A rundown of my writing in March. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

Linked Site Title

Monthly Update: Liberation 2025

Brad East — 8 April 2025

Greetings all!

I’m writing five days before Palm Sunday and one week after April Fools’ Day, which was my original target for this newsletter. Apologies again for the delay. Perhaps I should just say all newsletters will come one week into each month?

We’re still in Lent, so I opted for a … less than liturgical title for the season we’re living in at the moment, that is to say, since the glorious unveiling of April 2.

News

Reader reports on the manuscript are coming in, and they are simultaneously encouraging and, as expected, full of feedback that will require substantial revisions, which await me next month.

Writing

Four things published since the last newsletter.

First, a long essay on the sacrament of baptism:

  • Baptism Is Not Optional (CT)

Second, a column about epistemology, faith, and conspiracism:

  • Christians Are Conspiracy Theorists (CT)

Third, a minor intervention in the AI/education wars:

  • Luddite Pedagogy (Chronicle of Higher Education)

Finally, an opinion piece in the print edition of First Things:

  • Goldilocks Protestantism (FT)

Appearances

On March 5 I gave a talk about digital technology and spiritual formation at Memorial Road Church of Christ in Edmund, Oklahoma.

Tomorrow—Wednesday, April 9, 6:30pm—I’ll be giving a talk in Houston at the Church of St. John the Divine. The title is “Why the Church is the Reason God Created the Universe.” Come out and say hi!

I also appeared on the Truth Over Tribe podcast to talk Gen Z, saints, and catechesis. It was one of the best conversations I’ve had about the book.

Oh, and I’ll be teaching in the Regent College summer program for the first time. The class is The Doctrine of Scripture and runs June 9-13. I’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about this program and can’t wait to participate.

Blog

This month I mezzo-blogged about:

  • The ten-plus authors club

  • Three types of Christian higher ed

  • Toward a definition of Dad TV

Keep up with the micro-blogging here.

Links

Some of my favorite reads over the past month included…

  • Matthew Lee Anderson on reputation, scandal, and Christian higher ed

  • B. D. McClay on science fiction

  • Victor Lee Austin on absolution

  • Mary Kate Rogers on Severance as a metaphor for embryos and IVF

  • Spencer A. Klavan on quantum physics

  • Ross Douthat contra Adam Gopnik

  • Matt Zoller Seitz on Thomas Kinkade

  • Samuel D. James on “accountability” and male friendship in churches

  • Bonnie Kristian on overdiagnosis, overmedicalization, and the lessons for pastors

  • Matthew Walther on the American parish

  • Peter Hitchens on baptism and exorcism

  • Charles C. Mann on farming 2.0

  • Alastair Roberts on the Psalms in Hebrews

  • Steven D. Greydanus on one of my favorite Calvin & Hobbes strips

  • Alan Jacobs' on Martin Woessner’s Terrence Malick and the Examined Life

  • And much ado about AI: Paul Griffiths, “Ghosts and Dolls” (in The Lamp); Charles Carman, “One to Zero” (in The New Atlantis); Nikolas Prassas, “Large Language Poetry” (in First Things); James Hankings, “AI and the Unhappy Society” (First Things); Richard Hughes Gibson, “Language Machinery" (The Hedgehog Review)

Forthcoming

Maybe one more column this month, but be on the lookout in the next 8-12 weeks for essays and reviews covering aliens, theological interpretation, American religion, American heresy, tech and kids, tech and church, and more.

As ever, thanks for reading.

Peace,

Brad

1850 Teague Blvd, Abilene, TX 79699, USA

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