We at Mere Orthodoxy have much to be thankful for as we look back at 2007. It has been a year of highlights for us, and it will be difficult to replicate.
We are extremely thankful for the opportunities that blogging has afforded us, especially for the helpful and stimulating exchanges we have had with you, our readers. The internet is a large place, and you have lots of options for commentary. As such, we are enormously grateful for your attention and participation here at Mere-O.
Allow us, if you will, to share some of the highlights from 2007:
Including this one, we wrote 402 posts.
We had 760 comments this year. "Sanitizing Darwin" had the most comments with 33.
We had more page views in October ever: 15,433.
However, our most unique visitors ever came in May: 7,623.
We jumped from 12 RSS readers to 62--that's roughly 500%.
Mostly on the strength of a link from the Huckabee website, this Republican debate wrap-up drew the most traffic this year.
We had first-hand reports from Biola for the hiring of the new president and from FRC's Washington Briefing, which turned out to be one of the most significant moments in politics this year.
In my first serious foray into political blogging and thinking, I endorsed Mike Huckabee with Justin Taylor and Joe Carter.
Comings and goings: We said goodbye to two writers this year and said "hello" to our Starving Intern, which we hope will become a full-time position here at Mere-O.
New ventures: We instituted and ran the first "Mere-O Reader's Survey," which was enormously helpful. We will continue to ask for feedback as we try to improve our blog.
In the series department, we had a number of successful series here at Mere-O this year. Keith has written a number of excellent posts on the process of screenwriting and has written some excellent reflections on beauty.
I blogged through Oliver O'Donovan's Resurrection and the Moral Order and posted my senior thesis on Pauline anthropology. I also offered several reflections on the Gospel of John and made it most of the way through an exceptionally long series on discussion leading (the interest in which seemed to tail off, so I discontinued it).
Our resident Air Force Officer Tex offered his thoughts on his travels in Jordan and penned a fascinating series on the difference between Islamic and Christian theories of the state and just war (really, this is a must-read series).
In all, it's clear that this has been a productive year here at Mere-O. While the intangibles of blogging are difficult to quantify, the numbers indicate that we have done a better job of fostering dialogue than in year's past, which is one of our main goals.
I won't give anything away, but I will say that we want to continue to improve Mere-O throughout 2008. And as we improve our writing and thinking, we hope that you will continue to read regularly and contribute to the conversation. As always, let us know what you think we can do to improve by emailing us at mereorthodoxy dot com at gmail dot com.
Matthew Lee Anderson
Matthew Lee Anderson is an Associate Professor of Ethics and Theology in Baylor University's Honors College. He has a D.Phil. in Christian Ethics from Oxford University, and is a Perpetual Member of Biola University's Torrey Honors College. In 2005, he founded Mere Orthodoxy.
