Kierkegaard
If Your Religion Teaches the Obvious, Then It's Not Much of a Religion
If your version of Christianity calls us to act only in obvious ways that align with human instincts, then what would be the point of following it?
K. W. Holland
I'm a man who shares his life with a wonderful husband and two lively, lovely dogs. Christian; sinner; Episcopalian; reader; writer; stage 4 cancer survivor.
Kierkegaard
What to Expect When You're Expecting Victory
Thoughts on the New Year and Kierkegaard's "The Expectancy of Faith."
connection
How to Have a Real Conversation
It's the connection that matters, not random conversations. Must we turn literally everything into a business model?
Incarnation
How to Keep a Christian Christmas
What Rowan Williams said about keeping a "Christian Christmas" (since the two, in our culture, are usually not related).
Jacques Ellul
Ellul on the Void and the Wasteland
"We can no longer communicate with one another because our neighbors have ceased to be real to us." In 1948!
Jacques Ellul
Ellul on the Death of Contemplation and Intuition
Thinkers in all fields have become constrained by a need to produce practical results, and they do so by using technique -- or is it technique that uses them?
Kierkegaard
How to Make Things Harder (And Maybe Better)
Ugh, I didn't want to write about the election, but this is sort of about it, except mostly about love and Kierkegaard and choosing to do the impossible.
Kierkegaard
Judge William's Uncomfortable Truth (or, How to Read Kierkegaard)
Wrestling with the Great Dane.
Jacques Ellul
Ellul on the Suicide of the Mind
Intellectuals either accept the prevailing myths (which they know are false) for the sake of their careers, or else decide: "LOL nothing matters." It's the same thing.
enchantment
Enchantment As a Framework for Culture War
Re-enchanting the world so they can rule it.
Jacques Ellul
Ellul on the Renewed Mind and the Fog of Facts
After another long break, back to Ellul's Presence: What is a Christian intellectual, and what is his or her function in a world hidden in a fog of unreality?
poetry
Frank O'Hara, "Nocturne"
One last poem for poetry month. It's the architect's fault.