Feature
My Water,
His Wine
A Small Life-Comedy in Four Acts
Ralph C. Wood
The following is drawn from an address I gave at Providence College in Rhode Island, where I occupied the Randall Chair of Christian Culture for 2010–2011. I was surprised when the provost of this Dominican school asked this Baptist from the Deep South to speak at the opening academic convocation. Yet it gave me grateful opportunity to reflect on where I’ve been, where I’ve come, and where I hope to be going. It also enabled me to confess that I have been decisively shaped, as I believe we are all meant to be shaped, by particular places and people, by specific schools and churches. I am their product, and this is a brief report on my pilgrimage.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Ralph C. Wood was, until his retirement, University Professor of Theology and Literature at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. His books include The Comedy of Redemption (University of Notre Dame Press), Flannery O’Connor and the Christ-Haunted South (Eerdmans), and Chesterton: The Nightmare Goodness of God (Baylor University Press).
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
22.6—July/August 2009
on the Integration of Anger into the Virtuous Life by Leon J. Podles
30.2—March/April 2017
Our Path to Holiness Runs Straight Through Calvary by Robin Phillips
33.2—March/April 2020
on How Bodily Resurrection Informs Social Justice by W. Ross Blackburn
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
