PBA English Department

On Thursday, Dr. Elmore brought The Linwoods, written in 1835 by Catharine Maria Sedgwick, to Book Club to celebrate some historical American literature. Dressed in red, white, and blue for the 250th anniversary of America, Dr. Elmore introduced us to a novel “all about American character” and the American values that create the core of the story.

Though one young woman, Isabella Linwood, is the principal character, the story depicts a great variety of courageous characters. Dr. Elmore distinguished two families, the Linwoods and the Lees, and the dynamic they contribute to the story, especially through the contrast of loyalists and rebels in the American Revolution. The Linwood children decide to become revolutionaries alongside the Lees, and risking much to fight for independence, they demonstrate the “ties that bind together humanity,” displaying the unity that makes America beautiful.

As Dr. Elmore leads us to celebrate and remember what led us to America’s celebrations, Sedgwick reminds us of the war that brought us together, and the country that has grown from that unity—nearly two hundred years ago when the book was published, and now.
-Johnna Ryan

This Thursday, Dr. Bob Gerstmyer gave the Book Club crowd some of the history of South Florida’s own Henry M. Flagler. Dr. Gerstmyer discussed the context of Les Standiford’s nonfiction Last Train to Paradise, helpful for anyone planning educational trips to Key West or Palm Beach’s Flagler Museum.

Last Train to Paradise tells the story of the Florida East Coast Railway, built by Flagler in the early twentieth century and destroyed in 1935 by the United States’s strongest reported hurricane of all time. Standiford’s book depicts the dream of the railway, and the human life poured into it, as it all led fatalistically to the “Labor Day” hurricane.

Dr. Gerstmyer reflects, despite the doomed construction, that the most interesting reasons to read Last Train to Paradise are for the details and obstacles of the construction process, including the life stories of the crew. As the book’s epigraph asks, in the words of Victorian writer Robert Browning, “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, / Or what’s a heaven for?”

-Johnna Ryan

Please join us at the Book Club tomorrow at 11!

You are invited to hear Dr. Chesnes discuss GOOD WORK at the PBA Book Club tomorrow at 11 in Borbe 206. As always, refreshments will be served!

On Thursday morning, Prof. Trent Stephens and a few members of PBA’s theatre department treated the Book Club crowd to a sneak peek into the upcoming theatre performance: Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward!

Prof. Stephens described the absurd comedy as a “crowning jewel of farces.” Following the performance of two scenes performed by the actors, Prof. Stephens described the spiritual focus of the play.

One of Prof. Stephens’ notes on the selection of Blithe Spirit was the shifting of the common question, “Why this play; why now?” into “Why this play; why us?” He peeled open the spiritual elements of Coward’s story and encouraged both PBA’s theatre students and their audience to analyze the spiritualism and faith of the situation this play demands the viewer to consider. Blithe Spirit, in all its mystery, allows a window into grief, and even more so, how love exists in the face of loss.

Find tickets to PBA Theatre’s Blithe Spirit, playing the last weekend of February, here: www.eventbrite.come/cc/blithe-spirit-4807002

-Johnna Ryan

TODAY at 11 in Borbe 206: Prof. Trent Stephens and theatre students will discuss and perform a few scenes of Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward.

From Prof. Stephens: “In all inventories of great farces, Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit is figured amongst the top. A broad satirical comedy with a deeply improbable plot, Blithe Spirit epitomizes what we understand farce to be."

The Book Club is an open lecture in which PBA professors talk about their favorite books. It is more relaxed than a typical class, and refreshments are served.

You are cordially invited (even if you haven’t read the book).

Join us anytime from 12 to 2 pm today!

Don't miss the poet-priest Malcolm Guite at PBA on Monday night!

Crowded in on a rainy day, a collection of students, faculty, and staff had the pleasure of hearing from Dr. Michael Kolta on his new book, Christian Ethics in Computers, Software, and Artificial Intelligence (Kendall Hunt, 2025).

Kolta began his discussion with a quote and a challenge: “For those living in the modern-day USA, computers affect every aspect of life.” He dares anyone, for the first time in 25 years, to prove it wrong.

Kolta encourages this application of Christian ethics to the development and use of computer software, especially A.I., within everyday life, the medical field, and the legal field. He describes what ethics in collaboration with computer science could do for the world, as well as what a lack of ethics can do.

Find Dr. Kolta’s Christian Ethics in Computers, Software, and Artifical Intelligence here: https://he.kendallhunt.com/product/christian-ethics-computers-software-and-artificial-intelligence-0

-Johnna Ryan