Tag Archives: Marilynne Robinson

New Approaches to Academic Writing: An Unusual Marking Note for a Good Student

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

I am at that time of year when the marking pile on my desk is higher than my laptop screen. Like a fool, each year, I go into the marking expecting great things. So far, I have never had a … Continue reading →

Posted in On Writing, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged academic, Alice Walker, autoethnography, B.R. Myers, Christopher Hitchens, Corey Olsen, Dorothy L. Sayers, Flannery O'Connor, George Orwell, Harold Bloom, John Updike, literary criticism, Margaret Atwood, Marilynne Robinson, research, Roxane Gay, Slavoj Žižek, Stanley Fish, Teaching, Terry Eagleton, theology, Ursula K. Le Guin, Virginia Woolf, writing | 15 Comments

Annie Dillard, An American Childhood

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

Can I come to you as a literary evangelist for a moment? Actually, I’m always doing that, aren’t I? I have worked to remind a world much different than the original about The Screwtape Letters, and argued that The Great Divorce is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, An American Childhood, Annie Dillard, books, Frederick Buechner, letters, literature, Marilynne Robinson, Poetry, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters | 18 Comments

The Problem with Moralistic Art: A Note on the Expository Demon

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

I am not an avid theatre goer, but it is something I secretly love. Rather than the grand urban stages, I especially enjoy the small, intimate theatres that we have here in Atlantic Canada and tucked away in cities … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged art, Blue Like Jazz, C.S. Lewis, christianity and culture, Duncan Macmillan, Left Behind, Lungs, Margaret Atwood, Marilynne Robinson, pop culture, Steve Taylor, theatre, Theology of Culture, Till We Have Faces, writing | 57 Comments

On Pretending to be in a PhD (pt. 2)

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Brenton Dickieson

In my 400th blog post I noted that in 2011 I began pretending I was in a PhD. It is doubtless an odd thing to say, though it has been normal for me for so long I didn’t even think … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Reflections | Tagged Charles Williams, Dorothy L. Sayers, Fictional Universes, Flannery O'Connor, graduate school, J.R.R. Tolkien, literature, Marilynne Robinson, Marion E. Wade Center, phd students, Regent College, Ursula K. LeGuin | 22 Comments

On Embracing my Inner Nerd, Or Erasing the Division between Head and Heart

Posted on June 8, 2015 by Brenton Dickieson

The phrase, “doing your devotions,” still gives me the shivers. Early in my spiritual journey, my well-meaning leaders tried to instill a little religion in me. I was the Christian equivalent of Huckleberry Finn when it came to disciplines that … Continue reading →