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Greetings all! Perhaps predictably, September defeated me; this newsletter is covering all the ground since August 7, the last time I sent one out. You will not be surprised to hear that returning to the classroom after more than sixteen months of research leave involved more than a little time and labor on my part. All the more reason to read on for all the news and links that are fit to print. News First off, the publisher Baker has acquired Lexham, which is big news for me, because it means that the book I just finished—a guide for pastors navigating the challenges of digital technology—will now be published with Baker rather than Lexham. I’m crossing my fingers the acquisition and transition won’t lead to a delay; I’d love to see this book out in 2026! Second, mid-month I spent a full week in western Pennsylvania, my first time in the state. I started with a gathering at Grove City College for a CCCU grant I’m a part of. The grant is about AI and pedagogy, focused on Christian higher ed but not limited to that context. I had the pleasure of meeting a number of people in person for the first time—including Jeff Bilbro, Chris Krycho, and Richard Gibson!—which was the main delight, though the conversations and scheming were wonderful, too. From there I headed south to downtown Pittsburgh for a writers’ retreat sponsored by Christianity Today. There I also got to meet a bunch of folks in the flesh for the first time, not least “my” editor Bonnie Kristian, as well as Russell Moore, Jen Michel, and a host of others I’ve been reading and learning from for a long time. I’m hoping for a similar experience next week down in Waco, where Baylor is hosting Front Porch Republic‘s annual conference. Besides Jeff Bilbro, FPR’s editor-in-chief, others giving talks include Matthew B. Crawford, Leah Libresco Sargeant, Elizabeth Newman, and David Lyle Jeffrey. I’m not doing anything except attending and listening. Should be good fun. If you’re nearby, come by and introduce yourself! Books A new category: for anyone who still hasn’t picked up one of my books. You can nab them for a cheap price on Amazon; and if you’ve already got yourself a copy, buy one for a friend, a child, a pastor, a parent, or a student in your life! That’s four books for about sixty bucks total—not bad, not bad at all. Appearances Five pods: I also gave a talk at the local Episcopal Church last night as part of a series marking the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. My topic was the Nicene Creed and Church unity. I was pro-Nicene, if you were wondering. Writing Six new pieces: Both HHR and FT have, respectively, brought the aliens and leftism pieces out from behind the paywall. Blog Nothing at all! Zilch. Nada. For now, the micro blog is where the action’s at: lots of pictures from my travels as well as links to what I’m reading. Links Speaking of what I’ve been reading, here are some odds and ends: In 2014 the New York Times profiled Paul Kingsnorth and his merry band of mourners at the Dark Mountain Project. This was after his departure from journalism and move to rural Ireland, but before his conversion to Orthodoxy. I finally read Robert Draper’s profile of Charlie Kirk for the NYT Magazine, published in February of this year. Apropos of nothing, I returned to Adam Smith’s 2023 essay advocating for Christian universities to set aside some dorms as tech-free. I thought Kevin DeYoung did a marvelously charitable job reviewing Peter Kreeft’s spiritual autobiography, From Calvinist to Catholic. Read Aaron Kheriaty on “zombie bioethics," i.e., the ethics of creating brainless human “bodyoids” on which to perform medical Read Terry Eagleton on modernism and Joseph Conrad. Read B. D. McClay on “the uggo police." Not sure she quite convinced me, but I found Molly Worthen’s piece on CCM to be disarming, instructive, and moving. J. Robert Lennon on Elmore Leonard: “He did more with less than any crime writer I can think of." And: “Leonard’s superpower was to apprehend the broken syntax of real speech and translate it to the page so that it jumped straight from the eye to the ear, bypassing the inner grammarian.” Read Andrew Kaufmann on the idea of the west. Modern Theology has been slowly publishing reflections on and reconsiderations of Kathryn Tanner’s first book and its proposal of a theological grammar for describing God’s relation to and difference from the world. All of them are worth reading, but see especially her own piece, titled “How My Mind Has Changed on God’s Noncontrastive Transcendence." Read C. S. Lewis’s 1958 essay, “Willing Slaves of the Welfare State," h/t Bonnie Kristian. Read Christopher Caldwell on the instability and collapse of global liberalism. Read Rachel Roth Aldhizer on Medicaid and what her disabled son needs to live. Read Nick Burns on why AI isn’t biased enough. Read Luke Timothy Johnson on Bruce Gordon’s new global history of the Bible. Read Daniel Gullotta on Randall Balmer’s new book about the separation of church and state. I finally got around to reading Douthat’s “Age of Extinction” essay. Even better than expected. Can’t wait to assign it to students this semester. And some great lines, including: “BookTok is to literature as OnlyFans is to great romantic love.” In the NYRB both Mark Lilla and Osita Nwanevu review Tanenhaus’s biography of Buckley. Jeff Bilbro reviews Ed Simon’s new cultural history of the apocalypse. My friend Zac Koons wrote the cover story for the latest issue of The Christian Century: “The Priesthood of All Chatbots?" Lord, have mercy. Russell Moore’s “30 Things I learned from 30 Years of Ministry” is well worth reading for anyone, but aspiring and early-career pastors in particular. The latest issue of The Point is outstanding all around, but see especially Geoff Shullenberger’s essay “Popular Justice," which touches on Foucault, Girard, and the nature and forms of political violence.
Forthcoming I’ve got a column set for next week in Christianity Today, plus a profile of Leah Libresco Sargeant in Arc due out sometime in the next two weeks. I also reviewed Phil Ziegler’s new book on the devil for Modern Theology; an early-online version should be out before Thanksgiving, I think. Commonweal has my review of Paul Kingsnorth’s Against the Machine in hand, but I didn’t submit it in time to coincide with the book’s publication date, alas. I’m currently working on finishing Kwamy Anthony Appiah’s latest for a review in the Chronicle; hopefully that one gets turned around quickly. Much to come, in other words! Plus, a fun one-on-one chat with Derek Rishmawy about penal substitutionary atonement for Mere Fidelity. That one’ll go up next Wednesday. Oh, and I’ll be at Mundelein Seminary next month to give a paper as part of a small gathering of scholars and theologians, all of whom are presenting on some aspect or another of Saint Thomas Aquinas’s commentary on the book of Isaiah. I’ll be a lonely Protestant surrounded on all sides by Thomists, and I’m supposed to have the temerity to speak to them about Thomas. As if I have a single thing to teach them about their man. Pray for me! As ever, thanks for reading. Peace, Brad
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