In recognition of last Wednesday's ten-year anniversary of Hamilton, I want to share one of the most popular posts I have done on TaxProf Blog: C.S. Lewis & Lin-Manuel Miranda: How I Found My Faith In Mere Christianity And Deepened It In Hamilton (July 24, 2017):

I repeatedly (perhaps excessively) extol the genius of Hamilton (see links below). I often tell people that the play changed my life and led me to seek the deanship of Pepperdine law school. 

Part of the explanation, of course, is the artistic majesty of the play. Like Michelle Obama, I think it is the best piece of art in any form that I have ever seen in my life. Like Oskar Eustis, I believe that Lin-Manuel Miranda is the William Shakespeare of our time. But Hamilton also transformed my life like nothing else has since I read C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity twenty-one years ago.

Although I was born and raised a Catholic and attended Georgetown University, in my 20s I drifted away from what little faith I had. Faith was totally absent in the early years of my marriage. When our children were 3 and 5, my wife decided that we needed to start going to church for the sake of our kids. After checking out several churches in Cincinnati, we attended the first service of a tiny start-up church (now one of the largest churches in America). We began regularly attending the church, and I devoured several books to learn more about the Christian faith. Reading Mere Christianity convinced me of the truth of the Bible and the Gospel message.  

Seeing Hamilton was the second epochal event in my faith journey, on a par with reading Mere Christianity.

For the remainder of my 2017 post, see C.S. Lewis & Lin-Manuel Miranda: How I Found My Faith In Mere Christianity And Deepened It In Hamilton.

For more on my obsession with interest in Hamilton, see here and:

• The Story Of Tonight: With Billion-Dollar Hamilton Poised To Sweep Tony Awards, Broadway Pushes For Tax Break Extension (June 12, 2016)
• What Hamilton Teaches Lawyers About Telling Our Story (Aug. 21, 2016)
• Lessons From Hamilton For The University Of Chicago Law School Class Of 2019 (Oct. 4, 2016)
• Law Profs At Chicago, Harvard And Michigan Turn To Hamilton As A Teaching Tool (Oct. 14, 2016)
• Greg Mankiw Happily Paid $2,500 For A Hamilton Ticket, But Asks: Why Should 80% Go To Resellers Rather Than Lin-Manuel Miranda? (Oct. 22, 2016)
• Law Profs Weigh In On The Hamilton/Pence/Trump Controversy (Nov. 21, 2016)
• Hamilton By Harvard Economics Students (Dec. 10, 2016)
• Happy Hanukkah, Hamilton-Style (Dec. 24, 2016)
• Erwin Chemerinsky's Farewell: Lessons From Hamilton (June 29, 2017)
• Hamilton And Law School Deaning (July 7, 2017)
• Lessons From Hamilton On Leaving A Legacy As A Law Professor Through Our Scholarship ('Skin In The Game') And Our Students ('Planting Seeds In A Garden You Never Get To See') (July 10, 2017)
• Hamilton, The Play Has Caused A Boon At Hamilton, The College (July 18, 2017)
• C.S. Lewis & Lin-Manuel Miranda: How I Found My Faith In Mere Christianity And Deepened It In Hamilton (July 24, 2017)
• A Hamilton Birthday (July 27, 2017)
• Using Hamilton To Teach Economics (Aug. 20, 2017)
• Congratulations To Pepperdine's Newly-Minted Lawyers (Dec. 12, 2017)
• 45th Annual Pepperdine Law School Dinner: Our Place In The World (Mar. 4, 2018)
• Pepperdine Law School's Place In The World (Apr. 11, 2018)
• Alexander Hamilton To Receive Posthumous Honorary Degree From Albany Law School (Apr. 23, 2018)
• 2018 ABA New Law School Deans Conference (June 6, 2018)
• Hamilton And Philosophy (June 18, 2018)
• Hamilton In London (June 23, 2018)
• NY Times: The Uncommon Power Of Grace (Dec. 30, 2018)
• Hamilton And The Oxford Comma (Mar. 4, 2019)
• Enough With Hamilton, Say Fans Of Other Founding Fathers (June 27, 2019)
• Forgiveness: Law, Faith, Christmas, And Hamilton (Dec. 8, 2019)
• What Alexander Hamilton Would Have Thought About A Wealth Tax (Dec. 12, 2019)
• What Alexander Hamilton Would Have Thought About A Wealth Tax (Dec. 12, 2019)
• Using Hamilton’s 'Farmer Refuted' To Teach Oral Argument (Apr. 28, 2020)
• Hamilton At Pepperdine And On Disney+ (July 3, 2020)
• July 4th, Hamilton, And The Power Of Forgiveness (July 4, 2020)
• The Cancel Culture, Forgiveness, And Hamilton (Aug. 2, 2020)
• Hamilton And The Law (Oct. 20, 2020)
• Texas Federal Judges Release Music Video: 'We'll Be Back' (Nov. 16, 2020)
• Ted Lasso, Law School Deaning, And The Power Of Forgiveness (Jan. 24, 2021)
• 10 Hamilton Songs To Get You Motivated For The New Law School Semester (Jan. 26, 2021)
• You'll Be Back [To Law School] (Jan. 29, 2021)
• Hamilton, C. S. Lewis's Inner Ring, And The Secret Of True Fellowship (May 30, 2021)
• Hamilton Potpourri (Jan. 1, 2022)
• Why Alexander Hamilton Gave His Heart To Jesus At A Texas Church (Aug. 21, 2022)
• God, The Bible, And Hamilton (Aug. 28, 2022)
• Happy Hanukkah, Hamilton-Style (Dec. 19, 2022)

For more on the 10th anniversary of Hamilton, see:

• New York Times, The ‘Hamilton’ Effect: 10 Revolutionary Years on Broadway
• New York Times, ‘Hamilton’ Feels Different 10 Years Later
• New York Times, On Its 10th Anniversary, ‘Hamilton’ Looks Heartbreakingly Different
• Variety, 10th Anniversary Performance of Hamilton Will Benefit Immigrants: We Get the Job Done Coalition
• Variety, ‘Hamilton’ Celebrates 10 Years With Luxury Cashmere Sweaters, Handstitched With the Show’s Most Iconic Lines
• Washington Post, The Only Actor Who’s Been in ‘Hamilton’ the Whole Time Is Still Having a Blast

Editor's Note:  If you would like to receive a weekly email each Sunday with links to faith posts on TaxProf Blog, email me here.