Imagine if we had chosen the path of retribution and revenge. Our country would have been dust and ashes. – Desmond Tutu, on the end of Apartheid Look, I’m mad too. I’m scared too. I’m anxious and exhausted and finding it hard to be kind too. These are dark days. Some fear, some anger, some […]
Pandemics and the Theology of the Cross: Julian of Norwich’s Hope
This post comes to us from Nathan White. White serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for Faith and Resilience, which seeks to connect theology and social scientific scholarship with communities of faith. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Ps 11:3) The psalmist posed this query almost three millennia ago, […]
Spiritual Consultants at the Gates of a Great Unraveling
The Great Unraveling they’re calling it, what’s happening to our society right now. A little melodramatic, I know; headlines are just words after all, and it’s gotten so hard to tell what’s hype and what’s not, how much of what we’re hearing is Internet-land hysteria and what’s actually, well, true. So maybe “unraveling” is a […]
The God of Surprises
Last month, John Dickerson wrote an article in the Atlantic in which he discusses the inevitable surprises of a president’s tenure. Without fail, a sitting president will undergo something completely unexpected, during which their entire legacy will be tested. It’s a fascinating, historical take on the age-old joke, “If you want to hear God laugh, […]
Newly Expanded Paperback Edition of Seculosity Is Out!
Big news: the expanded paperback edition of #Seculosity is now available! This volume is what happens when you ask a record collector to prep a reissue: he insists on remastering and adding a ton of bonus tracks. I’m so grateful to Broadleaf Books for indulging me.
What’s new? I wrote an extra chapter about Fandom/Celebrity/Sports, added a ton of footnotes to the main text, compiled a Discussion Guide, and did a lengthy author Q&A to address various questions I’ve gotten along the way. So it’s about 25% longer and feels a lot more complete to me.
Grab it on Amazon or wherever books are sold.
Anyone looking to read it as part of a group, there are bulk discounts available from my publisher that I’m happy to pass on, just email me at info@mbird.com. Oh and don’t forget to please please pretty please post a review and/or rating on Amazon — that helps tremendously.
Finally, eternal thanks to Mark Babikow for outdoing himself with yet another amazing trailer.
Newly Expanded Paperback Edition of Seculosity! from Mockingbird on Vimeo.
The Latest from the Mockingcast: Smokin’ Soulmates and Those Upgrades Can Wait
Episode 192: Smokin’ Soulmates In which RJ, Sarah, and Dave talk marriage models, bored believers, fragile meritocrats, and reconciled congressmen. Also, RJ catches up on some Netflix while Sarah dabbles in prophecy. Click here to read The Wall Street Journal article on Smoking. Click here to read the article about COVID-19 Killing the Soulmate Model […]
Is Christianity to Blame for Slavery?
This one comes to us from our friend Jeanette. Recently in a polemical piece for the New Republic, historian Bruce Bartlett wrote that Christianity is responsible for slavery. The claim is pithy, irritating, and particularly slippery. Necessarily, in polemics, language has to be as vague as possible in order to stir up the maximum amount […]
Breaking Up with the Hot Take
When it comes to romantic break-ups, the “clean break” is something of a unicorn — admired and sought after but seldom if ever attained. It might be even rarer than the “amicable split.” At least when it comes to genuine love affairs. There are any number of reasons why clean breaks are so hard to […]
No, Not That Cancel Culture
It is virtually a cliché to moan that this COVID-19 Season has been a diseased bull in our composed china closet. How many long-planned things have been cancelled? Or ambiguously “delayed”? The extreme cost and insane focus of 21st-century weddings — cancelled. Graduations and all the attendant celebrations — cybered. Occupations and economic certainty — […]
Please Scream Inside Your Heart
A couple weeks ago the Wall Street Journal wrote about how several theme parks in Japan have recently reopened, but in an effort to keep the coronavirus contained, they’ve banned screaming on roller coasters. To enforce this no-screaming policy, their message is this: “Please scream inside your heart.” Of course, it didn’t take long for […]
Blame and Denial from Lisbon to Florida: The Solid Ground of Christian Hope
As an unseen virus is threatening our very existence and as people strongly disagree on how best to respond to it, people throw around the word “unprecedented” a little too easily. COVID is new, but people are not. We’ve been here before, if we care to remember. In the fall of 1755, a terrible earthquake […]
On the Rachel Hollis Divorce: Girl, Here’s Some Mercy
Whenever someone we envy goes through great suffering, our first instinct is always to revel in their pain. As Christians, the next step is to ask for forgiveness for that very common sin. And hopefully, God willing, to find some compassion for those we once envied. I am of course talking about the mommy blogger […]
