Category: Featured
Conservatism, Out of Decadence
In a review of Ross Douthat’s book The Decadent Society, Tara Isabella Burton argued that the way out of decadence is to have actual public conversation and debate about how our politics can be reconnected to something transcendent or, at...
Against Textbooks: Why We Need Bigger Stories
“But Mom, how do you know I’m learning?” This was a frequent query to my poor mother during her tenure homeschooling me. As a type A, achievement oriented child, I was exasperated with my mother’s refusal to do homeschooling like...
In Defense of Premodern Exegesis
During my early training as a pastor and theologian, many of my mentors warned me that emulating the exegetical method of the Church Fathers is a dangerous game. The concerns were typically twofold. First, there is the concern that the...
The Strange Death of the Populist Dream and the Victory of Woke Integralism
“Religious insanity is very common in the United States.” – Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America Between the Coronavirus pandemic, the killing of George Floyd, and the incredible wave of civil unrest and protest that followed in its wake, descending...
Getting Back to Our Bodies: Feminism, Ontology, and Metaphysics
The onslaught of comments following J.K. Rowling’s critique of gender theory demonstrates an ever-growing confusion toward sexual difference and the concept of personhood more generally. “If sex isn’t real,” she tweeted, “the lived reality of women globally is erased. I...
Presbyterians in Egypt
Writing a report of his time as a missionary in Egypt, Andrew Watson had this to say about Egypt’s Christians: “In general, the Copts are a simple-minded, devout, religious people, with great reverence for the Scriptures.”[1] The stated goal of...
J. I. Packer: Catechetical Theologian
Funny how it hits you when a beloved teacher dies. Almost unbidden, a passel of images, emotions, and memories of moments spent together remind you of the enduring impact that person’s words, deeds, and character had upon you. The effect...
Making Sense of Kanye 2020
“The system broken, the school is closed, the prison’s open… In this white man world, we the ones chosen.” “Is hip-hop just a euphemism for a new religion? The soul music of the slaves that the youth is missing? But...
Pastors, Priests, and Police: Understanding the Third Commandment
As people in the U.S and many parts of the world gathered to protest against police abuse a connection hit me between the current protests, the on-going clergy abuse scandals, and the third commandment from the decalogue. While it may...
Contemplating the Covid-19 Classroom: Pandemic as Our Sacred Present
The county in which I teach just released its tentative plan for reopening schools in August 2020. Scanning it, I saw my previous daily routine of leading children through learning, singing, and creating replaced with a new routine—one of taking...