"The Lord knows our human thoughts; how like a puff of wind they are." (Psalm 94:11)
kwh 
So a certain elected official in the U.S. recently claimed that it is a “Christian concept” to first “love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community,” and then to continue dwindling downward, as if love were a singular sort of thing, available in a diminishing quantity. This was … Read more
To those of us who follow the Gregorian calendar, today (January 1) is the only day that we pretend exists in its own unique space within time — where what is “present” shifts into some sort of soft focus so that something we call “possibility” can become visible to the camera. Oh sure, every day … Read more
The novelist Brandon Taylor, who writes a lot of interesting things in his newsletter, suggested a few weeks ago that he might abandon Substack just to get away from its Twitter-esque “Notes” feature. Later he changed his mind, having been shown how to avoid it. I’ve been toying with the idea of testing a newsletter … Read more
Rowan Williams in 2015: What we celebrate at Christmas is not the birth of a particularly sweet and harmless baby, nor even the welcome possibility of having a few extra drinks in the middle of winter. We celebrate a set of discoveries about God and about humanity. Or, as Christians have regularly said, not so … Read more
So far in chapter 4 of Presence in the Modern World, “Communication,” Jacques Ellul hasn’t been talking about the stated topic so much as its complete absence. Nobody understands each other. We talk past each other, not as the result of an earnest but frustrated attempt to communicate, but actually on purpose. That’s true of … Read more
So far in Chapter 4 of Presence in the Modern World, Ellul has shown us — Now we return to Ellul’s concept of technique, which we discussed earlier, and which he would go on to discuss further in numerous books (to the point that when his name is encountered in the present day, it is … Read more
There’s an election of some alleged consequence barreling toward us in a couple of days, of course, and though I am trying very hard to keep any mention of external “news” out of this blog, I can’t help but feel like I have to say something, or allude to something, anyway. My instinct is to … Read more
It seems to me that the most important factor in reading Kierkegaard is exactly how one does it. You can assume, as he himself demanded, that his pseudonyms are individual personae, writing from each one’s particular perspective and experience. Or, you can approach each book as a puzzle, sifting for meaning inside every perplexing sentence … Read more
Continuing our read of Chapter 4, “Communication,” we will return to the “renewed mind” discussed in the last post in due course, but let’s take a look at the non-renewed mind, that of the “intellectual” in general living in the modern world. According to Ellul, these intellectuals (I really do feel the need to continue … Read more
Recently there was an interesting exchange between Alan Jacobs and Brad East on “enchantment,” or more accurately, “disenchantment,” and its current vogue among, primarily, conservative Christians. (EDIT: I should note that Jacobs’ original post was instigated by David Bentley Hart’s newest book, and DBH is not in any way a conservative Christian.) This post from … Read more