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Greetings all! A happy Eastertide to everyone. My colleagues are exhausted and ready for finals to be over with. My kids are ready for summer. The sun is shining and the weather, for May in west Texas, is glorious. It’s just that time of year. News The year-long sabbatical is at last coming to an end. I still have the summer to continue working on the manuscript, but mentally I have the first week of June marked as the end of this academic year’s “faculty renewal leave.” I’ve submitted adoptions for the fall and will look at syllabi soon. Back to the grind. Between now and the beginning of classes I’m hoping to have two or three bits of news: a new book contract, a new (old) podcast, and God willing a finished manuscript in the hands of the publisher and a tentative publication date. Stay tuned. Oh, and by the way: On Amazon, Letters to a Future Saint is $18 and The Church is $16. That’s two books for less than $34. What are you waiting for? Writing Much forthcoming, little published in April: Appearances On April 9 I gave a talk in Houston at the Church of St. John the Divine. The title was “Why the Church is the Reason God Created the Universe.” I also did a little video for them on Psalm 30. What a wonderful church! Reminder: Next month 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’m counting down the days till Vancouver in June! I’m told it’s a different climate than Abilene. Blog This month I mezzo-blogged about quite literally nothing. But I wrote tens of thousands of words that should, with luck, be published in the coming months. As always, keep up with the micro-blogging here. Links Some of my favorite reads over the past month: Robin Sloan’s latest newsletter is a delight to read, always. I’ve never read Frank Sheed or his book, Theology and Sanity, but this Easter excerpt from Richard Beck is simply marvelous. I still remember reading the original Thrawn trilogy in my teens. If only Abrams had adapted those instead… I swear, Silicon Valley just asks itself what parents of teens fear most about social media, then decides that’s just what the world needs and starts building. From Phil Christman’s latest newsletter: In 1983 Richard Nixon wrote a letter to Robert Altman about his daughter’s love for Nashville. All right then. Many, many Francis obits to read, but this one by Nick Ripatrazone is worth your time. It’s about the late pope’s relationship to literature and includes a wonderful nugget about Borges. Twins and doubled actors in film: cool. I was transfixed by it in the opening act of Sinners, but by the end I’d forgotten it was the same actor playing two different characters. Movie magic! MZS reviewing the Minecraft movie is why he was put on earth. It convinced me enough to see it with my kids. I didn’t hate it! Since people were writing to celebrate the centenary of The Great Gatsby, here’s my favorite essay on the novel: “The Road to West Egg," published in 2000 by Vanity Fair and written by none other than Christopher Hitchens. Matthew Walther: “Consultants' … so-called expertise always comes to the same thing: lowering costs by depriving the consumer of something hitherto recognized as essential.” Always be reading B. D. McClay on science fiction (and writing, and gender, and history, and…). Whatever this is, it’s brilliant. Self-recommending, but especially of interest to lovers of Moby-Dick. Read Matthew Lee Anderson on reputation, scandal, and Christian higher ed. Read Paul Kingsnorth on “the Christian novel." I admit that I, too, have not read a Buechner novel. Eve Tushnet on the new Planet of the Apes films (all four). This is a beautiful reflection on Passover by Rusty Reno. The final two lines are a punch in the gut.
Forthcoming Probably nothing in the month of May, but expect two columns in Christianity Today in June and at least two more in July, along with an essay on aliens in the summer issue of The Hedgehog Review. I also have reviews in the hands of editors at The Bulwark, The Lamp, and First Things. Plus a short article in Journal of Theological Interpretation. And a double review due to The Heythrop Journal and another to Pro Ecclesia. And a longer piece I’m working on for Arc and a fall review for Commonweal. A lot, in other words. As ever, thanks for reading. Peace, Brad
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