2022: the blog

Unless I’m mistaken, this is my 102nd blog post of 2022. That comes to one post every 3-4 days; about twice per week. I’m happy with that pace. Sometimes I’m quoting, sometimes I’m linking, sometimes I’m writing. Here’s a rundown, by general category, of the last group.

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10. On pop culture, I wrote about Spielberg, The Gray Man, and why some movies don’t sell tickets. Also about Kenobi and Andor. I wrote thrice about Better Call Saul: on Kim, on happy endings, and a long reply to Alan Jacobs’ disappointment with the finale. Finally, in what I think is one of the better things I wrote this year, I compared the theological visions of Malick and Scorsese in A Hidden Life and Silence.

9. On various authors, I wrote about C. S. Lewis’s perennial appeal; about some clever ripostes to the claim that we can’t “turn back the clock”; about Robert Jenson, A Canticle for Leibowitz, and the bishop of Rome on Alpha Centauri; and about Oliver Burkeman and atelic self-help advice.

8. On Christian ethics, I wrote some theses as well as a primer, both for my students.

7. On writing, I wrote about sticking with blogging versus moving to Substack; about the way some journalistic and other popular writing feels like it was written by an algorithm; about the annoying tic of the same sort of writers to use “arbitrary” in useless ways; and about how to review and be reviewed.

6. On academia, I wrote a little spoof of deutero-Pauline studies and other claims to pseudonymity in “Pseudo-Scorsese.” I also wrote about the touchiness of major scholars; about the difference between being gotten right versus getting at the truth; and about what expertise is and why academics and other “experts” should be a little warier in their frontal assault on the “war against expertise.”

5. On technology, I wrote about the take temptation; about Twitter and podcasts and a general personal tech use update; and a series of three responses to Andy Crouch, Jeff Bilbro, and Alan Jacobs: tech-wise BenOp; tech for normies; and deflating tech catastrophism.

4. On politics, I wrote about the uses of conservatism; about prudence policing; and about politics cathexis (which has spawned a new series by Richard Beck). I also wrote three reflections prompted by Aaron Renn, James Wood, Tim Keller, and Christians in American politics: Wood v. Keller; so-called negative world; and another word on negative world.

3. On the Bible, I wrote two posts about Acts: one about its Jewish leaders, another about its inegalitarian treatment of leadership and discernment. I also proposed a test for Christian exegesis and tracked Jenson on metaphor, Scripture, and theology; I further noted the complexities of the church’s relation to the canon and popular sophistry about X or Y “not being in the Bible.” I wrote a bunch about biblicism, too: post-biblicist biblicists (and a follow-up); the alternatives to inerrancy and sacred tradition (hint: there aren’t any); and reasons why a Christian should trust the Bible.

2. I wrote the most this year about a convergence of topics, all centered on the church, division and reunion, the rising generation (“Gen Z”), ministry, worship, preaching, teaching, evangelism, and catechesis. In terms of young people and nonbelievers, I wrote about what I want for my students, what Christian parents (should) want for their children, double literacy loss (and follow-up), four loves loss (and follow-up), misdiagnosis of the problem churches are facing, and the post-Christian West. I also wrote about so-called Christian masculinity, “church people,” and church for normies (not for heroes). Finally, I wrote about temptations of the over-educated to making silly assumptions about what “smart” Christians are allowed to believe, and my own inoculation against this temptation.

1. In terms of church practices, pastoring and worship, and ecclesial institutions, I wrote about the prospects of reunion; about church on Christmas; about lifelong ministry; about CCM; about sermon length; about the atheism of the therapeutic church; and about principles for non-therapeutic preaching. Alongside the Crouch-related pieces above, the most read posts on the blog this year belonged to a four-part series about churches of Christ and, in conjunction with it, some further reflections on evangelicalism: CoC as catholic; CoC as evangelical; CoC future; CoC coda; defining evangelicalism; the problem with evangelicalism; and evangelical addenda.

2021 recap: the blog

This was a banner year for the blog, for the simple reason that after 15 years of blogging I finally own my own turf. I’d been blogging on Google’s Blogger/Blogspot since spring 2006, but in June of 2021 my personal website (this very one) went live, and I moved over four years’ worth of posts from Resident Theologian (itself a successor to Resident Theology, my blog of nine years that I maintained during Master’s and doctoral work). That transition is marked by the distribution of posts: I wrote only 14 before June 12, and from then through year’s end I wrote 82, for a total of 96. That’s the most I’ve blogged since 2011, when I had 100 posts. That’s a lot of writing “on the side.” If I were to keep up the pace from the second half of the year, it would amount to a new post every two and a half days. And while I’ve partly stayed on mission—i.e., “mezzo blogging”—I’ve also written some rather huge posts.

Oh well. I’ve had a lot to say.

Given all that writing, I’d like to take a page from my friend and colleague Richard Beck’s long-running blog and do a rundown of the best, or at least my favorite, posts from the year, especially those you might have missed.

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10. On miscellaneous matters: aliens and Christian faith; Zuckerberg and the meta mafia; Enneagram anthropology; dreams and prayers; the secular spirit of Roger Scruton; biographies of theologians; Jordan Peterson, humor, and despair; the theology of C. S. Lewis; and a bit of nitpicking with Freddie deBoer’s anthropology.

9. On popular culture: Bezos Ad Astra; interpreting The Last Jedi; and, God help me, an MCU viewing order.

8. On art more generally: the catholicity of art; whether artists must be our friends; the fiction of P. D. James; and the heavenly vision of Piranesi.

7. On biblical scholarship: keeping up with the latest scholarship and writing in the subjunctive mood.

6. On the Bible and theology: a test for your doctrine of Scripture; anthropomorphism and analogy; heresy and orthodoxy; for angels; against theological fads.

5. On the state of the church in America: in tatters; slowly dying; and locally defectible.

4. On the (dis)contentment of affluent twentysomethings today who nevertheless need Jesus—and who feel the Ache for him, whether they know it or not.

3. On teaching the faith: (re)construction and deconstruction.

2. On life in the university: diverse academic vocations; emotional support in academia; authority in the classroom; and teaching a 4/4: office hours, tradeoffs, publishing, and freedom.

1. On podcasts: namely, why you should quit them.

Twitter loci communes

One of these days Twitter will be no more. Or at least my Twitter account. Whether that future is distant or near, it will happen. I stopped actively tweeting or even retweeting anything beyond links to my published work a couple months into the pandemic. That was after resuming “normal” Twitter activity following a self-imposed months-long hiatus. During that whole period of time, across the last two years or so, I’ve seriously contemplated deleting my account more than once. I’ve come very close. But I haven’t quite been able to quit having an account, even if I’ve successfully quit replying to mentions, liking tweets, retweeting, “engaging” in “the discourse,” etc. I also don’t scroll the feed—ever. I spend 5-15 minutes per day on Twitter, by which I mean, unless I’m sharing a new publication, I check the same 3-6 writers’ accounts the way I “follow” RSS feeds on Feedly. I’m more or less happy with my Twitter usage, then, though I continue to think the platform the purest of poisons on our common life. If I had a button to destroy it tomorrow, I’d press it in a heartbeat.

So. Since I’m not “on” Twitter in a strong way anymore, and since I’m confident neither the site nor my account is long for this world, and since before I stopped being an active user I had some pleasant conversations and wrote a few fun threads, I’ve been thinking about how to maintain, or transmit, some of that. Here’s my answer.

Twitter loci communes.

The Latin means “common places.” What I’m going to do on this blog, intermittently and with no plan of action, is reproduce topics and threads and lines of thought I developed on Twitter sometime in the years since I created an account in 2013. Not by embedding the tweets but simply by copying and pasting them here, either as normal prose or in block quotes.

In fact, I’ve already done that twice: earlier this year in response to ACU’s upset of UT in March Madness and a couple weeks back on the feast of St. Monica. We’ll count those as TLC #1 and #2. Next will be #3, whatever and whenever that may be. But I’ll link back to this page for future posts so that folks know what it is, and I’ll tag all TLC posts (including those two retroactive ones) as such, so anybody who’s interested—all two dozen of you—can track them down.

Twitter may not be all evil; perhaps it’s only 99%. This little side project is a way of preserving the 1%, if only for myself.

What I wrote in 2017, and what's coming up

Last year was momentous for me, both personally and professionally. I submitted my dissertation; I earned my PhD from Yale; I got that rarest of things, a bona fide job—teaching at my alma mater no less; I moved my family to a place we love; and I taught my first semester as a professor of theology, a dream 14 years in the making. My wife and three small children are content and flourishing, and for the first time in any of our lives, we don't have an end date bearing down on us from the horizon.

My gratitude and joy know no bounds.

I also started a new blog! (This one, just like the old one.) And I wrote some stuff, here and elsewhere, scholarly and popular. A 2017 rundown...

Scholarly:

“Reading the Trinity in the Bible: Assumptions, Warrants, Ends,” Pro Ecclesia 25:4 (2016): 459-474. Technically published in 2016, but not actually available to read in print until 2017, so I'm counting it. This article does not, unfortunately, contain this footnote, which was originally meant to be included in it.

“The Hermeneutics of Theological Interpretation: Holy Scripture, Biblical Scholarship, and Historical Criticism,” International Journal of Systematic Theology 19:1 (2017): 30–52. I think this is the best piece of scholarly writing I have published, and the most programmatic at that. If you want to know what I think about theological interpretation of the Bible in relation to historical-critical scholarship, read this.

“John Webster, Theologian Proper,” Anglican Theological Review 99:2 (2017): 333–351. After Webster's abrupt passing in 2016, I was asked by ATR to write a commemorative review article of his many books, and it was a bittersweet experience. The last few pages of the piece engage in some friendly criticism of a couple features of Webster's theology, and I'm hopeful it contributes to the beginning of the reception of his thought.

“What is the Doctrine of the Trinity For? Practicality and Projection in Robert Jenson’s Theology,” Modern Theology 33:3 (2017). I wrote the first version of what eventually became this article nearly five years before its publication, which turned out to be only months before Jenson's death at 87 years old. My argument criticizes a specific feature of Jenson's trinitarian thought, namely its (ironically Feuerbachian) projection into the triune Godhead in order to secure practical payoff for human life. Though critical, the piece comes from a place of pure affection for Jenson's work (see below).

"Review: Gary Anderson, Christian Doctrine and the Old Testament: Theology in the Service of Exegesis," International Journal of Systematic Theology 19:4 (2017): 534–537. This is an excellent book that ought to begin paving the way forward for theologians and biblical scholars alike to read Scripture together, both theologically and historically.

Popular:

"Theologians Were Arguing About the Benedict Option 35 Years Ago," Mere Orthodoxy. This piece grew out of a Twitter thread reflecting on Hauerwas and the Yale School vis-à-vis Rod Dreher. In it I use James Davison Hunter's work in To Change the World to clarify why (a) people disagree so vociferously about Dreher's proposal and (b) how the very way in which the Benedict Option is a popular distillation of ideas from the 1970s and '80s demonstrates the force of Hunter's conception of cultural change and the need for something like the BenOp. My thanks to Derek Rishmawy for suggesting I write my thoughts up in essay form and send it to Jake Meador at MO.

"Systematic Theology and Biblical Criticism," Marginalia Review of Books. A review essay of Ephraim Radner's wild and woolly and uncategorizable (not to mention un-summarizable) 2016 book Time and the Word: Figural Reading of the Christian Scriptures. This piece didn't seem to get as much play as my previous piece for MROB on Katherine Sonderegger, but it was just as pleasurable to write.

"Public Theology in Retreat," Los Angeles Review of Books. 'Tis the season of David Bentley Hart! This piece, ostensibly a review essay of Hart's three latest collections of essays, offered an occasion to reflect, in conversation with Alan Jacobs, on the nature and status (and prospects) of theology on the American intellectual scene. The feedback on this piece, even from the DBH-agnostic, was overwhelmingly encouraging. Twitter remains unarguably demonic, but the kind words of strangers who shared this essay with others was a shaft of clear, angelic light to this junior prof scribbling in west Texas.

Blog:

On the use of "everyone" in pop culture talk. (June 4 & 7) From listening to too much (never enough!) of Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan on their podcast The Watch for The Ringer.

Figural christology in children's Bibles. (June 8) From reading my children Bible stories and noticing theological connections in the illustrations.

Four writing tips for seminarians. (June 9) From my time as a teaching assistant at Yale Divinity School.

The best American crime novelists of the last century, or: a way into the genre. (June 12) A fun diversion; who doesn't love a good list?

The liturgical/praying animal in Paradise Lost. (June 14) Riffing on Milton's anthropology in Book VII with Jamie Smith and Robert Jenson.

On the analogia entis contra Barth. (June 19 & 21) From finishing IV/1 last summer.

Teaching the Gospels starting with John. (June 30) Why not? Fie on the critics.

Figural christology in Paradise Lost. (July 10) One of my favorite things to write in 2017. Focused on the angel Michael's prophetic instructions to Adam in Book XI.

Against universalizing doubt, with a coda. (July 20 & 21) Top five favorite things I wrote in 2017. Would like to revise these together and publish in a magazine or some such thing.

Scripture's precedence is not chronological. (July 24) Expanding on a dissertation footnote on Yoder.

A question for Richard Hays: metalepsis in The Leftovers. (August 1) Having some fun while watching a great show.

Scruton, Eagleton, Scialabba, et al—why don't they convert? (August 11) A genuine question, to which a reader kindly offered a partial answer, at least for Scialabba, who once wrote briefly on the topic (in dialogue with C. S. Lewis, no less!).

What it is I'm privileged to do this fall. (August 22) Reflections on the extraordinary gift of teaching college students theology.

Rest in peace: Robert W. Jenson (1930–2017). (September 6) A bittersweet celebration of what Jenson meant to me, theologically and otherwise. This was by far the most-read piece on the blog this year, which goes to show how much this man of the church meant to so many others, too.

16 tips for how to read a passage from the Gospels. (September 14) Something I gave the freshmen in my fall course on the life and teachings of Jesus.

On John le Carré's new novel, A Legacy of Spies. (September 17) An enjoyable but ultimately disappointing trip back in time once more to the world of George Smiley.

On contemporary praise and worship music. (October 8) A fussy little missive, whose contents you can probably guess.

On Markan priority. (October 12) What would have to be the case for Mark not to be the first Gospel written? What implications would follow? How crazy is it to consider?

On the church's eternality and "church as mission." (October 20) Picking a friendly fight with the church-as-mission folks, with an assist from Thomas Aquinas.

The Holy One of Israel: a sermon on Leviticus 19. (October 25) This was a joy to write and deliver. Flexing some nearly-atrophied muscles in figural homiletics.

Notes on The Last Jedi, Godless, and Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri. (December 17) In which I share my critical reflections on all three, including a stirring, unanswerable defense of Rian Johnson's brilliant film. Also Three Billboards is bad.

Upcoming (as of January 2): 

“The Sermon Revisited: A Review of David P. Gushee and Glen H. Stassen’s Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context,” in Living Church. As you'll see when it's published, my evaluation of this book is quite negative.

"Review: Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Biblical Authority After Babel: Retrieving the Solas in the Spirit of Mere Protestant Christianity," in Interpretation. I did not love this book, but I respect its author and his goals; he simply fails to persuade here, nor is he helped by the oft-distracting rhetoric.

"Review: Hans Boersma, Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Church," in Interpretation. This is a tiny little review of a lovely, fulsome work. My how I love the church fathers' biblical interpretation.

“Ambivalence After Liberalism,” in The Los Angeles Review of Books. This is a review essay of James K. A. Smith's Awaiting the Kingdom: Reforming Public Theology and Patrick Deneen's Why Liberalism Failed. I'm a ways into both books, so I hope to have a draft of the piece by the end of the month.

“Scripture as the Church’s Book in Robert Jenson’s Theology,” Pro Ecclesia. This will be out by the end of the year or in early 2019, as part of an issue dedicated to Jenson, who co-founded the journal. I'm going to adapt it from one of my dissertation chapters.

I have another scholarly article planned, which I will not write until the summer, on theological interpretation. I'll probably submit it to the Journal of Theological Interpretation.

And last but not least, I hope to complete my work as editor of Robert W. Jenson's The Triune Story: Essays on Scripture with Oxford University Press and have the book published by the end of 2018—perhaps even by the annual meeting of AAR/SBL in Denver the weekend before Thanksgiving. Lord willing!

Thanks for reading. It was a good year writing. Happy new year y'all.

“About This Blog"

I've created an "About This Blog" page here (along with a page for my CV here). Here's what you'll find there:

My name is Brad East, and I am a theologian, professor, and writer. As of fall 2017 I will be Assistant Professor of Theology in the College of Biblical Studies at Abilene Christian University. I will walk in December with my PhD in Theology from Yale University, having earned my Master's of Divinity from Emory University in 2011 and my Bachelor's from Abilene Christian in 2007. For more academic credentials, see my CV.

I've been blogging on and off since summer 2006. I began to blog in earnest when I entered my Master's studies in Atlanta in 2008, a practice that continued through my course work in New Haven, but tailed off after that.

Why pick it up now? And what do I want this blog to be?

I'm one of the lucky ones in the academy, getting a great job offer right out of doctoral studies. My blogging had decreased to almost nil in the meantime not only because of increased demands on my time, not only because I was beginning to publish in scholarly outlets, but also because, well, the kind of "writing in public" that blogging is—brainstorming, seeing what sticks and what doesn't, more transparent, less professional—did not recommend itself to an applicant on the academic job market. And I simply did not want to be an unemployed blogger not yet "officially" in the field. That's not a knock on those who fit that description, only to say that it wasn't for me.

But now that this new chapter is upon me, it seemed like a good time to re-enter this part of my life, and this part of the internet. Using a blog to spitball, share thoughts, respond to pieces online (appreciatively as well as critically), create contacts, mark down ideas for later—so on and so forth—is both ideal for my intellectual temperament and useful for my writing habits. My new job is going to take over my academic publishing for a while, and I don't want my writerly muscles to atrophy in the process.

So what is this blog about? What will it be? The dumping ground for my thoughts about theology, the academy, literature, politics, pop culture, the NBA, and much more besides. The blogs I most admire and read most often are those—like Alan Jacob's, Richard Beck's, Peter Leithart's, Derek Rishmawy's, Ben Myers's, Freddie deBoer's, Timothy Burke's—that are intellectually curious, even promiscuous; willing to hazard a half-baked idea in the service of a helpful connection or new idea; value breadth and depth in equal measure; avoid polemic as much as possible, and even in the briefest of posts say something of substance; stay breast of current events and commentary without becoming beholden to it, much less gripped by chronological snobbery; are conversant with pop culture without falling for the notion either that it is more substantive than it is or that it is the unifying theory of everything for our society today; etc.

That's what I aspire to. We'll see how it goes. Thanks for reading.