1. On a walk last night, I spied a property for sale not far from the place I rent now. What possibly could be the asking price of a house with no renovations, one bathroom, an impractically small kitchen, and “loads of charm”? The answer nearly knocked me out. It was hard not to spend […]
Another Week Ends: Last Chances and Good Fridays
The caption above has been running through my head since I first saw it a couple weeks ago. It hits home especially on Good Friday. What have we learned about ourselves this past year that we’d rather forget? Maybe some things we didn’t know last April, or didn’t know in quite the same way? The […]
Another Week Ends: Who Are We Now?
Am I then really that which other men tell of? Or am I only what I myself know of myself? Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote these words while sitting in a Nazi prison, awaiting his execution for a failed coup attempt. Was he a traitor, worthy of death? A promising young theologian who squandered his gifts? […]
Another Week Ends: Rules and Shame Don’t Move the Needle
1. We got the call early in the morning. A Covid vaccine clinic an hour away in downtown Pittsburgh had a number of appointment cancellations. If we could drop everything and meet them at 3:00 p.m., my wife and I could have two defrosted Moderna shots that would otherwise go to waste. As my wife […]
Another Week Ends: Tim Keller, Jordan Peterson, the Baby Bust, Unceasing Despair, Prosciutto, and Weird Catholic Twitter
1. I wish more dying people would write about dying. That’s a thought I had while reading Tim Keller’s recent essay in the Atlantic, because I sensed I was finally reading something on the internet that mattered. Keller, the well-known pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC, writes that, despite his ministering to people about the […]
Another Week Ends: What the Heart Loves, the Will Chooses, the Mind Justifies
1. “Every day I set less store on the intellect.” These words of Marcel Proust’s fall at the center of a remarkable new essay by James K. A. Smith in the Christian Century. And they are particularly bold words for a career philosopher like Smith. He explains: When I answered the call to be a […]
Another Week Ends: Grief and Gaming, the Hidden Devil, Embracing Humiliation, New Julien Baker, and Losing the Spelling Bee
Before we dive in, two big bits of Mockingbird news for you that dropped earlier this week. Pre-Registration is now open for #MbirdTyler21, and you can check out mbirdtyler.com for the latest info on our in-person-and-also-streaming gathering. Also, the latest Mockingbird podcast project, The Brothers Zahl, dropped this week. It’s a great introduction to the […]
Another Week Ends: Technological Addiction, Omnipresent Politics, Advice Columns, Toxic Fandom, and Love Beyond Death
1. A year ago, before a global pandemic altered our lives, discussions about the promise and perils of technology had a theoretical tone to them. Having a social media account was an entertaining frivolity. You could carry a “dumb phone” around and get some street cred for opting out of the system. You might avoid […]
Another Week Ends: Nervous Breakdowns, the Separation of Church and Peloton, Woundability, Power Moms, and Love Stories
1. While much of the Internet is saying that the rest of the Internet just needs to relax already, Jerry Useem, at the Atlantic, is saying something else. We need not a mere few deep breaths but a full-scale crash-and-burn: “Bring Back the Nervous Breakdown,” is the title of his excellent write-up on the historical […]
Norman Rockwell, Ted Lasso, and Isaiah’s Coup de Grâce
I received a remarkable gift for Christmas, the kind a grown man shares on Instagram. No, not the mint condition New Wave Dave that one brother gave me. I’m referring to something from the other brother, a print of Norman Rockwell’s 1957 painting, “Lift Up Thine Eyes.” Perhaps you’ve seen it. In classic Rockwell style, […]
Another Week Ends: Stolen Friendships, Gamer Stigma, Tiger Woods, Bipolar Prayers, and Martin Luther: Memelord
1. How can we not lead with this piece of delicious pop-history: Martin Luther would have ruled Twitter, via Dominion author (and hopefully one-day conference speaker) Tom Holland. Part of what made/makes Luther such a compelling theologian is his down-to-earth, shocking, relatable polemic. The man does not mince his words, which is either a testament […]
Another Week Ends: Jesus in the News, Body-Positivity, Unconditional Love, Score-Keeping, and Grace for Life-Wasters
1. Kicking off this week we take a bit of a deep dive into all the Jesus articles that appeared over the holiday season, which featured no small amount of controversy. On Christmas Eve, Peter Wehner wrote in the New York Times of “The Forgotten Radicalism of Jesus,” assembling a variety of gospel narratives to argue […]
