I have not written much, or for very long, but this Sapientia book symposium is easily the greatest honor my work has ever received. I am very grateful to Joey, Dan, Hannah, John, Rachel, and Russ for reading, challenging, and extending my argument, and for Matthew Wiley and Joey Sherrard for putting this together and…

On a crisp Autumn night a few years ago, our little church started a new institution in the life of our community: monthly neighborhood parties. In the months leading up to that night, we had built a beautiful relationship with our local jazz club, who agreed to host us. We spent weeks of valuable staff…

Should someone claim the label “gay Christian?” It is not a question that Alan Noble takes up in You Are Not Your Own. Yet it is a question same-sex attracted disciples get asked frequently, and one that consistently features in articles, webinars, and panels on LGBT+ questions. It can be asked kindly, curiously, and sometimes…

In 1979, Richard Lovelace analyzed what it meant for local churches to pursue strategies of spiritual revitalization in his book Dynamics of Spiritual Life. Without being formulaic, he gave a paradigm of what are (1) the preconditions for spiritual renewal to occur (a grasp of a knowledge of God, ourselves, the depth of sin, and…

In his new book You Are Not Your Own, Alan Noble talks a lot about sex. He talks about sexual identity. He talks about the ethics of sex work. He talks about the ennui that can undermine married sex. And he talks about pornography. (He talks about pornography a whole lot.) To be fair, one…

Alan Noble’s You Are Not Your Own is an appeal to reclaim the anthropological sensibilities of the Heidelberg Catechism by way of a trenchant analysis of what it feels like to live in the malaise of the modern “inhuman” world. For as far-ranging as Noble’s book is, again and again I found myself being profitably…

In the introduction to The Republic of Grace: Augustinian Thoughts for Dark Times, Charles Mathewes writes, “Hope has had a hard time since September 11. But things were not so good before then either.” Now over a decade from the publication of those words, we could replace the fall of the Twin Towers with any…

Our triune God, in all his perfect self-awareness, revealed himself to his servant Moses as “I AM WHO I AM” (Ex. 3:14). This ontological statement has led Christian theologians throughout the history of the church to understand God as the one who is utterly other, pure act and pure being, perfectly simple, always immutable, necessarily…

Reading Journal Home << Previous Entry Next entry >> Continuing my slow start to Dante’s Comedy, I look here at additional themes of love, community, and spiritual journey as the pilgrim prepares to enter the Inferno. N.B.: To get your bearings in our Dante series, start here. Canto II 1. Though the pilgrim has a guide in Virgil,…

No one said improvisation is easy. It requires the toys to place strong faith in their owner. And at times what Andy’s toys see doesn’t convince them that their faith was well-placed. Toys—like people—are visual creatures; they need evidence. In the case of identity this is an especially high calling. It’s easier for Andy’s toys…

All three Toy Story movies rely heavily on the name-on-your-boot motif—both visually and in dialogue. This motif is set in the context of all toys’ basic desire: to be played with. The beginning of Toy Story threatens Andy’s toys’ assurance that they will be played with; the day is Andy’s birthday. That means gifts, which…

As I dig into my year-long discussion of a theology of achievement, I will be developing several conversation partners—both Christian and secular. In this post, I begin to survey the literature out there that relates to the theme.[1] Most of the literature does not address the theme of “achievement” directly—or, at least, it doesn’t use…