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 […]
The Gift of Life: Suffering, Worth, and the Self
We often Intuit that It Isn’t Our Faith but Our Very Selfhood that is Under Assault
Another Week Ends: Canceling Christmas, Acceptance Parenting, Emily Dickinson, the Church in 2020, Law and Gospel, and Myside Bias
1. Will COVID cancel Christmas this year? I certainly hope not, but that’s what Giles Fraser asks in his latest at UnHerd. Much about this year’s celebration will undoubtedly be different, if not cancelled; [The Grinch] COVID might steal our banquets, caroling, pageants, and large gatherings, but perhaps this year the pathos and joy of […]
When Your Friends Are the Devil
Do you ever dread meeting with a friend? Do you involuntarily find yourself imagining the ways this is going to go all wrong? Do you feel a knot in your guts when you receive a text message asking to “connect” later (why that word?) and zero elaboration is given? You feel the foreboding circulate through […]
Religious Experts vs. the Cross: On Reading the Book of Job
In the first chapter of The Crucifixion, Fleming Rutledge explains that modern Christianity shares the same widespread rival as early Christianity: gnosticism. She doesn’t mince words bringing the dusty historical term back down to the ground: “All the various forms of gnosticism are grounded in the belief that privileged spiritual knowledge is the way of […]
