All posts by Ian Olson

Ian Olson is a grad student living with his wife and children in Wisconsin.

The Withering of Persuasion

What are any of us doing when we take up our avatars and handles to enter into fights on Facebook and Twitter? When we post links and frame them with incendiary remarks as though sharing the link was itself a...

/ November 29, 2022

Forget “Enchantment”: In Praise of the Spooky

Thomas Merton concretized a sentiment many of us share and have found ourselves unable to articulate: “October is a fine and dangerous season in America. It is dry and cool and the land is wild with red and gold and...

/ October 29, 2021

Marcion’s “Gift”

The church’s participation in various historical injustices is a familiar theme, one rehearsed in some instances to discredit her, but in others to prompt her to needful repentance. But the primordial sin of the church which makes other, more tangible...

/ March 19, 2021

Death Does Not Come for the Deserving

At that time, some people came and reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And He responded to them, “Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all Galileans because they...

/ November 11, 2020