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Vince Miller

@millervincent.bsky.social
1K followers 970 following 186 posts

Theologian wrestling with hope in the face of climate change and ecological destruction. Private account.

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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Thrilled to report that after more than a decade, one of our PawPaws has patched!
Photo of a trees and shrubs with a pawpaw tree and 3 offshoot trees emerging around it.
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
From Google's NotebookLM home page: a story summary of Joyce's Ulysses-the paradigmatic case where LLM use would not help and would cause the user to miss out on the whole point of reading. Sure it's hard; most of the references go over my head. Let the language seep into you and see what happens.
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
I've heard stories of bribes but never of hacking or ransoms on this platform. I've heard rumors that paper texts and note are completely impervious to crashes as well.
Blue book exam notebook.
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
My review of these two wonderful books is greatly enhanced by @davidsankey.bsky.social's astounding cover art. So honored to be on this cover!
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Pope #LeoXIV #DilexiTe on the deep theological reasons why the Church must welcome migrants and refugees:
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Amazing historical detail on Jesus' class from the Gospels in #DilexiTe from Leo XVI. So much of the exhortation has his quiet, comprehensive, even encyclopedic grasp of the tradition.
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Gerard Manley Hopkins knew... Glory be to God for dappled things – For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim...
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Female Chinook building her redd; moving silt, sand and basalt with ragged flesh and fin. She knows both meanings of arduum: difficulty and ardor, as she pours out all of her energy flaying flesh against stone to build a home for children she will never see.
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Photos from my trip to the McKenzie River in Oregon to write about Salmon and Aquinas's understanding of hope as an animal passion. So much to learn about hope as "bonum futurum arduum" from these beings of flesh and flow. You can hear their sound in this photo.
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Old friends sharpened and tuned for dovetails -- a skill at which I've grown rusty, alas.
A row of wood chisels arranged in order of size, of mixed ages and makes.
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
It's been a joy to review these two wonderful books on rivers by @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social and the late James C. Scott for @commonweal.bsky.social
Images of books: "In Praise of Floods" by James Scott and "Is a River Alive?" by Robert Macfarlane.
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Excellent piece, as always, by Lynda Mapes. In May, after returning from a visit to HJ Andrews with Mapes and @mattbetts42.bsky.social, a Swainson's stopped in my yard, presumably passing through Ohio to points north.
Swainson's Thrush seen through a window on the ground.
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Great gift to share in the work of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network/@lsrioxford.bsky.social conference: “Peacebuilding, Mining, and Integral Human Development” at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá.
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
I've spent a decent part of 3 Saturdays aligning an old Craftsman tablesaw. Pro-tip: dial indicators go round and round. So, if you are not...smart...you can easily, perfectly, within a .001 misalign the blade by .1" D'oh! Yikes! Read my new book: Precision vs. accuracy for dummies.
WWII vintage dial-indicator on Tablesaw, showing .0 thousandths of an inch.
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Belated sharing of my 2024 plenary address at the Catholic Theological Society of America: "Seeking Social Salvation in a World Made Frictionless: Communion, Extractivism and Integral Ecology." ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ct...
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Beginning to work on some stunning Douglas fir (a salvaged wind fall) for a very special project. Planes aren't resharpened yet. I just wanted to get a glimpse at the wood. It is truly astounding. Look at that light shining off the _unfinished_, hand-planed surface. Magic all around.
19c infill handplane with shavings on a board.Close-up of hand planed board, showing it reflecting light.
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Do I have a puppy? Why do you ask?
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Real Pope Leo XIV:
All this can but make us think, and it also raises useful questions. What, in the world of youth today, are the most urgent challenges to be faced? What values are to be promoted? What resources can be counted on?

Young people of our time, like those of every age, are a volcano of life, energy, sentiments and ideas. It can be seen from the wonderful things they are able to do, in so many fields. However, they also need help in order for this great wealth to grow in harmony, and to overcome what, albeit in a different way to the past, can still hinder their healthy development.

While, for example, in the seventeenth century the use of the Latin language was an insuperable barrier to communication for many people, today there are other obstacles to be faced. Think of the isolation caused by rampant relational models increasingly marked by superficiality, individualism and emotional instability; the spread of patterns of thought weakened by relativism; and the prevalence of rhythms and lifestyles in which there is not enough room for listening, reflection and dialogue, at school, in the family, and sometimes among peers themselves, with consequent loneliness.
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
Met her on my walk to the "office" this morning.
Female black swallowtail butterfly
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
A very sick feeling: From CO2.earth
Table from CO2.earth showing  10 days of CO2 levels, all above 430ppm
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
Doctrine is important, but does not replace conversion. This is clear in his most controversial document: Amoris Laetitia – “On Love in the Family” where he states:
We have long thought that simply by stressing doctrinal, bioethical and moral issues, without encouraging openness to grace, we were providing sufficient support to families, strengthening the marriage bond and giving meaning to marital life. We find it difficult to present marriage more as a dynamic path to personal development and fulfilment than as a lifelong burden. We also find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations. We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them.
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
First stop on my Spring Hope Lecture Tour: The Mason Lecture at Georgetown "Hope in the Ruins: Vocation at the End of the World" Focus is on hope and disorientation... I didn't think it would be so timely. Lear, Solnit, Newheiser, Aquinas and bit of Rahner.
THE THEOLOGY DEPARTMENT PRESENTS
THE 16TH ANNUAL
ROBERT S. MASON LECTURE
BY
VINCENT J. MILLER
University of Dayton
Hope in the Ruins:
Vocation at the End of the World
[Vince Miller is the Gudorf Chair in Catholic Theology and Culture, as well as
Director of Doctoral Studies, in the Religious Studies Department at the
University of Dayton. At UD he is also a sustainability scholar with the Hanley
Sustainability Institute and he co-chairs the Laudato si’ Action Platform
working group. Dr. Miller is the author of Consuming Religion: Christian Faith
and Practice in a Consumer Culture and editor of The Theological and
Ecological Vision of Laudato Si’: Everything is Connected. He is a frequent
contributor to Commonweal and America Magazine. He taught at Georgetown
University from 1997-2009.]
MONDAY, APRIL 7TH
6:00 PM
COPLEY FORMAL LOUNGE
(FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC)
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
The closest I've gotten to having someone quote BXVI's discussion of structures of the common good in Caritas in Veritate
Text from Benedict XVI, Caritas In Veritate #7 

To desire the common good and strive towards it is a requirement of justice and charity. To take a stand for the common good is on the one hand to be solicitous for, and on the other hand to avail oneself of, that complex of institutions that give structure to the life of society, juridically, civilly, politically and culturally, making it the pólis, or “city”. The more we strive to secure a common good corresponding to the real needs of our neighbours, the more effectively we love them. Every Christian is called to practise this charity, in a manner corresponding to his vocation and according to the degree of influence he wields in the pólis. This is the institutional path — we might also call it the political path — of charity, no less excellent and effective than the kind of charity which encounters the neighbour directly, outside the institutional mediation of the pólis.
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Join Us Tonight: Great lineup discussing Catholic Social Thought and Climate change during 10th Anniversary of Laudato Si' Emily Burke, Vincent Miller, "Ram" Ramanathan, Susan Solomon jcu.edu/livable-future @hankcenterloyola.bsky.social
Poster for "Envisioning a Livable Future" series - event on "Contribution of Catholic Social Thought"
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Vince Miller @millervincent.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
It would be cool to live in a civil society that could debate sentences, not words.
At the same time, one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival. That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.
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