Resident Theologian
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My latest: on Houellebecq (in Mere O) and Forgiveness (in Comment)
Links to two new essays just published online.
Two new essays for y’all.
The first was published last week at Mere Orthodoxy, on January 7, the ten-year anniversary of the publication of Michel Houellebecq’s novel Submission, which came out the same day as the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris. Jake Meador was kind enough to get it up in time for the anniversary—I was surprised not to see any other outlets noting the date—and gave it the title, “A Future Worthy of Life: Houellebecq, Decadence, and Sacraments.” It’s about the insights and shortcomings of Houellebecq’s critique of the West, parallels in other recent novels, and the superior vision (and prescription) found in P. D. James’s Children of Men. (The lesson, as always: James is the queen.)
The other essay came out last month in the print issue of Comment, but it’s been behind a paywall until today. In the magazine it has the title “Promise, Gift, Command”; online it goes by “The Theological Terrain of Forgiveness,” which tracks with the issue’s overarching theme of forgiveness. It’s my attempt at locating, delimiting, and unpacking the Christian doctrine of God’s forgiveness of our sins in Christ, by the Spirit, through the sacraments—and the implications for our own call to imitate this divine action in our daily lives.
Thanks for reading. More soon.
2024: writing
A list of what I published this year, replete with links and a bit of commentary.
This was a banner year for my writing in more ways that one.
First, I had two books published in October. These were my first true “popular” books, i.e., not written for an academic audience. I have no idea whether or how well they are selling. But I am happy with them; the reviews have all been quite positive; and the podcasts I did for my little digital publicity tour were a blast. I couldn’t be more grateful.
Second, I began in January as something of a part-time columnist with Christianity Today. Every three weeks I send my editor an essay or book review, if I have one written, if it’s worthy to be published. In total, this year CT published eighteen pieces with my byline, one of which came out in the final print issue of the magazine.
This experience was entirely new for me: new in terms of audience and certainly new in terms of the speed and regularity of a deadline. I think I’ve gotten the hang of it, though I still write far too many words in the first draft. (Thank my editor for trimming it down and cleaning it up.) The “pitch” or “level” (or “tier”) of assumed readership at CT is very, very helpful for this logorrheic academic.
In addition to the books and columns, I published one journal article, one academic review, and eleven mid-to-highbrow essays in other venues. All in all, my estimate is that I published around 60,000 words this year, not counting the books or the blog. I’ve got plenty in the works for next year, but my number one hope is to have one or more places that have repeatedly turned me down finally give me the green light on a submission. Come twelve months from now, I guess we’ll see whether I’ve met my goal.
Here are the links.
Books
Letters to a Future Saint: Foundations of Faith for the Spiritually Hungry (Eerdmans, 1 October 2024).
The Church: A Guide to the People of God (Lexham, 23 October 2024).
Academic
Review of Konrad Schmid and Jens Schröter, The Making of the Bible: From the First Fragments to Sacred Scripture, in Interpretation 78:1 (2024): 69–71.
“Churches of Christ: Once Catholic, Now Evangelical” and “Response to the Responses,” Restoration Quarterly 66:3 (2024): 133–43, 163–69.
Essays
How to Read Paul (Commonweal, 31 January 2024). A review of Matthew Thiessen’s A Jewish Paul.
A Poet’s Faith Against Despair (Comment, 15 February 2024). A review essay of Christian Wiman’s Zero at the Bone. One of the better things I wrote this year, I think.
Beating Slow Horses (The Hedgehog Review, 1 March 2024). An aesthetic appreciation and political critique of Mick Herron’s Slow Horses novels (not the Apple show).
The Genesis of Grace (The Los Angeles Review of Books, 12 March 2024). A review of Marilynne Robinson’s Reading Genesis.
The Home of God in the Body of Christ (Syndicate, 18 April 2024). Part of a symposium of responses to Miroslav Volf and Ryan McAnnally-Linz’s The Home of God.
Mother of the Unborn God (Commonweal, 25 April 2024). A theological reflection on Mary, the incarnation, and abortion.
The Gift of Reality (The Hedgehog Review, 5 September 2024). A review of Albert Borgmann’s final (posthumously published) book, doubling as an introduction to and exploration of his work and thought as a whole.
The Reading Lives of Pastors (Sapientia, 20 August 2024). A vision for the role of reading in the vocation of ministry.
Gods Who Make Worlds (The Christian Century, 16 September 2024). An essay review of the final book in Tad Williams’ “four book trilogy,” The Last King of Osten Ard, itself a sequel to his original, 35-year old trilogy, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. I use Williams as a springboard for thinking about fantasy, tragedy, and the divine comedy of grace.
The Knowledge of God (The Raised Hand, 30 October 2024). An answer in reply to the question: “What do all college students need to know?”
Promise, Gift, Command (Comment, December 2024). An essay on “The Theological Terrain of Forgiveness” (its online title). In the December print issue, and paywalled until January.
Christianity Today
All Hail the Power of … Stage Lighting? (6 February 2024). On liturgy and technology.
My Students Are Reading John Mark Comer, and Now I Know Why (14 February 2024). A review of Comer’s latest book, Practicing the Way; the most-read CT book review of the year, and one of the top-ten most read pieces published on the site period. Checks out, because my inbox exploded at the time, and the stream of emails continues unabated.
Doubt is a Ladder, Not a Home (20 February 2024). Against the sexiness of doubt.
How (Not) to Talk About Christian Nationalism (13 March 2024). What the title says. A good piece, in my opinion, that seemed to fly under the radar.
Biblical Literacy in a Postliterate Age (18 April 2024). A word of lament.
Digital Lectors for a Postliterate Age (8 May 2024). A word of hope.
The Loosening of American Evangelicalism (20 May 2024). An elaboration of a long-running thesis of mine. This one resonated!
Faithful Fathers (14 June 2024). An ode to my dad and to other faithful dads like him.
Two Cheers for the Wedding Industrial Complex (25 June 2024). Weddings are good because marriage is good! Even the over-fancy ones.
Penalty or No, Athletes Talk Faith (25 July 2024). In which I talk about LeBron and the Spurs and the Olympics and God.
Worship Together or Bowl Alone (11 September 2024). The very things our non-Christian pundits and academics are noticing our society most needs today turn out to be the byproducts of belonging to a local congregation. Coincidence or divine providence?
Make Christianity Spooky Again (22 October 2024). A review of Rod Dreher’s Living in Wonder; the sixth-most read CT book review of the year.
A Vision for Screen-Free Church (28 October 2024). A sort of third entry in my loose trilogy of postliterate digital commentary.
Saints Are Strange. Martin Scorsese Gets It. (15 November 2024). A review of the new Scorsese-produced docuseries The Saints.
Jordan Peterson Loves God’s Word. But What About God? (19 November 2024). A review of Peterson’s We Who Wrestle With God; the second-most read CT book review of the year, behind Comer.
Our Strength and Consolation (November/December 2024). My first print piece for CT. The online title is “The Consolation of Providence.”
Why Christians Oppose Euthanasia (11 December 2024). Self-explanatory.
The Blood Cries Out at Christmastime (19 December 2024). A reflection on three feast days of Christmastide: Saint Stephen, the Holy Innocents, and the circumcision of Jesus.
My latest: bloodshed during Christmastide, in CT
A link to my latest column for Christianity Today.
My last column for Christianity Today this year is called “The Blood Cries Out at Christmastime.” It’s about the bloody feasts of Christmastide: Saint Stephen (Dec 26), the Holy Innocents (Dec 28), and the circumcision of Jesus (Jan 1). Here’s a preview:
Each of these ties bloodshed to Christmas—even the last one. This is not, however, how we usually mark the Christmas season, which is festive because it is a festival: a great party in honor of the birth of the King. Advent is for penitence; Christmas is for merriment (Matt. 9:15).
Yet there is a reason for the timing of these altogether bloody memorials. They are a stark reminder of the world into which Jesus was born, the world he was born to save. Even as we make merry, we will be less likely to trivialize the nativity of Christ when we remember that this child was born to die.
“Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” of sins: so says Hebrews 9:22. Christmas may seem a long way from Calvary, but in truth it isn’t far at all. The Cross is already in view, whether for God (from eternity), for Scripture (as a narrative), or for us (who know the end of the story). Mary’s son is born to shed his blood for us. Even from the womb, this baby is bound for Joseph’s tomb. The circumstances of his birth and the saints honored during this season testify to that sobering truth.
Read the rest here. Merry Christmas!
My latest: why Christians oppose Euthanasia, in CT
A link to my new piece in Christianity Today arguing against euthanasia.
I’m in Christianity Today this morning with a piece called “Why Christians Oppose Euthanasia.” It is exactly what its title suggests. Here are two early paragraphs:
The church’s moral teaching has always held that murder—defined as the intentional taking of innocent life—is intrinsically evil. It follows that actively intending the death of an elderly or sick human being and then deliberately bringing about that death through some positive action, such as the administration of drugs, is always and everywhere morally wrong.
This ethical argument is very similar to the one Christians make about abortion. We could modify the oft-quoted line from Dr. Seuss—“A person’s a person no matter how small”—by substituting old or ill for “small.” (Other substitutions also suggest themselves: smart, abled, sexed, or hued.) To be sure, there are relevant differences between active euthanasia and, for example, removing a brain-dead person from life support. There are none, however, between administering fatal drugs and offering or prescribing them: Both directly facilitate the intended death of a patient under a doctor’s medical care.
My latest: on providence and on the saints, both in CT
Links to my two latest columns for Christianity Today.
I have not one but two new pieces in Christianity Today this week (and another this coming Tuesday!).
The first is from the latest print issue; there it’s titled “Our Strength and Consolation,” online it’s called “The Consolation of Providence.” It’s a theological exploration of what the doctrine of providence teaches, what it’s there for, and what it’s not there for. It arose after political upheavals in July then was revised in October to be published after the election. It’s not really about politics; it is about God; it’s also about the uses and abuses of providence as a Christian hermeneutic for history (abusus non tollit usum).
The second piece is a review of Martin Scorsese’s new docuseries The Saints, which debuts in two days. I got to watch a couple episodes in advance—my first screeners! (I’m inching my way toward becoming what I’ve secretly always wanted to be: not a scholar but a film critic.) The title is “Saints Are Strange. Martin Scorsese Gets it.” And he does. Mostly I’m writing not about the technique or quality of the series but instead about the origins of sainthood in the early church and the question the saints pose to believers today.
As Tyler Cowen likes to say: self-recommending.
Stay tuned for Tuesday, when CT publishes my review of Jordan Peterson’s big new book on Genesis and Exodus, We Who Wrestle With God.
My latest: a plea to teach college students about God, in The Raised Hand
A link to my essay answering the question: “What does every university and college student need to learn?”
The Raised Hand is a Substack run by the Consortium of Christian Study Centers and edited by Daniel G. Hummel of the Lumen Center (Madison, WI) and Upper House (serving the University of Wisconsin-Madison). This school year they’ve been running monthly essays written by Christian academics asked to respond to the following prompt: “What does every university and college student need to learn?”
Yesterday they published my entry, titled “The Knowledge of God.” Here’s how it opens:
I am tempted to begin by saying that the first thing every university and college student needs to learn is how to read. But I’ve written about that plenty elsewhere, and you can’t throw a stone on the internet without hitting someone writing about the crisis of literacy on campus and in the public schools. Since I’m a theologian, moreover, there’s some low-hanging fruit (no pun intended) just waiting for me to reach up and take it.
Here's my real answer: If learning is about knowing, then every college student needs, through teaching, to come to know God. Another way to say this is that every student needs to learn how to pray.
Click here to read the whole thing. Thanks to Daniel for the invitation. And thanks to Sara Hendren, who already read and kindly boosted the piece. It was a fun one to write. Watch for a follow-up podcast conversation (sometime in the next week or two) that discusses the essay, also hosted by The Raised Hand.
My latest: a plea for screen-free church, in CT
A link to my new piece on screen-free worship for Christianity Today.
I’m in Christianity Today arguing for screen-free church; here are the opening paragraphs:
Some years ago, author Hal Runkel trademarked a phrase that made his name: screamfree parenting. It’s a memorable term because it captures viscerally what so many moms and dads want: parenting without the volume turned up to 11—whether of our kids’ voices or our own.
I’d like to propose a similar phrase: screen-free church. It’s a vision for an approach to Christian community and especially public worship that critically assesses and largely eliminates the role of digital devices and surfaces in church life. But the prescription depends on a diagnosis, so let me start there.
Consider the following thesis: The greatest threat facing the church today is not atheism or secularism, scientism or legalism, racism or nationalism. The greatest threat facing the church today is digital technology.
Links to a passel of podcast appearances (and a few reviews)
Just what the title says: links to pods and reviews.
I’ve been on the podcast circuit the last couple months, hawking the two new books. I expect these appearances to continue for another month or so but then slowly disappear. I had no idea my sabbatical would really be about clearing my afternoons for book publicity, but there you go.
I usually remember to share links with friends and on Micro.blog, but I wanted to gather some of them here for folks who might be interested; I’ll follow links to pod with links to some reviews of either book that have been published this month. Plus a book launch here in Abilene at a local bookstore!
By the way, feel free to nag your favorite podcaster to have me on. I’m sure I’ll lose stamina by semester’s end, but it’s been so much more fun than I expected. Turns out that talking about God, church, theology, and your own writing with engaged strangers is fun! I’ve also gone on a few live radio shows that don’t record the audio for later—a rare instance of digital conversation not immediately disseminated in eternal form on the internet. Also also, more than once I’ve not realized the conversation would be captured in video form, for YouTube, hence my occasionally disheveled or casual appearance.
Last, I’ve either already recorded more podcasts or have plans to go on others that will be published in the coming months: Trevin Wax’s Reconstructing Faith, the Yale Center for Faith and Culture podcast, the Christian Chronicle Podcast, the Sacramentalists, and more. Perhaps Truth Over Tribe or Mere Fidelity, too—though I’m sure my bad takes and TV habits have led to Matt’s banning my non-Barthian, pseudo-recusant self for good.
Here’s the list for now:
Eerdmans Author Interview – YouTube
Crackers and Grape Juice – this isn’t available on Apple or Spotify yet, but a (sped up) version is available on Jason Micheli’s Substack Tamed Cynic
Marc Jolicoeur (aka “Jolly Thoughts”) – Apple | Spotify | YouTube
And here are a handful of reviews:
Christianity Today: Uche Anizor reviews Letters to a Future Saint
Front Porch Republic: Alex Sosler reviews Letters to a Future Saint
Fare Forward: Will Bryant reviews Letters to a Future Saint
The Baptist Standard: Ben Faus reviews Letters to a Future Saint
Christianity Today: Brett Vanderzee reviews The Church
Holy Joys: Johnathan Arnold reviews The Church
The Gospel Coalition: Samuel Parkison reviews The Church
Joel Wentz: video review of The Church
Last but not least, if you’re here in Abilene, the local bookstore (co-founded by one of my former students!) Seven and One is having a launch party for both books this coming Tuesday. Here’s the flyer; come out and get a book signed!
It’s publication day! The Church: A Guide to the People of God is here!
It’s out! At long last! Order a copy today!
It’s out! It’s here! Order a copy! My second book in the same month! There are no more to come anytime soon, so buy them up while you can!
Buy one for yourself, for your spouse, your children, your grandchildren, your nephews, your nieces, your godchildren, your parents, your pastor, your youth pastor, your college pastor, your professor—or all of them!
Don’t take my word for it—listen to Andrew Wilson, Stanley Hauerwas, Ephraim Radner, Karen Kilby, Matthew Levering, Karen Kilby, and Mark Kinzer, all of whom endorsed it. They can’t be wrong, can they?
The first review of the book came out last week in The Gospel Coaliation. Samuel Parkison writes:
Gentiles don’t become Jews, but they can become the true seed of Abraham through adoption (see Gal. 3:16). This deep awareness of the church’s Old Testament connections is a welcome emphasis. All the more so because of the undeniably beautiful prose in which East develops this idea. Indeed, The Church can just as easily be labeled a work of art as a work of theology. For example, his reflections on the typological resonances between Eve, Mary, Israel, and the church are nothing less than riveting.
He concludes: “This is a beautiful book. Taken in such a way, The Church should receive a wide and appreciative readership.”
Come on: There’s just no way a book that looks that good can be bad on the inside. By way of reminder, here is the book’s description:
You belong to God's family. But do you understand what that means?
The Bible tells the story of God and his people. But it is not merely history. It is our story. Abraham is our father. And Israel's freedom from slavery is ours.
Brad East traces the story of God's people, from father Abraham to the coming of Christ. He shows how we need the scope of the entire Bible to fully grasp the mystery of the church. The church is not a building but a body. It is not peripheral or optional in the life of faith. Rather, it is the very beating heart of God's story, where our needs and hopes are found.
Buy it wherever books are sold. And while you’re at it, buy the rest of the volumes in Lexham’s Christian Essentials series—The Apostles’ Creed by Ben Myers, The Lord’s Prayer by Wes Hill, The Ten Commandments and Baptism by Peter Leithart, and God’s Word by John Kleinig. Kleinig also authored the seventh in the series, due next March, called The Lord’s Supper. The last two should come out sometime in the next 12-24 months…
Get the whole set! Starting with mine! Today! Now! Ahorita! S'il vous plaît!
Thanks to all. This one’s a love letter to the church—both the Church and the churches that I have called home over the last four decades. I hope it shows.
My latest: a review of Rod Dreher, in CT
A link to my review of Rod Dreher’s new book on re-enchantment in Christianity Today.
This morning Christianity Today published my review of Rod Dreher’s new book (out today) Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age. The title of the review is “Make Christianity Spooky Again”—just in time for Halloween!
Rod Dreher has some advice for you. First, put down your phone, close your laptop, and turn off the television. Next, begin to pray. Don’t pray just anything; recite the Jesus Prayer, preferably hundreds of times. Now you are positioned to begin your quest. The object of the quest is beauty. Seek to behold divine glory in the work of the Lord’s hands, whether in his creation, icons, or saints. If you have eyes to see, each of these is a mirror reflecting the light of Christ in a dark but not forsaken world.
In a word, you must become a “practical mystic.” If you don’t, you’ll lack the resilience to weather a godless, disenchanted culture. You and your children will lose hold of the faith. Like the apostle Peter, you will sink beneath the waters; unlike him, no one will lift you up. Or so argues Dreher in his new book, Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age.
Just wait till we get to the aliens. Read the rest here.
My latest: on fantasy and theology in The Christian Century
A link to my essay in The Christian Century on Tad Williams, Osten Ard, the genre of fantasy, and Christian faith.
In the latest issue of The Christian Century I have an essay on the divine comedy of epic fantasy, or as the editors titled it, “Gods Who Make Worlds.” It’s ostensibly a review of the final volume of Tad Williams’s quartet The Last King of Osten Ard, which is itself a sequel series to the original trilogy Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn—not to mention a prequel, a bridge novel, and a companion volume—for a total of ten books in this world. The name of that world is Osten Ard, and I use the glories of Osten Ard to think aloud about epic fantasy as a genre and its relationship to Christian faith.
Here are the opening paragraphs:
Three decades ago, Tad Williams published the final volume in the best epic fantasy trilogy written in English since The Lord of the Rings. Called Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, the series ran from 1988 to 1993 and totaled over a million words. Half of those words came in the final book—one of the longest books ever to make it onto the New York Times bestseller list.
There is no overselling the significance of Williams’s achievement: the biggest names in fantasy in the intervening decades all acknowledge his influence, from Brandon Sanderson to Patrick Rothfuss to Game of Thrones creator George R. R. Martin. (There is no Westeros without Osten Ard, Williams’s fictional world.) Yet, although Williams is hyper-prolific and widely admired, he has never had the success or name recognition of these other authors. No streaming service has yet broken the bank in adapting Williams’s magnum opus.
Why have these books sold well but never set the world on fire?
Three reasons come to mind…
Click here to read the rest. Thanks again to The Christian Century for letting me write about these books and this topic—a big ask, given my lack of qualifications.
My latest: on the social effects of church, in CT
A link to my latest column in Christianity Today on the social significance of the church for our time.
In 2016 David Brooks gave an address at the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. Titled “The Cultural Value of Christian Higher Education,” the talk had a simple thesis: What every college in America is looking for can already be found at Christian universities across the country. In his own words:
You guys are the avant-garde of 21st century culture. You have what everybody else is desperate to have: a way of talking about and educating the human person in a way that integrates faith, emotion and intellect. You have a recipe to nurture human beings who have a devoted heart, a courageous mind and a purposeful soul. Almost no other set of institutions in American society has that, and everyone wants it. From my point of view, you’re ahead of everybody else and have the potential to influence American culture in a way that could be magnificent.
I happen to think he’s right about that, but in my latest column for Christianity Today, I use Brook’s remarks as a point of departure for thinking about another beleaguered American institution: the local church.
The piece is called “Worship Together or Bowl Alone”—a great title, kudos to Bonnie Kristian. Here’s an excerpt:
That’s why the instinct to meet our culture’s critique or ignorance of the church by downplaying its import is so misguided. Church is not an optional add-on to Christian faith. It is how we learn to be human as God intended. Indeed, it makes possible truly human life before God.
Church has what we need, the purpose and community and cultivation of virtue for which the rest of our culture is grasping in the dark. It’s right here. It’s nothing to be coy or embarrassed about. It’s nothing to apologize for. Church is what people are hungering for, even if they don’t realize it. Sometimes we ourselves don’t realize it.
My latest: an essay and response in Restoration Quarterly
An overview of the latest issue of Restoration Quarterly, which is organized around and in response to an essay of mine on the past, present, and future of churches of Christ.
An essay of mine is featured in the latest issue of Restoration Quarterly (66:3). In fact, the entire issue is organized around it. Let me give a little back story.
Two years ago on the blog I wrote a series of reflections on the past, present, and future of churches of Christ. They got a lot of traction around this neck of the woods, and James Thompson, the editor of RQ, asked me to synthesize and elaborate the posts into a single essay. The result is called “Churches of Christ: Once Catholic, Now Evangelical” (pp. 133–44). It’s preceded by a brief reflection by Thompson on the “almost Catholic” ecclesiology of churches of Christ (pp. 129–32), then followed by three replies:
“A Response to Brad East” by Wendell Willis (pp. 145–51)
“Churches of Christ: Always Evangelical, Still Catholic” by John Mark Hicks (pp. 152–58)
“A Response to Brad East” by Paul Watson (pp. 159–62)
I in turn wrote a response to the responses (pp. 163–69). All around a good time was had by all. My response is followed by a proper scholarly article on the New Testament (authored, again, by Thompson), then book reviews. As it happens, a review of my own book, The Church’s Book: Theology of Scripture in Ecclesial Context, is the first of this section.
It sort of feels like the Brad East Issue. I’m honored, humbled, and a little embarrassed.
Nevertheless it was a pleasure to engage such serious and pressing issues in a public forum with such thoughtful and generous thinkers and churchmen. My only regret is that while RQ does have a website it doesn’t have an obvious or convenient way to access current issues online or in digital form. Back issues are catalogued in ATLA but this one won’t be there for a while, at least from what I can tell.
I’m not in a position to share the whole issue with folks, but if you email me, I’d be willing to share a PDF of my essay and response. I’ll be curious to hear what folks make of my case, both regarding the absorption of churches of Christ by and into American Evangelicalism and regarding the precipitous institutional decline of the movement. The tone of the pieces isn’t doom and gloom, but it is quite sober and, if readers take it seriously, sobering. Which it should be, if I’m right.
My latest: on the late Albert Borgmann, in HHR
A link to my essay on the life and writings of the philosopher Albert Borgmann.
This morning The Hedgehog Review published an essay of mine called “The Gift of Reality.” It’s an extended introduction to and exposition of the life and writings of the late Albert Borgmann, including a review of his last book, published posthumously last January. Here’s a sample paragraph from the middle of the piece:
At the same time, while Borgmann may have been a critic of liberalism, he argued that “it should be corrected and completed rather than abandoned.” In this he reads as a less polemical Christopher Lasch or Wendell Berry, fellow democrats whose political vision—consisting among other things of family, fidelity, fortitude, piety, honor, honest work, local community, neighborliness, and thrift—is likewise invested in preserving and respecting reality. Such a vision is simultaneously homeless on the national stage and the richest fruit of the American political tradition.
My latest: on pastors’ reading habits, in Sapientia
A link to my essay on the role of fiction and poetry in pastors' regular reading diet.
I’ve got an essay in Sapientia called “The Reading Lives of Pastors.” The prompt was to reflect on Pope Francis’s “Letter on the Role of Literature in Formation” and, more broadly, on why pastors should (if they should) include fiction and poetry as part of their regular reading diet. After clarifying at the outset that literature does not per se make you a better person, I write the following:
The fact of literature is in general a human good, in the sense that it is a sign of an advanced culture: symbol, narrative, myth, technology, writing, literacy, communication—these are to be celebrated, granting their capacity to be bent to any number of ends. But the act of wide reading in literature in and of itself entails nothing at all about a person. The voracious reader may be either selfish or selfless, vain or humble, vicious or virtuous, religious or secular, joyful or melancholy, full of life or obsessed with death, a treasured friend or a despised enemy, a cosmopolitan or a provincial, a sage or a boor. Hitler and Stalin may not have been men of letters, but they had men of letters for followers and apologists. The list of wicked writers and artists—who abused women, abandoned children, and passed in silence over the suffering of countless victims—is too long to recount.
It is a difficult lesson to accept, but learning and goodness are not synonymous or coterminous. More of one does not necessarily lead to more of the other. They are neither directly nor inversely related. The desire for a cleaner, clearer correspondence between them is understandable, but utterly belied by the facts. Ordinary experience is a trustworthy teacher: Are the holiest people you know the smartest, the best educated, the most widely read?
My latest: on athletes and public faith, in CT
A link to my latest column for Christianity Today, which reflects on the connection between athletes, piety, and faith in public.
My latest column for Christianity Today is called “Penalty or No, Athletes Talk Faith.” Just in time for the Olympics! Alas, I had to cut the opening two paragraphs on the 2023–24 Boston Celtics, the recent champs who may be the most religious NBA team in years. Thankfully I did get to include this paragraph:
In Game 1 of the 2014 NBA Finals, LeBron James—at the time the best basketball player on the planet—had to leave prematurely due to cramps. Why? The stadium was slightly warmer than usual. He’d been known to request ice-cold air conditioning wherever he played, so much so that fans speculated that the opposing team, my beloved San Antonio Spurs, kept things warm for a competitive advantage. True or not, the Spurs won the game and the series both, all because the league’s MVP couldn’t keep his muscles from spasming.
I even got to mention the famous anecdote about MJ peeking at his teammates during Zen meditation. They’ll let me write anything!
What does any of that have to do with God, faith, or CT? Read on to see.
My latest: on weddings, in CT
A link to my latest column for Christianity Today, called “Two Cheers for the Wedding Industrial Complex.”
My latest Christianity Today column is up this morning, and it’s called “Two Cheers for the Wedding Industrial Complex.” I may or may not defend ring by spring and other such sordid ideas. Enjoy!
My latest: on faithful fathers, in CT
A link to my latest column in Christianity Today: a tribute to my dad for Father’s Day.
Just in time for Father’s Day, I’m in Christianity Today writing about faithful fathers—especially mine. To kick things off, I riff on this remark by C. S. Lewis about George MacDonald:
We have learned from Freud and others about those distortions in character and errors in thought which result from a man’s early conflicts with his father. Far the most important thing we can know about George MacDonald is that his whole life illustrates the opposite process. An almost perfect relationship with his father was the earthly root of all his wisdom. From his own father, he said, he first learned that Fatherhood must be at the core of the universe. He was thus prepared in an unusual way to teach that religion in which the relation of Father and Son is of all relations the most central.
Click here to read the rest. Happy Father’s Day!
My latest: the loosening of American evangelicalism, for CT
A link to my latest column for Christianity Today.
My latest column for Christianity Today is up this morning. It’s titled “The Loosening of American Evangelicalism.” It’s an expansion of a blog post I wrote last fall. It’s speculative, noncommittal, and open to rebuttal and revision. An observational thesis subject to empirical or at least widely attested anecdotal verification.
Who knew I’d be writing about evangelical attitudes to alcohol, tattoos, TV, and Lent for CT? The Spirit blows where he wills.
My latest: the rise of digital lectors, in CT
A link to my latest column for Christianity Today, a sequel to my piece on biblical literacy and the postliterate church.
My April 18 Christianity Today column was called “Biblical Literacy in a Postliterate Age.” Last week, on May 8, CT published my follow-up, titled “Digital Lectors for a Postliterate Age.”
I’d always intended a sequel, and later this summer I may write a final column to complete a loose trilogy of reflections on Scripture, literacy, and technology in the church. This latest one covers a range of creative responses to postliterate believers, seekers, and drifters, from the Bible Project to Father Mike’s The Bible in a Year podcast to Jonathan Pageau and the Symbolic World to Alastair Roberts and many others. I call them “digital lectors,” readers and expositors of Scripture for a digital—which is to say, a postliterate—age.
In between the two columns, there were a couple noteworthy interactions with my claims about the state of biblical literacy (and literacy in general) in the church. The first was a conversation on the Holy Post podcast between Skye Jethani and Kaitlyn Schiess; you can find it on video here, starting around minute 33. The second was a response from Jessica Hooten Wilson (whom I quote in the piece), in a piece on her Substack called “The Post-literate Church.” Both engagements are friendly, thoughtful, critical, and worth your time. I’m grateful to all of them for their reflections.