.S. Lewis wrote a book of profound scholarship, The Discarded Image, describing how people in the Middle Ages viewed reality. The...

Megan MuellerJan 17No Comments

1 2 3