2024-12-20 Finished reading: The Virtue of Nationalism by Yoram Hazony 📚 A very readable book. Hazony’s …
2024-12-18 George Marsden, describing the conflicting impulses within modern fundamentalism (i.e., the …
2024-12-16 Keller, Center Church, pt. 1 (Gospel Theology)
2024-12-16 George Marsden, describing the “American pattern of secularization” at work in American …
2024-12-16 Finished reading: Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis 📚
2024-12-14 Kristyn took this one on her NYC trip
2024-12-13 They just don’t make ‘em like they used to (in this case: covers to popular Christian …
2024-12-13 George Marsden, concluding a chapter on evangelicalism since 1930 (published in 1991): One of the …
2024-12-11 Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Loving one’s enemies leads disciples to the way of the cross and into …
2024-12-10 George Marsden, summarizing how certain positive signs of “health” for American …
2024-12-09 Currently reading: Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism by George Marsden 📚
2024-12-09 Kristyn is in New York for a few days with her mom and sister; they’re enjoying NYC at …
2024-12-05 Finished reading: The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero 📚 A little repetitive, but …
2024-12-05 Writing in Mockingbird, Simeon Zahl surveys competing “theories of change” in Christian …
2024-12-02 Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Everyone enters discipleship alone, but no one remains alone in discipleship. …
2024-12-02 Currently reading: Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis 📚
2024-11-30 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, reminding us that Jesus' burden—that of bearing one’s cross—is lighter, …
2024-11-29 An incredibly illuminating essay from John Ehrett on Protestant theological retrieval. Ehrett …
2024-11-28 With all due respect to those who’ve weighed in on Jordan Peterson’s new book (I’m …
2024-11-27 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, with words every minister should take to heart re: how failing to offer Jesus …
2024-11-26 Currently reading: Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer 📚
2024-11-25 Finished reading: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by Clive Staples Lewis 📚
2024-11-25 Finished reading: Evangelism as a Lifestyle by Jim Petersen 📚 The best book I’ve read on …
2024-11-25 Sabbath Notes for Future Self (inspired by Marva Dawn's Keeping the Sabbath Wholly)
2024-11-24 C. S. Lewis: One is sometimes (not often) glad not to be a great theologian; one might so easily …
2024-11-22 James R. Edwards, commenting on Mark 7 and Jesus’s controversy with the Pharisees and scribes …
2024-11-22 Trooper was not being especially hospitable to our friend Carlos last night
2024-11-21 Lunch with the staff team at Leroy and Lewis
2024-11-20 Currently reading: The Virtue of Nationalism by Yoram Hazony 📚
2024-11-20 Currently reading: The Insider’s Guide to ADHD by Penny Williams 📚
2024-11-20 My family knows the way to my heart
2024-11-17 I’m teaching on the Ascension in the morning: an oft-neglected doctrine that’s become …
2024-11-16 dapper fellow
2024-11-12 Finished reading: Migrations of the Holy by William T. Cavanaugh 📚 A disjointed book, to be sure: It …
2024-11-11 William T. Cavanaugh, on the “visibility” of the church: To say that the purpose of the …
2024-11-09 William T. Cavanaugh: The most common way that people are attracted to God is by seeing other …
2024-11-09 Lewis, chilling in his hoodie (thanks to Lily and Bella)
2024-11-08 Currently reading: The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero 📚
2024-11-04 William T. Cavanaugh: There is a longing in nationalist ritual that bespeaks a desire for communion …
2024-11-03 We get an extra hour of sleep tonight as well, right?
2024-10-30 William T. Cavanaugh: Globalization cannot simply aim at a borderless world, and in fact the …
2024-10-29 Aaron Renn made a splash recently with a tweet, subsequently expanded into a Substack post, in which …
2024-10-29 William T. Cavanaugh: The church’s confession of sin can become a kind of resignation to the …
2024-10-28 William T. Cavanaugh: The American nation-state has found its solution to the problem of pluralism …
2024-10-26 I’m teaching on Christology and the Council of Chalcedon in the morning. In honor of the …
2024-10-23 I really shouldn’t aspire to anything beyond what Jake describes in this piece: You Must Never …
2024-10-22 Rob Horning, on “the emergent way of seeing” encouraged by generative AI: No one is …
2024-10-21 What percentage of my life is taken up with re-staging the pillows on our living room couches? I …
2024-10-21 William T. Cavanaugh: What takes place in the modern era…is a reconfiguration of space that …
2024-10-21 William T. Cavanaugh: The story of the death of the sovereign God and his rebirth in the sovereign …
2024-10-18 Keller, Center Church, pt. 0 (Intro: Theological Vision)
2024-10-17 Finished reading: The Community of the King by Howard A. Snyder 📚 I didn’t find all of …
2024-10-16 Howard A. Snyder: Kingdom witness and church growth are not matters of bringing to the church what …
2024-10-15 Currently reading: Migrations of the Holy by William T. Cavanaugh 📚
2024-10-15 Currently reading: On Repentance And Repair by Danya Ruttenberg 📚
2024-10-15 on repeat this afternoon…
2024-10-15 Kirsten Sanders, in an essay ostensibly about the current online discourse around “Rules of …
2024-10-15 Scott Swain: All Christian social order has an equalizing tendency toward friendship, toward mutual …
2024-10-15 Scott Swain: The systematic theologian’s job when it comes to theology is not to invent the …
2024-10-14 Finished reading: The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen 📚 Meh. …
2024-10-12 Afternoon run at Lake Pflugerville with Lily - she rode her bike and wore her new watch!
2024-10-11 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, clarifying why debates over “day” in Genesis are exercises in …
2024-10-09 Currently reading: Creation and Fall by Dietrich Bonhoeffer 📚
2024-10-08 Currently reading: A Century of Poetry by Rowan Williams 📚
2024-10-08 Joshua Heavin, concluding an article on the scandal of hypocritical church leaders and the need for …
2024-10-08 Might be high time for us to retrieve Gregory of Nyssa’s “spice rack” analogy for …
2024-10-07 Howard A. Snyder: Many churches do not share the gospel effectively because their communal …
2024-10-07 Howard A. Snyder: Contrary to popular myth, normal church growth is not limited by lack of …
2024-10-07 Region Rowe, Massachusetts (1918) by John Marin:
2024-10-07 Hoosic Mountains (1918) by John Marin:
2024-10-04 Finished reading: Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls 📚
2024-10-03 Currently reading: Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard 📚
2024-09-30 Me and the girls had some fun on Saturday scootering/boarding while Kristyn was off at a …
2024-09-29 Currently reading: Evangelism as a Lifestyle by Jim Petersen 📚
2024-09-28 Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, describing Benjamin Franklin’s quest for self-improvement and, in …
2024-09-28 Currently reading: The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen 📚
2024-09-27 On the Lake of Como (1781) by Francis Towne:
2024-09-27 Finished reading: Center Church by Timothy Keller 📚 I’m frankly in awe of what Keller achieved …
2024-09-27 Currently listening:
2024-09-26 Peter Leithart, on the Eucharist and the way things really ought to be: The Eucharist is one aspect …
2024-09-26 Alan Jacobs, providing some of the best writing advice you’ll find: Writing that matters will …
2024-09-26 Alastair Roberts, with some very useful reflections on memory: While many people think about memory …
2024-09-25 Finished reading: Low Anthropology by David Zahl 📚 A book that hooks you from the start: Zahl is a …
2024-09-25 David Zahl: Jesus knows that telling people to have faith doesn’t do all that much. He knows …
2024-09-25 David Zahl (channeling his inner Lewis): In so many ways, the Christian actually seems to remain …
2024-09-25 David Zahl: Love is…an area of human operation almost impervious to reason and rationality, …
2024-09-25 David Zahl: There is such a thing as authentic authenticity. It is simply not an active attribute; …
2024-09-24 Lewis Hyde: I should now state directly a limitation that has been implicit for some time, that is, …
2024-09-23 Night Rain (2008) by Michael Mazur:
2024-09-23 Fall Garden - 2 Chairs II (1977) by Michael Mazur:
2024-09-23 Autumn (2000) by Michael Mazur:
2024-09-23 Howard A. Snyder: Too often the church has let the world define the nature of the battle. If the …
2024-09-22 David Zahl: An inflated estimation of human nature capsizes love for one’s neighbor. If you …
2024-09-22 David Zahl: I have preached nearly twenty years' worth of sermons at various churches across the …
2024-09-21 Currently reading: Low Anthropology by David Zahl 📚
2024-09-21 Finished reading: The Revenge of Conscience by J. Budziszewski 📚 An interesting work on the …
2024-09-20 Finished reading: Prince Caspian by Clive Staples Lewis 📚
2024-09-20 Tim Keller: Legalistic Christianity leads to dualistic Christianity. When people fail to grasp the …
2024-09-19 C. S. Lewis: When a man says that he grasps an argument he is using a verb (grasp) which literally …
2024-09-19 A few gems from Calvin on preaching: Commenting on Romans 11:14: "Observe here that the minister of …
2024-09-17 James Wood provides a moving account of his conversion, highlighting in particular how the gospel …
2024-09-17 Ed Feser, with five gradations (of increasing sophistication) in one’s conception of God: …
2024-09-16 Brad East, offering his answer to the question “What is the greatest threat to the church in …
2024-09-15 Snagged this at an antique shop today and, upon further investigation, discovered that the picture …
2024-09-15 Alastair Roberts, on “The Anglicanism of C. S. Lewis,” in which he explores Lewis' …
2024-09-15 Zacatlaxcalli Vignette (2023) by Eva Peréz Martínez:
2024-09-13 Highlights from Freddie deBoer’s “Selfishness & Therapy Culture” (and I should …
2024-09-13 Do non-human animals grieve?
2024-09-12 Finished reading: The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way and No Little People by Francis A. …
2024-09-12 Francis Schaeffer: Quietness and peace before God are more important than any influence a position …
2024-09-12 Francis Schaeffer, reflecting on Jesus' words in Luke 14:7-11 and, in the process, offering …
2024-09-12 Francis Schaeffer: Nowhere more than in America are Christians caught in the twentieth-century …
2024-09-12 Francis Schaeffer: To be wholly committed to God in the place where God wants him—this is the …
2024-09-11 “And now we know what it feels like for the Jinn,” said Edmund with a chuckle. …
2024-09-11 I guess it’s high time I read some Albert Borgmann…
2024-09-08 Wheatfield (1879) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir:
2024-09-08 Just finished Catch Me If You Can - sadder than I remembered; curious what connection the movie has …
2024-09-07 Got these wonderful prints from Scale House Print Shop based out of Hartford, Vermont
2024-09-07 Why do older people—with almost no exceptions in my experience—call it MACdonalds?
2024-09-06 Currently reading: Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls 📚
2024-09-03 Currently reading: The Community of the King by Howard A. Snyder 📚
2024-09-02 Francis Schaeffer, (unintentionally) providing evangelicals with a diagnostic tool for assessing …
2024-09-02 Francis Schaeffer, on the central problem facing the church in every age: The central problem of …
2024-09-02 Francis Schaeffer: A Christian can never say, “I knew the power of the Holy Spirit yesterday, …
2024-09-02 Currently reading: The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way and No Little People by Francis A. …
2024-09-01 Finished reading: Uprooted by Grace Olmstead 📚
2024-08-31 Enjoyed celebrating with my mom on Thursday at the opening for the ACC Faculty Exhibition
2024-08-30 Tim Keller: Traditional evangelical churches tend to emphasize personal piety and rarely help …
2024-08-30 Tim Keller: Most American evangelical churches are middle class in their corporate culture. That …
2024-08-29 Brad East, on the detrimental effects of the current online writing ecosystem to the actual craft of …
2024-08-28 Tim Keller: The massive growth and influence of cities in our time confront Christian mission with …
2024-08-27 Finished reading: Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World by Jason Hickel 📚 This was my first …
2024-08-27 Landscape with a Woodland Pool (c. 1497) by Albrecht Dürer:
2024-08-27 Courtyard of the Former Castle in Innsbruck without Clouds (1494) by Albrecht Dürer:
2024-08-27 View of the Arco Valley (1495) by Albrecht Dürer:
2024-08-27 Currently reading: The Revenge of Conscience by J. Budziszewski 📚
2024-08-26 Philip Bess, in an old two-part essay at Public Discourse (here and here), makes the surprising …
2024-08-24 Did this to get the folding table flush with the dining table. Who says medieval history isn’t …
2024-08-24 Our makeshift table in the living room for dinner/games with family this evening. It passed …
2024-08-23 An interesting piece from Jake Meador at Mere O on the reigning paradigms of cultural engagement …
2024-08-22 I’m currently listening to The Second Mountain by David Brooks on my commute (not reading it, …
2024-08-21 Brad East, in the course of encouraging pastors to read fiction and poetry, describes how such …
2024-08-21 Charles Marsh, in a long essay in which he responds to criticisms of Strange Glory (particularly …
2024-08-20 Finished reading: Strange Glory by Charles Marsh 📚 A truly great biography. Marsh succeeds …
2024-08-19 Currently reading: Uprooted by Grace Olmstead 📚
2024-08-19 right before we loaded up for the return trip to Austin
2024-08-19 on the way up to Pike’s Peak
2024-08-19 a few more pics from CO (my sister took these)
2024-08-13 Day 2 of our journey to Colorado Springs (left Amarillo this morning; will cross into NM soon)
2024-08-12 Bonhoeffer (quote from Marsh’s bio): The earth that nourishes me has a right to my work and …
2024-08-10 Finished reading: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by Clive Staples Lewis 📚
2024-08-03 Kristyn and I spent a few nights away in Comfort, TX on a marriage retreat (which was great!). At …
2024-08-01 Why do extroverts insist on calling themselves introverts?
2024-07-31 currently listening: Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan
2024-07-29 Finished reading: Technopoly by Neil Postman 📚 A persuasive account of the rise and triumph (heh) of …
2024-07-29 In the concluding chapter of Technopoly, Neil Postman provides some ways that the “loving …
2024-07-29 Keturah Hickman, on the allure of being irreplaceable and the deeper joy of becoming replaceable: …
2024-07-28 Neil Postman: One characteristic of those who live in a Technopoly is that they are largely unaware …
2024-07-28 Neil Postman: Norbert Wiener warned about the lack of modesty when he remarked that, if digital …
2024-07-28 Neil Postman, on the computer as Technopoly’s dominant metaphor: The computer redefines …
2024-07-28 Neil Postman: In Technopoly…subjective forms of knowledge have no official status, and must …
2024-07-28 Evening, Honfleur (1886) by Georges-Pierre Seurat:
2024-07-27 Currently reading: Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World by Jason Hickel 📚
2024-07-26 James Wood, in a strange article on evangelical preferential treatment of those on the left, repeats …
2024-07-24 Neil Postman: One way of defining Technopoly…is to say it is what happens to society when …
2024-07-24 Neil Postman, on the new world—the “improbable world”—called into being by Technopoly: …
2024-07-24 Neil Postman: The milieu in which Technopoly flourishes is one in which the tie between information …
2024-07-24 Neil Postman, describing the Founders' vision of the public square (implied in the First Amendment), …
2024-07-24 Neil Postman, on what results when traditional controls on information break down: One way of …
2024-07-24 Neil Postman: The fact is, there are very few political, social, and especially personal problems …
2024-07-24 Neil Postman: The world we live in is very nearly incomprehensible to most of us. There is almost …
2024-07-24 Neil Postman, on the assumptions undergirding Technopoly (as expressed in Frederick W. …
2024-07-24 Jake Meador, on how various responses to the difficulties of life, whether it be to urge therapy on …
2024-07-24 In Technopoly, Neil Postman offers a threefold taxonomy of technological cultures: 1) tool-using …
2024-07-23 Farmhouse in Nuenen (1885) by Vincent van Gogh:
2024-07-23 Cottage with Peasant Woman Digging (1885) by Vincent van Gogh:
2024-07-23 The cottage (1885) by Vincent van Gogh:
2024-07-19 Finished Heavyweights tonight (though it was a slog)…glad to see I’m not alone in …
2024-07-17 Joe Biden is setting old people back so much…
2024-07-17 Matthew Crawford, writing in The Hedgehog Review on how LLMs (i.e., large language models such as …
2024-07-16 Tim Keller: Some churches hold to orthodox doctrines but with imbalances and a lack of proper …
2024-07-12 The St John Ophthalmic Hospital, Jerusalem (1927) by David Bomberg: Mount Zion and the Church of the …
2024-07-12 Storm Clouds (c. 1932) by David Bomberg: Flowers (1943) by David Bomberg:
2024-07-12 San Justo, Toledo, Spain (1929) by David Bomberg: Ronda, Summer (1954) by David Bomberg: Evening in …
2024-07-12 Evening, Cornwall (1947) by David Bomberg: Sunset, the Bay, North Devon (1946) by David Bomberg: …
2024-07-10 Tim Keller: Over time, all churches, no matter how sound their theology, tend to lose sight of the …
2024-07-09 Kristyn and I finished watching Food, Inc. this evening, which means I’m now taking any and …
2024-07-09 (from the CD booklet for Arcade Fire’s Reflektor, vol. 2)
2024-07-08 Tim Keller: The gospel is not a simple thing…. The gospel has supernatural versatility to …
2024-07-08 (from the CD booklet for Arcade Fire’s Reflektor, vol. 1)
2024-07-06 Kristyn and I celebrated eleven years of marriage this evening; had a lovely time at the Blanton, …
2024-07-05 currently listening: Painted Ruins by Grizzly Bear
2024-07-04 Neil Postman: New technologies alter the structure of our interests: the things we think about. …
2024-07-04 Neil Postman: Technological change is neither additive nor subtractive. It is ecological. I mean …
2024-07-04 Neil Postman: Embedded in every tool is an ideological bias, a predisposition to construct the …
2024-07-04 Neil Postman: Stated in the most dramatic terms, the accusation can be made that the uncontrolled …
2024-07-04 Currently reading: Technopoly by Neil Postman 📚
2024-07-03 Currently reading: Center Church by Timothy Keller 📚 The time has finally come…
2024-07-02 Phase 2
2024-07-02 Finished reading: Outgrowing the Ingrown Church by C. John Miller 📚
2024-07-02 Kirsten Sanders, concluding a piece about how religious deconstruction, which she formerly offered …
2024-07-02 Currently reading: Strange Glory by Charles Marsh 📚
2024-07-01 Fire at the Grand Storehouse of the Tower of London (1841) by J. M. W. Turner:
2024-06-30 Watched Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) this evening with Kristyn. Will need some time to mull this …
2024-06-28 Life!
2024-06-24 Finished reading: Strong and Weak by Andy Crouch 📚 Crouch has become a must-read author for me.
2024-06-24 Andy Crouch: Understandably, the felt need of nearly every young person is how to acquire …
2024-06-24 Winter landcape with figures and tents on the ice by Hendrick Avercamp:
2024-06-24 Winter Scene on a Canal (c. 1615) by Hendrick Avercamp:
2024-06-24 Winter landscape with skaters (c. 1608) by Hendrick Avercamp:
2024-06-23 Foray into gardening
2024-06-23 Finished reading: The Republic of Grace by Charles Mathewes 📚 A thought-provoking book. Published in …
2024-06-21 Albarran Cabrera
2024-06-19 a cool picture my sister, Lynne', took of the girls, exploring the creek at Pease Park recently
2024-06-18 Currently reading: Strong and Weak by Andy Crouch 📚
2024-06-16 Finished reading: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 📚 Punchy and fun to read. Bradbury’s classic …
2024-06-16 Quote from Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (Granger speaking): Everyone must leave something behind …
2024-06-16 Lewis in the wingback (photo cred: Kristyn)
2024-06-14 Once Upon a Time in the West (2018) by Matthew Wong:
2024-06-14 The Kingdom by Matthew Wong:
2024-06-14 From the 2019 New York Times obituary for Matthew Wong:
2024-06-14 From a 2018 interview with Matthew Wong, in response to a question about the “hints of …
2024-06-14 Coming of Age Landscape (2018) by Matthew Wong:
2024-06-14 Charles Mathewes: The first virtue of all exercises of authority in this life is mercy. Following …
2024-06-14 Charles Mathewes: Why are we so committed to the idea that we are all unique and fundamentally free …
2024-06-14 Charles Mathewes: Authority seems invisible to us because it is so pervasive in our world. In fact, …
2024-06-12 Charles Mathewes, trying to gesture at a more robust anthropology than the one undergirding consumer …
2024-06-12 Charles Mathewes: Today our capacity to be creatures who love—who have long-standing and deep …
2024-06-12 Charles Mathewes, speaking here on the delicate topic of “understanding” the evil …
2024-06-11 A drawing of Bruce Springsteen by my mom, which she sent to a New Jersey club in 1985 as a tribute …
2024-06-11 Freddie deBoer (HT: @ayjay), in a post that begins with his thoughts on a bad take about Fury Road, …
2024-06-11 Sabrina Little, in an essay for Aeon, takes up a question that I’ve been interested in for …
2024-06-10 Charles Mathewes: If we want to ask the question “what is going on in the world today?” …
2024-06-10 Charles Mathewes: We are not called just to wait around until this hope hits us. We are not simply …
2024-06-10 Charles Mathewes: Hope is transcendent because it looks for genuine novelty, not more of the same—a …
2024-06-10 Charles Mathewes: Hope is a means of accessing reality, of getting at it, seeing the hopefulness at …
2024-06-10 Charles Mathewes (emphasis mine): This, I submit, is the danger we face: a willed blindness to the …
2024-06-10 Currently reading: The Republic of Grace by Charles Mathewes 📚
2024-06-08 Currently reading: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 📚
2024-06-08 rope swingin'
2024-06-06 James Davison Hunter: It is essential, in my view, to abandon altogether talk of “redeeming …
2024-06-05 James Davison Hunter: Faithful Christian witness is fated to exist in the tension between the …
2024-06-05 Finished reading: Confident Pluralism by John D. Inazu 📚
2024-06-04 Currently reading: Confident Pluralism by John D. Inazu 📚
2024-06-03 The Sheepfold, Moonlight (1856-60) by Jean-François Millet:
2024-06-02 Finished reading: Uncommon Unity by RICHARD. LINTS 📚 An interesting read, though it didn’t …
2024-05-29 Richard Lints: It is [the] mixing of political and ecclesial authority that has led many Christians …
2024-05-29 Richard Lints: The biblical account runs against the grain of the contemporary intuition that …
2024-05-29 Richard Lints: As “images,” we gain our ontological weight from what we honor, how we …
2024-05-28 Currently reading: The Call by Os Guinness 📚
2024-05-23 Brad Littlejohn and Clare Morell, making a conservative argument for government regulation of …
2024-05-23 Finished reading: The World-Ending Fire by Wendell Berry 📚 Didn’t read every single essay …
2024-05-23 Wendell Berry, from “Family Work” (1980) [NB: substituting “internet” for …
2024-05-23 Wendell Berry, from “Family Work” (1980): The upbringing we give our children is not …
2024-05-22 one could do worse than be a swinger of birches
2024-05-22 Wendell Berry’s standards for technological innovation, from “Why I am Not Going to Buy …
2024-05-22 Wendell Berry, from “Word and Flesh” (1989): We must achieve the character and acquire …
2024-05-22 Wendell Berry, from “Word and Flesh” (1989): The question that must be …
2024-05-22 Wendell Berry, from “Faustian Economics” (2006): To recover from our disease of …
2024-05-22 Wendell Berry, from “Faustian Economics” (2006): Our human and earthly limits, properly …
2024-05-22 Wendell Berry, from “Faustian Economics” (2006): The normalization of the doctrine of …
2024-05-22 Wendell Berry, from “Faustian Economics” (2006): In keeping with our unrestrained …
2024-05-22 Currently reading: Outgrowing the Ingrown Church by C. John Miller 📚
2024-05-18 Wendell Berry, from “The Unsettling of America” (1977): Is work something that we have …
2024-05-18 Wendell Berry, from “The Unsettling of America” (1977): Let me outline as briefly as I …
2024-05-18 Wendell Berry, from “The Work of Local Culture” (1988): The loss of local culture is, …
2024-05-18 Wendell Berry, from “The Work of Local Culture” (1988): If there is no household or …
2024-05-18 Wendell Berry, from “The Work of Local Culture” (1988): When a community loses its …
2024-05-18 Wendell Berry, from “Horse-Drawn Tools and the Doctrine of Labor Saving” (1978): It is …
2024-05-15 Hi Malin
2024-05-14 Richard Lints: The contemporary democratic ethos may look askance at evangelism and proselytizing …
2024-05-14 Richard Lints: Democracy highlights the significance of diversity and encourages us to see more …
2024-05-14 Richard Lints: Doing justice both to the history of discrimination and the complexity of cultural …
2024-05-14 Richard Lints: The polarization of our contemporary cultural conversation has resulted in the loss …
2024-05-14 Richard Lints: An important irony is the ever-growing disparity between the descriptive diversity …
2024-05-14 Richard Lints, on the experience of diversity in modern life: We are ever more conscious of …
2024-05-14 C. S. Lewis in The Great Divorce (quoted in Lints' Uncommon Unity): Life is not like a river but …
2024-05-13 Currently reading: Them by Ben Sasse 📚
2024-05-13 Alan Jacobs, quoted in the same report: Very few churches overall are really interested in …
2024-05-13 Mark Noll, quoted in the “Faith and Healthy Democracy” report with these surprising …
2024-05-10 Andrew Koperski, in reviewing some historical inaccuracies in N. T. Wright and Michael Bird’s …
2024-05-10 (from the CD booklet for i,i)
2024-05-10 (from the CD booklet for i,i)
2024-05-10 Currently Listening: i,i by Bon Iver
2024-05-10 Currently reading: Uncommon Unity by RICHARD. LINTS 📚
2024-05-08 Currently reading: Generations by Jean M. Twenge 📚
2024-05-08 Joseph Lawler, concluding his piece in The New Atlantis on the tradeoffs Austin faces in …
2024-05-07 The Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice (c. 1730) by Canaletto:
2024-05-07 The Stonemason’s Yard (c. 1725) by Canaletto:
2024-05-07 Some watercolors from Marie Bracquemond:
2024-05-07 Finished reading: Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford …
2024-05-06 Matthew Crawford: Today, in our schools, the manual trades are given little honor. The egalitarian …
2024-05-05 Matthew Crawford: There seems to be an ideology of freedom at the heart of consumerist material …
2024-05-05 Matthew Crawford: Somehow, self-realization and freedom always entail buying something new, never …
2024-05-05 Matthew Crawford: The problem of technology is almost the opposite of how it is usually posed: the …
2024-05-05 Matthew Crawford: Maybe we can say, after all, that higher education is indispensable to prepare …
2024-04-30 Currently reading: The World-Ending Fire by Wendell Berry 📚
2024-04-30 Currently reading: Exclusion & Embrace by Miroslav Volf 📚
2024-04-25 Kirsten Sanders, on the role that “certainty” plays in Protestant-to-Catholic conversion …
2024-04-25 Currently Listening: Kid A by Radiohead
2024-04-24 So many questions: about cover design and content…
2024-04-23 Currently reading: Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford …
2024-04-23 Finished reading: People Skills by Robert Bolton 📚 Lots of common sense wisdom about listening, …
2024-04-21 Grabbed coffee this afternoon with an old friend at Houndstooth in the Domain and spent the better …
2024-04-20 Last night, Kristyn and I finished Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry. For a while now, …
2024-04-19 To mark the beginning of Providence’s new sermon series on the seven letters to the seven …
2024-04-19 Finished reading: Becoming a True Spiritual Community by Larry Crabb 📚 A compelling account of what …
2024-04-19 Jef Verheyen:
2024-04-17 Alastair Roberts, explaining why he traded in his obsessive reading of a certain brand of political …
2024-04-16 Alan Jacobs, arguing re: digital technology’s negative effects on us and our kids that …
2024-04-15 The Oaktree in the Snow (1829) by Caspar David Friedrich:
2024-04-15 Memories of the Giant Mountains (c. 1835) by Caspar David Friedrich:
2024-04-15 Larry Crabb: The spirituality of a community can be measured not merely by its doctrinal statement …
2024-04-15 Trooper
2024-04-14 Finished reading: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling 📚 All good things must come …
2024-04-14 It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have …
2024-04-10 W. H. Auden, with an apt description of the “consuming” mind that devours cultural …
2024-04-09 Picture of Austin earlier today
2024-04-09 A composite image from Cooper Lake State Park in Texas (photo cred: Maria Crane) showing different …
2024-04-08 Larry Crabb: The passion to protect ourselves, to keep our wounds out of sight where no one can …
2024-04-08 Eclipse vibes
2024-04-08 A Cornfield by Moonlight with the Evening Star (c. 1830) by Samuel Palmer:
2024-04-08 A Moonlit Scene with a Winding River (c. 1827) by Samuel Palmer:
2024-04-08 The Terrace at Saint-Germain, Spring by Alfred Sisley:
2024-04-08 John Stott: The church’s very first need, before it can begin to engage in evangelism, is an …
2024-04-05 Polaroid of Lewis (courtesy of Lily)
2024-04-05 Kristyn and I finally watched Dune: Part One last night (we were riveted!), and now we’re …
2024-04-04 There are not many essays that need to be written, but J. Brandon Meeks has provided one of the rare …
2024-04-03 As a native Austinite, I surely have a biased and overly-sentimental attachment to the great …
2024-04-03 Matthew Crawford, on the problem of science being wielded as a form of authority—in service of …
2024-04-01 Alan Jacobs: A surprisingly large and rapidly growing body of Americans have looked at what the …
2024-04-01 Currently Listening: Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? by The Cranberries
2024-04-01 Currently reading: Becoming a True Spiritual Community by Larry Crabb 📚
2024-03-31 Karl Barth, with important words for preachers on this Easter Sunday: In our preaching on Easter …
2024-03-31 Karl Barth: Nothing, absolutely nothing, can one do who is fated to this life of sin and death, …
2024-03-27 Currently Listening: The Joshua Tree by U2
2024-03-26 Christine Rosen: The rise of public digital surveillance is both a symptom of and an attempt to …
2024-03-26 Christine Rosen, on how private surveillance technologies (e.g., Ring cameras, neighborhood-watch …
2024-03-26 Peter Leithart: Holy Week is a disguised coronation, a masked victory, glorification masquerading …
2024-03-26 Photo cred goes to my wife, Kristyn
2024-03-25 (from the CD booklet for Shut Up I Am Dreaming by Sunset Rubdown)
2024-03-24 (Untitled, known as Christ’s entry into Jerusalem by Pietro Lorenzetti)
2024-03-19 Currently Listening: Room On Fire by The Strokes
2024-03-15 The Goldfinch (1654) by Carel Fabritius:
2024-03-14 Tyler Been, who went through clinical pastoral education (CPE) training as part of his process for …
2024-03-12 (from the inside flap of the CD case for Strangers In Our House by Meneguar)
2024-03-12 Finished reading: Reaching Out by Henri J. M. Nouwen 📚 There were points where Nouwen’s words …
2024-03-09 Henri J. M. Nouwen: It is very hard to tolerate the experience of God as a purifying absence, and …
2024-03-09 Henri J. M. Nouwen: The mystery of God’s presence…can be touched only by a deep …
2024-03-09 Henri J. M. Nouwen: Prayer is often considered a weakness, a support system, which is used when we …
2024-03-09 Henri J. M. Nouwen: The paradox of prayer is that it asks for a serious effort while it can only be …
2024-03-07 Beautiful watercolor from Allen Say’s Grandfather’s Journey
2024-03-07 We’ll see how these do in the raised bed
2024-03-06 Currently Listening: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles
2024-03-06 (from Henri J. M. Nouwen’s Reaching Out)
2024-03-06 Henri J. M. Nouwen, on the necessary poverty of a good host: Once we have given up our desire to be …
2024-03-06 Henri J. M. Nouwen: Many of us have lost our sensitivity for our own history and experience our …
2024-03-06 Henri J. M. Nouwen, with a beautiful meditation on the (I would call it) dignifying work of good …
2024-03-06 Henri J. M. Nouwen: Creating space is far from easy in our occupied and preoccupied society. And …
2024-03-06 Henri J. M. Nouwen: We indeed have become very preoccupied people, afraid of unnamable emptiness …
2024-03-06 Henri J. M. Nouwen: Silence is such a difficult task. Many people who say how much they desire …
2024-03-06 Henri J. M. Nouwen: Hospitality…means primarily the creation of a free space where the …
2024-03-05 I bought a new (old) car this evening—no Bluetooth in it, just a CD player. I’m excited …
2024-03-05 (from the CD booklet of The Radio Dept.’s Clinging to a Scheme)
2024-03-05 RIP Frank Erwin Center
2024-03-01 Morning, Austin
2024-02-28 Christ Taking Leave of His Disciples (c. 1308-11) by Duccio di Buoninsegna: (I’m posting this …
2024-02-27 Bogumil Jarmulak, warning of the dangers of “mechanical optimism” (of which I’ve …
2024-02-25 (from Henri J. M. Nouwen’s Reaching Out)
2024-02-23 Jeff Reimer, in a moving essay entitled “How Not to Be a Schismatic,” ruminating on his …
2024-02-21 Henri J. M. Nouwen: To wait for moments or places where no pain exists, no separation is felt and …
2024-02-21 (from Henri J. M. Nouwen’s Reaching Out)
2024-02-21 Henri J. M. Nouwen, speaking my love language as he cautions about the dangers of trying to track …
2024-02-21 Currently reading: Reaching Out by Henri J. M. Nouwen 📚
2024-02-21 A good write-up in the Austin Chronicle on Kareem El-Ghayesh, the Cairo-born Austin transplant who …
2024-02-21 Me and Lewis (just chillin')
2024-02-21 Finally checking out First Light Books in Hyde Park - it’s a neat place! (photo pulled from …
2024-02-21 Sudden Showers, Newbury Marshes (c. 1865-1875) by Martin Johnson Heade:
2024-02-21 Sunset over the Marshes (c. 1890–1904) by Martin Johnson Heade:
2024-02-21 Houses at L’Estaque (1908) by Georges Braque:
2024-02-21 The Viaduct at L’Estaque (1907) by Georges Braque:
2024-02-19 Finished reading: How to Inhabit Time by James K. A. Smith 📚 Disjointed and uneven in some ways, but …
2024-02-19 Currently reading: After Emmaus by Brian J. Tabb 📚
2024-02-15 James K. A. Smith: There are lots of religious people for whom their faith amounts to a leap into a …
2024-02-15 James K. A. Smith: God’s sanctifying presence in my life doesn’t erase what’s …
2024-02-15 James K. A. Smith: Shame is a nefarious enemy of grace that thrives on the backward glance. Shame …
2024-02-15 The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (1586) by El Greco: What is going on in these strange paintings …
2024-02-14 An interesting meditation from Ellen Charry on the vexed relationship between church and synagogue …
2024-02-12 Peacemakers (1997) by Paul Hobbs:
2024-02-12 Gentle Breeze (2009) by Paul Hobbs:
2024-02-12 David Ford’s recent commentary on the Gospel of John features the artwork of Paul Hobbs on the …
2024-02-10 Finished reading: A Spirituality of Fundraising (Henri Nouwen Spirituality) by Henri J.M. Nouwen 📚
2024-02-10 Henri J. M. Nouwen , on how spiritual fundraising is driven more by the goal of communion than by …
2024-02-10 Dinos bearing gifts
2024-02-09 Brad East, commenting on how surprising it is (or ought to be) that American evangelicals so …
2024-02-07 Brad East (once more), on how a proper grasp of the essence of Christian worship ought to serve as …
2024-02-07 Brad East, on the church’s uncritical adoption of technology in worship: Long before COVID-19 …
2024-02-06 James K. A. Smith: We are bundles of potentiality, but the possibilities are not infinite. We are …
2024-02-06 James K. A. Smith: What I aspire to is a factor of what I’ve inherited. What I imagine as a …
2024-02-06 James K. A. Smith: A buried past is not dormant. Ignoring the past is not a way to escape it. …
2024-02-06 Cypresse (1889) by Vincent van Gogh:
2024-02-03 Robert Bolton: When listening does not encourage disclosures of feeling, we tend to miss the …
2024-02-03 Robert Bolton (I almost took out the exclamation point at the end, but—alas—I’m not …
2024-02-02 Currently reading: How to Inhabit Time by James K. A. Smith 📚
2024-02-02 My family took a trip to the library this afternoon while I was working and, surprisingly, came home …
2024-02-02 Watched a fascinating little documentary on the ‘winterkeeper’ of Yellowstone, Steven …
2024-02-02 Low Tide (2002) by Howard Hodgkin:
2024-02-01 Dr. Elton Mayo (quoted in Robert Bolton’s People Skills): One friend, one person who is truly …
2024-01-31 Andrew Bird, Noble Beast
2024-01-29 Currently reading: People Skills by Robert Bolton 📚
2024-01-29 Despite these slings Despite these arrows I’ll force myself to turn
2024-01-28 Finished reading: God in the Dock by C. S. Lewis 📚 Gold, as expected. For an apparently ragtag …
2024-01-28 C. S. Lewis, in an essay entitled “First and Second Things”—in which he explores the …
2024-01-28 C. S. Lewis, in response to a question about how to develop a writing style: The way for a person …
2024-01-24 C. S. Lewis, in response to those who find modern Bible translations unsavory: The only kind of …
2024-01-23 Kirche in Cassone (1913) by Gustav Klimt:
2024-01-23 Litzlberg on the Attersee (c. 1910-1912) by Gustav Klimt:
2024-01-23 Houses at Unterach am Attensee (1916) by Gustav Klimt:
2024-01-23 Avenue in the Park of Schloss Kammer (1912) by Gustav Klimt:
2024-01-23 Farm Garden with Sunflowers (1907) by Gustav Klimt:
2024-01-22 Watched the first episode of Kenneth Clark’s thirteen-part documentary series Civilisation …
2024-01-22 Listening to Joan Shelley’s self-titled LP (2017) at the recommendation of a friend. I …
2024-01-22 Finished reading: The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations by …
2024-01-22 Christopher Lasch: The best defenses against the terrors of existences are the homely comforts of …
2024-01-22 Christopher Lasch: More than anything else, it is this coexistence of hyper-rationality and a …
2024-01-22 Christopher Lasch: There is a close connection…between the erosion of moral responsibility …
2024-01-22 Christopher Lasch: Medical justice shares with enlightened childrearing and pedagogy a tendency to …
2024-01-22 Christopher Lasch, anticipating some of Douthat’s arguments re: decadence: Futurology, in its …
2024-01-21 Christopher Lasch: Both men and women have come to approach personal relations with a heightened …
2024-01-21 Christopher Lasch: At first glance, a society based on mass consumption appears to encourage …
2024-01-21 Christopher Lasch, with a passage that would make Matt Feeny’s heart soar: Both parents seek …
2024-01-21 Christopher Lasch: The invasion of the family by industry, the mass media, and the agencies of …
2024-01-21 It never gets old
2024-01-21 Cabin vibes
2024-01-21 The Timeless Airport
2024-01-20 Heading to Montana in the morning—I have the privilege of teaching a week-long class at MWSB, a …
2024-01-20 Lewis' essay on the dangers of national repentance was cited regularly a few years ago (and rightly …
2024-01-19 Big Brother Playing (1890) by Harriet Backer:
2024-01-19 Blue Interior (1883) by Harriet Backer:
2024-01-19 Sewing Woman (1890) by Harriet Backer:
2024-01-19 Summer Night (1886) by Eilif Peterssen:
2024-01-19 Fra Sevilosen ved Savallen (1907) by Eilif Peterssen:
2024-01-19 Jane Clark Scharl, from an essay on applying the principle of subsidiary to one’s purchasing: …
2024-01-19 Paul Kingsnorth, describing the religious center of civilization and, in the process, highlighting …
2024-01-19 Currently reading: A Spirituality of Fundraising (Henri Nouwen Spirituality) by Henri J.M. Nouwen 📚
2024-01-18 Christopher Lasch: Modern society has achieved unprecedented rates of formal literacy, but at the …
2024-01-18 C. S. Lewis, replying to the charge that he doesn’t ‘care much for’ the Sermon on …
2024-01-17 The White Bridge (c. 1875-1890) by John Henry Twachtman:
2024-01-17 Wild Cherry Tree (c. 1901) by John Henry Twachtman:
2024-01-17 C. S. Lewis: In all true Christian asceticism, [there is] respect for the thing rejected which, I …
2024-01-16 Valley in the Mountains (c. 1930s) by Louis Hovey Sharp:
2024-01-16 Pasadena Light by Louis Hovey Sharp:
2024-01-15 Annie Dillard (HT: Austin Kleon): One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, …
2024-01-15 David F. Ford, commenting on John 13:34-35: Love among the “little children,” in the …
2024-01-14 C. S. Lewis, from “On the Transmission of Christianity”: None can give to another what …
2024-01-13 C. S. Lewis: The people who keep on asking if they can’t lead a decent life without Christ, …
2024-01-13 C. S. Lewis, channeling his inner Leslie Newbigin: Christianity claims to give an account of …
2024-01-12 A portion of my mom’s latest painting
2024-01-12 C. S. Lewis, on the apologetic value of Christians writing on various topics from Christian …
2024-01-11 Finished reading: The Drama of Doctrine by Kevin J. Vanhoozer 📚 A really good, creative work of …
2024-01-11 “To be quiet and still is a special thing.”
2024-01-10 C. S. Lewis: Christianity does not simply affirm or simply deny the horror of death; it tells me …
2024-01-09 Kevin J. Vanhoozer: Gerhard Ebeling famously declared that church history is essentially the …
2024-01-08 Currently reading: The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story by Craig G. …
2024-01-08 James R. Wood, asking in Comment “Can the Church Still Speak?": Can the Church still …
2024-01-08 Afternoon session: “liner” by Justin Vernon
2024-01-08 “powers” on repeat this AM
2024-01-07 For those interested: an update on where life has taken us
2024-01-06 C. S. Lewis, in answer to a question about the divided church and the hope of reunion: The time is …
2024-01-06 C. S. Lewis: When any man comes into the presence of God he will find, whether he wishes it or not, …
2024-01-05 It’s like I’ve fallen out of bed From a long and vivid dream Finally I’m free of …
2024-01-05 My first piece for Mere Orthodoxy is up today: What If There Is No Such Thing as …
2024-01-05 Currently reading: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling 📚
2024-01-03 Richard Lovelace: It is hard to generalize about a whole nation as large and complex as our own, …
2023-12-31 The end of an era
2023-12-29 Kevin J. Vanhoozer: The first truth about human being is that we are not autonomous but evoked: to …
2023-12-29 Kevin J. Vanhoozer: A hypocrite…is one who fails to achieve identity, a …
2023-12-29 Leviticus 13:45-46: The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair …
2023-12-29 Finally watched (yes, for the first time) It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). Loved it! Though I …
2023-12-28 Kevin J. Vanhoozer: The canon is the norm of theology, but it need not follow that theological …
2023-12-28 Finished reading: For the Time Being by W. H. Auden 📚 This was my first time reading For the Time …
2023-12-28 SIMEON: And because of His visitation, we may no longer desire God as if He were lacking: our …
2023-12-28 Oliver Burkeman, giving readers permission to forget what we read instead of trying to feverishly …
2023-12-26 Christopher Lasch: Imprisoned in his self-awareness, modern man longs for the lost innocence of …
2023-12-26 One of our favorite holiday traditions: eating at Chuy’s on Boxing Day
2023-12-26 MARY: O shut your bright eyes that mine must endanger With their watchfulness; protected by its …
2023-12-25 Late Christmas lunch at Arpeggio!
2023-12-25 Success! Mom’s gift is finished (see here and here for previous stages in the process). …
2023-12-24 THE THREE WISE MEN: At least we know for certain that we are three old sinners, That this journey is …
2023-12-24 CHORUS: Blessed Woman, Excellent Man, Redeem for the dull the Average Way, That common ungifted …
2023-12-24 Currently reading: God in the Dock by C. S. Lewis 📚
2023-12-23 Anyone else remember Cybiko? It ranks as my all-time most disappointing Christmas gift. I begged my …
2023-12-22 Now that the books have all migrated home, I’m trying to be creative with our limited space.
2023-12-20 Merry Christmas from Laz 1
2023-12-20 Update on Mom’s chairs: have added new foam and padding; now all that’s left is the …
2023-12-19 Currently reading: For the Time Being by W. H. Auden 📚
2023-12-19 The girls enjoying their new paint set, courtesy of aunt and uncle
2023-12-18 Kevin J. Vanhoozer, on what the “mind of Christ” actually is: The “mind of …
2023-12-16 My Christmas gift to the bro-in-law: Pictured here with books:
2023-12-16 Christopher Lasch: A denial of the past, superficially progressive and optimistic, proves on closer …
2023-12-16 Currently reading: The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations by …
2023-12-15 First time listening to Radiohead in a whiiiiiile
2023-12-15 Finished reading: The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher’s Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and …
2023-12-15 Finished reading: The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis 📚 My trek through Lewis' corpus continues. …
2023-12-14 Currently reading: The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher’s Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and …
2023-12-14 Marshes in New Jersey (1895) by Henry Ossawa Tanner:
2023-12-14 Flight Into Egypt (1923) by Henry Ossawa Tanner:
2023-12-14 Pomp at the Zoo (1880) by Henry Ossawa Tanner:
2023-12-14 The Annunciation (1898) by Henry Ossawa Tanner:
2023-12-14 The Banjo Lesson (1893) by Henry Ossawa Tanner:
2023-12-14 The Seine (c. 1902) by Henry Ossawa Tanner:
2023-12-12 Checking out Barrett’s for the afternoon
2023-12-11 Finished reading: How to Be Normal by Phil Christman 📚 A fun “how to” guide on various …
2023-12-11 Kevin J. Vanhoozer: “Tradition” names the way in which Christian identity is sustained …
2023-12-11 Naples Afternoon (c. 1948) by William Congdon:
2023-12-11 Broken yolk in western sky My stomach turned, my mouth went dry
2023-12-11 Matt Dinan, on “Friendship as Soulcraft”: Maybe men struggle with living meaningful …
2023-12-11 Landscape after Wang Ximeng (1948) by Zhang Daqian (his rendition of Wang Ximeng’s A Thousand Li of …
2023-12-11 Mist at Dawn (1968) by Zhang Daqian:
2023-12-09 Phil Christman, with a wonderful description of teaching (I’ll be filing away the phrase …
2023-12-09 Phil Christman: We are Americans; our national myth is Footloose. None of us can enjoy our …
2023-12-09 Phil Christman: If the phrase “meaning of a life” is analogous to the phrase …
2023-12-09 Sunset pictures never come anywhere close to capturing the real thing. That fact doesn’t seem …
2023-12-09 Mom’s Christmas gift: reupholstering her old dining room chairs. Will update on progress, …
2023-12-08 After covering the so-called Nazca Lines with the kids as part of our history lesson this morning, …
2023-12-08 Phil Christman, with his concluding paragraph on the problems with “whiteness”: So, I …
2023-12-08 Phil Christman, commenting on Blackness in an essay entitled “How to be White”: We …
2023-12-08 Phil Christman: Many Americans have been trained to believe that feeling is a form of labor, …
2023-12-07 Currently reading: The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis 📚
2023-12-07 Oliver Burkeman, author of the superb Four Thousand Weeks, commenting on our misguided attempts to …
2023-12-06 “I’m getting a snack; do you want something?” my wife asks from the kitchen. …
2023-12-06 Currently reading: How to Be Normal by Phil Christman 📚
2023-12-06 Kevin J. Vanhoozer: The ministry of the Word involves more than communicating a few truths; it …
2023-12-06 Kevin J. Vanhoozer: Theology’s task is to equip disciples to speak and act in ways that …
2023-12-06 Finished reading: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling 📚 Such an enjoyable read. …
2023-12-05 Rowan Williams, with a characteristically beautiful meditation on how God repairs us and the world …
2023-12-05 R. Lucas Stamps, on how the Advent season ought to be marked more by mourning than feasting or …
2023-12-04 “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” came on at Chuy’s this evening while our family …
2023-12-04 Currently reading: The Drama of Doctrine by Kevin J. Vanhoozer 📚
2023-12-04 Apropos of nothing: I’m most of the way through The Half-Blood Prince (this is my first time …
2023-12-04 The Division of the Light from the Darkness (1924) by Paul Nash, which I stumbled upon while …
2023-12-04 Brad East, in an essay on “the ends of theological education,” describing how one end is …
2023-12-04 Parade Hoboken, New Jersey (1955) from Robert Frank’s The Americans
2023-12-02 There is a light Bright star shining In the dark night Old tales come true
2023-12-01 Paul Kingsnorth, with quite the understatement: “It’s almost as if modernity has got human …
2023-11-30 Exquisite botanical paintings from Jacques le Moyne, a sixteenth century French painter who is …
2023-11-28 Finished reading: Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis 📚 Honest, sobering reflections on life without H. …
2023-11-28 C. S. Lewis: Sometimes, Lord, one is tempted to say that if you wanted us to behave like the lilies …
2023-11-28 C. S. Lewis: Five senses; an incurably abstract intellect; a haphazardly selective memory; a set of …
2023-11-27 Saw Ridley Scott’s Napoleon tonight with Kristyn. The battle sequences are certainly …
2023-11-27 Finished reading: Reading the Gospels Wisely by Jonathan T. Pennington 📚 A superb book. Pennington …
2023-11-27 Marseille (1954) by Nicolas de Staël:
2023-11-27 Sicile (1954) by Nicolas de Staël:
2023-11-27 Agrigente (1954) by Nicolas de Staël:
2023-11-26 C. S. Lewis, dropping some truth bombs about the afterlife that might be a little too on the nose …
2023-11-25 Why is it “Febreze” instead of “Febreeze”? The double “e” in the …
2023-11-25 Christmas has arrived at the Bowman’s
2023-11-24 Finished reading: Little Platoons by Matt Feeney 📚 Smart analysis on how American families have …
2023-11-24 Still not all of ‘em…
2023-11-22 Jonathan T. Pennington: Jesus' death was confusing, dismaying, and inexplicable at the time of the …
2023-11-21 My buddy Ricardo recommended to me “Montana” by Slow Pulp (from their debut album, …
2023-11-21 A pet peeve of mine: When a junior scholar—say, a PhD student—writes a hyper-critical and dismissive …
2023-11-21 Albarran Cabrera:
2023-11-20 C. S. Lewis: It is hard to have patience with people who say, ‘There is no death’ or …
2023-11-20 Currently reading: Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis 📚
2023-11-20 Alan Jacobs, with what begins as a balanced take on Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s conversion to …
2023-11-19 Lily and Bella got me NBA trading cards for my birthday. This one of Scary Terry (Rozier) is my …
2023-11-19 One bookshelf down (made completely from scrap wood), two or three to go. At least my books in the …
2023-11-18 Matt Feeney, on the deepest, essentially philosophical, reason for resisting the triumph of digital …
2023-11-18 Matt Feeney: I have no control over the degree to which digital technology rules the world outside …
2023-11-18 Also from the Tomb of Nebamun
2023-11-18 From the Tomb of Nebamun
2023-11-16 Jonathan T. Pennington: While affirming the essential historical veracity of the Gospel accounts …
2023-11-16 Matt Feeney: Parents gain early knowledge of what gatekeeping institutions want and then refashion …
2023-11-16 Cityscape #1 (1963) by Richard Diebenkorn:
2023-11-16 From Petworth Park (1932) by Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson:
2023-11-16 Hampstead Heath (1921) by John Lavery:
2023-11-16 A Moorish Landscape - Evening (1914) by John Lavery:
2023-11-16 West of Ireland Landscape (c. 1920) by Paul Henry:
2023-11-15 Matt Feeney: The main functional benefit of modern hands-on parenting is not that it makes kids …
2023-11-15 Matt Feeney: From the first queasy hints of pregnancy to the wrenching parental rite of college …
2023-11-15 Currently reading: Little Platoons by Matt Feeney 📚
2023-11-14 Finished reading: The Unbroken Thread by Sohrab Ahmari 📚 I expected a more direct treatment of …
2023-11-14 I’m calling for a moratorium on book subtitles of this ilk: …
2023-11-14 View of Dresden by Moonlight (1839) by J. C. Dahl:
2023-11-14 Frederiksborg Castle (1814) by J. C. Dahl:
2023-11-13 Currently reading: Reading the Gospels Wisely by Jonathan T. Pennington 📚
2023-11-13 The Met is running an exhibition entitled Africa & Byzantium, highlighting the often-overlooked …
2023-11-11 The National’s new album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, was my wood-cutting soundtrack this …
2023-11-10 Birthday gift for mom (Quick aside: Is there another human who could make the face Springsteen is …
2023-11-09 Finished reading: Esther and Her Elusive God by John Anthony Dunne 📚 A thorough debunking of the …
2023-11-09 John Anthony Dunne, on how the church can embrace the secular story of Esther as Christian …
2023-11-08 John Carpenter, on the ways that consumerism has colonized our imagination, and particularly our …
2023-11-08 Feeling pretty good about this
2023-11-06 Cassandra Nelson, describing the high school learning experience of many of the students she …
2023-11-06 “Nonsense on stilts"—I’ll have to file that phrase away for later. East’s …
2023-11-06 David J. Siegel, on the goods to be enjoyed in pulling back, in both long and short spurts, from the …
2023-11-06 Mary Delany, an 18th-century English artist, with some rather incredible “botanical paper …
2023-11-06 View of Delft by Johannes Vermeer (c. 1660-61):
2023-11-06 Michael White eloquently describes his experience of the Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, …
2023-11-05 I read Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel with the kids tonight (my first time ever reading it). …
2023-11-05 “Can you lift me up to a higher place?”
2023-11-04 Finished reading: The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday 📚 A mediocre book, to be sure. The writing …
2023-11-04 Happy Saturday!
2023-11-04 I painted this back in 2018; I’m a one-trick pony when it comes to painting.
2023-11-03 A fascinating 2018 documentary on Paul Kingsnorth’s changed relationship to the …
2023-10-31 A “nekyia” scene (i.e., an ancient Greek rite in which ghosts were called up and …
2023-10-31 My wife and I are finally watching Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds for the first time. (I say …
2023-10-30 If at all feasible in your situation, don’t use Amazon. That is all.
2023-10-29 Harry did not really listen. A warmth was spreading through him that had nothing to do with the …
2023-10-29 First fire of the season
2023-10-28 James K. A. Smith, with sage advice on how to visit a museum: When visiting a museum or gallery, I …
2023-10-27 So many questions raised by these scenes, which come from panels on the sound box of a bull-headed …
2023-10-26 Alan Jacobs, arguing that intractable cultural debates are often downstream from philological …
2023-10-25 Quesoff 2023—a food competition my wife could get excited about :)
2023-10-25 “Dive” by Beach House
2023-10-25 We’ll see if this guy’s any good
2023-10-25 Sohrab Ahmari: Barbarism…isn’t the mere opposite of civilization, but simply the …
2023-10-25 Currently reading: The Unbroken Thread by Sohrab Ahmari 📚
2023-10-24 my happy place
2023-10-24 Here’s a current installation of Kawamata’s, “Nest in Liaigre”:
2023-10-24 Stumbled upon the work of Tadashi Kawamata, who reclaims old wooden objects and furniture for his …
2023-10-24 Naples (c. 1841) by John Ruskin:
2023-10-24 Study of Dawn: purple Clouds (1868) by John Ruskin:
2023-10-23 Matt Crawford, on dirt biking as an example of the “humanizing possibilities” of risk: …
2023-10-20 Currently reading: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling 📚
2023-10-19 Joy says hi
2023-10-18 Geoff Shullenberger, shedding some light on the ultimately therapeutic aims of liberal elites who …
2023-10-18 Currently reading: The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday 📚
2023-10-17 Finished reading: Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich 📚 An unrelenting critique of compulsory …
2023-10-17 Ivan Illich: The alternative to dependence on schools is not the use of public resources for some …
2023-10-17 Ivan Illich: A child on the streets of New York never touches anything which has not been …
2023-10-16 Stumbled upon a video, produced by Fuller Seminary, in which Bono and Eugene Peterson discuss the …
2023-10-13 If you needed further evidence that Lazarus is the best brewery in Austin, they have a summer beer …
2023-10-13 surprised by Joy
2023-10-11 Ivan Illich: I believe that a desirable future depends on our deliberately choosing a life of …
2023-10-09 The Hunters in the Snow (1565) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder:
2023-10-09 Annunciation to the Shepherds by Taddeo Gaddi: The painting is obviously interesting for a variety …
2023-10-07 I’m giving Sufjan’s latest, Javelin, a spin. Three tracks in, it’s vintage Sufjan …
2023-10-07 Awkwardly coexisting is about the best you can hope for with these two.
2023-10-06 Ivan Illich, with a passage that deserves to be read slowly and pondered deeply: If the greatest …
2023-10-06 Currently reading: Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich 📚
2023-10-04 Finished reading: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 5: Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible by …
2023-10-04 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, on how learning to curb our evil words about others in the Christian community …
2023-10-04 Finished reading: The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis 📚 With each Lewis book I finish, my awe at what …
2023-10-04 C. S. Lewis: [W]e are afraid that heaven is a bribe, and that if we make it our goal we shall no …
2023-10-03 John Webster, on theological criticism as an activity performed by and for the Christian community: …
2023-10-03 my new office doormat, courtesy of the Davenant Institute
2023-10-03 As I embark on a self-directed course of study in art history, the natural place to begin is the …
2023-10-03 C. S. Lewis, on (gulp) hell: There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from …
2023-10-02 Lewis…doing his thing, I suppose
2023-10-02 C. S. Lewis: The Christian doctrine of suffering explains, I believe, a very curious fact about the …
2023-09-30 C. S. Lewis: The sacrifice of Christ is repeated, or re-echoed, among His followers in very varying …
2023-09-28 Here’s a map of the fictionalized town of Winesburg (Wikimedia):
2023-09-28 I need to return to Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, a collection of stories centered …
2023-09-27 C. S. Lewis: When we merely say that we are bad, the ‘wrath’ of God seems a barbarous …
2023-09-27 C. S. Lewis: Beware lest you are making use of the idea of corporate guilt to distract your …
2023-09-27 C. S. Lewis: From our own childhood we remember that before our elders thought us capable of …
2023-09-25 it’s time to repave
2023-09-25 How do I say bye to that face?
2023-09-24 Finished reading: In the Name of Jesus by Henri J. M. Nouwen 📚
2023-09-24 Henri J. M. Nouwen: Confession and forgiveness are the concrete forms in which we sinful people …
2023-09-24 Henri J. M. Nouwen: Do you know the incarnate God? In our world of loneliness and despair, there is …
2023-09-24 Henri J. M. Nouwen: The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to …
2023-09-24 Currently reading: In the Name of Jesus by Henri J. M. Nouwen 📚
2023-09-21 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, commenting on the horizon-expanding effect that singing has on the local …
2023-09-21 Dietrich Bonhoeffer: For Christians the beginning of the day should not be burdened and haunted by …
2023-09-21 design submitted by a reader of Paul Kingsnorth’s The Abbey of Misrule
2023-09-21 Paul Kingsnorth: My belief in the profanity of technology is not widely shared, and…even …
2023-09-20 Finished reading: What Is Christianity? by Herman Bavinck 📚
2023-09-20 Herman Bavinck: What is contained in that Bible is so rich and so broad in scope that it cannot be …
2023-09-20 Herman Bavinck: The unity of the church and Christianity is irrevocably behind us; differentiation …
2023-09-20 Currently reading: The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis 📚
2023-09-19 treasures old and new
2023-09-19 Finished reading: The Decadent Society by Ross Douthat 📚 Douthat’s commentary is unfailingly …
2023-09-18 RIP mummy
2023-09-18 Courtesy of Arielle Austin
2023-09-18 Currently reading: Esther and Her Elusive God by John Anthony Dunne 📚
2023-09-18 Currently reading: What Is Christianity? by Herman Bavinck 📚
2023-09-17 Henri J. M. Nouwen: The question of where to live and what to do is really insignificant compared …
2023-09-14 Finished reading: The Doctrine of Scripture by Brad East 📚 A joyous, lyrical volume on Scripture. …
2023-09-14 Currently reading: Gardner’s Art through the Ages: A Global History by Fred S. Kleiner 📚
2023-09-13 1947-Y-No. 2 by Clyfford Still
2023-09-13 PH-218 by Clyfford Still
2023-09-13 PH-21 by Clyfford Still
2023-09-13 Brad East: The home of Holy Scripture is worship. It is the public, not the private, reading of …
2023-09-13 Brad East: There is no one right way to read the Bible. That is the first thing to say about …
2023-09-12 Brad East: It is no accident that monastic life is the location and model of unguarded intimacy …
2023-09-12 Finished reading: Durable Trades by Rory Groves 📚 Durable Trades is the needed cure for what Graeber …
2023-09-11 Rory Groves: The fact is, our perceptions about trades and the people who work in them are mostly …
2023-09-11 Brad East: Scripture is…a book for the mission, a portable library of trustworthy samples of …
2023-09-11 George Macdonald (HT: Alan Jacobs): Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask …
2023-09-10 from the cover of Brad East’s book
2023-09-09 Currently reading: The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome …
2023-09-07 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, providing me with further ammunition in my assault upon bigness and greatness: …
2023-09-07 Currently reading: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works: Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible by Dietrich …
2023-09-06 Brad East: The church’s liturgy is the native habitat, the first home, of Holy Scripture. For …
2023-09-06 Albarran Cabrera
2023-09-03 A conflicted movie that left me feeling conflicted. Perhaps that was the point…
2023-09-01 Ross Douthat: The truth of America and the West in the first decades of the twenty-first century, a …
2023-09-01 Currently reading: The Decadent Society by Ross Douthat 📚
2023-09-01 Finished reading: Stewards of Eden by Sandra L. Richter 📚 As a work of biblical theology, it offers …
2023-08-31 Currently reading: The Doctrine of Scripture by Brad East 📚
2023-08-30 Finished reading: The Church’s Book by Brad East 📚 Meticulous, verbose even, but engaging and …
2023-08-29 Brad East: The great hermeneutical virtue of the church, therefore, is patience. It is not lethargy …
2023-08-29 On the Bank of the River by Paul Signac (from MIA)
2023-08-24 Currently reading: Stewards of Eden by Sandra L. Richter 📚
2023-08-23 Brad East, in discussing the difficult question of reading Yoder, gives this very useful description …
2023-08-23 Zena Hitz: Nowhere are our true feelings about work clearer than in the growth of jobs which pay …
2023-08-23 Finished reading: The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde 📚 A …
2023-08-23 Finished reading: How to Work with (Almost) Anyone by Michael Bungay Stanier 📚 Don’t bother …
2023-08-22 Lewis is grateful for the rain
2023-08-18 Finally saw Oppenheimer. Great film - my attention never wavered.
2023-08-16 from the cover of James Rebanks' book
2023-08-15 Finished reading: Freedom for Ministry by Richard John Neuhaus 📚 A masterpiece. Hands down the best …
2023-08-15 Richard John Neuhaus: In ministry, as in life, we never arrive, for our ministries and our lives …
2023-08-09 Currently reading: How to Work with (Almost) Anyone by Michael Bungay Stanier 📚
2023-08-08 Richard John Neuhaus: Many pastors report that they do not have time for serious study at all. Or …
2023-08-07 Richard John Neuhaus, warning of the dangers of preaching about controversial social issues (what he …
2023-08-07 Currently reading: Durable Trades by Rory Groves 📚
2023-08-03 For whatever reason, this has been the track for summer 2023.
2023-08-03 Thesis: The best cultural criticism is at least a decade old, and often a good bit older. The reason …
2023-08-02 Given how much I’ve enjoyed his Freedom for Ministry, I thought it wise to read a little more …
2023-08-02 Richard John Neuhaus: It may seem like a cop-out to say that great preaching cannot be defined, you …
2023-08-02 Richard John Neuhaus: Were one to indulge in paradox, it is not too much to say that the most …
2023-08-02 Richard John Neuhaus: The sign on the front of a Presbyterian church in Indianapolis reads: …
2023-08-01 Richard John Neuhaus: If we are honest with ourselves, such signs of really making a difference are …
2023-07-31 Chapter Four of Neuhaus' Freedom for Ministry, entitled “Authority for Ministry,” deals …
2023-07-31 Brad East: Christian theology consists of variations on common themes. What makes one theologian or …
2023-07-31 Finished reading: The Politics of Gratitude by Mark T. Mitchell 📚 The prose was a little formulaic …
2023-07-27 Richard John Neuhaus: While we dare not pander to religious expectations by trying to accommodate …
2023-07-27 Brad East on two ways of reading: One way of reading something is to ask what’s wrong with it: …
2023-07-25 Richard John Neuhaus: It is liberating to know that we do not need to present an apologia for the …
2023-07-24 Matilda of Tuscany, an interesting figure I was mostly ignorant of before today, pictured here …
2023-07-24 Are people able to use Nextdoor in ways that enhance neighborliness? Does the app actually help you …
2023-07-23 Pete Davis: Why is commitment necessary to change? Because change happens slow, not fast. …
2023-07-23 An addendum to the last post. Hadden Turner on “the Burdens of Speed”: Speed, being a …
2023-07-23 William James, in a letter to Mrs. Henry Whitman dated June 7, 1899 (HT: Zena Hitz, who offered it …
2023-07-22 Finished reading: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, Book 5) by J. K. Rowling …
2023-07-21 Martha Nussbaum: There is a kind of striving that is appropriate to a human life; and there is a …
2023-07-21 Currently reading: The Politics of Gratitude by Mark T. Mitchell 📚
2023-07-21 Currently reading: The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde 📚
2023-07-21 Ellen Davis (HT: Wesley Hill): Cultivating unsettledness about biblical language and unsettledness …
2023-07-21 Leo Tolstoy, with some Ecclesiastes-style wisdom: My question–that which at the age of fifty …
2023-07-21 Dorothy Sayers: The one thing I am here to say to you is this: that it is worse than useless for …
2023-07-21 Currently reading: The Church’s Book by Brad East 📚
2023-07-20 photo cred: Kristyn
2023-07-20 Currently reading: Freedom for Ministry by Richard John Neuhaus 📚