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Greetings all! I was recently told that Texas has four seasons: almost summer, summer, still summer, and January. I can officially report that, here in early November, we have finally left behind “still summer” and can feel the season of January approaching swiftly. I’ve had a busy fall semester so far. Read below for all the news and links that are fit to print. News As I shared last month, my next book (written to help pastors navigate digital technology) will now be published by Baker Books, not Lexham Press. I met today with my new editor, and they’re expecting the book to come out in the first quarter of 2027. In other words, it’s time to hurry up and wait! I also have a new book contract signed that I’m not quite ready to share with the world, but will soon. Plus two different book proposals I’m currently working on, one popular, one academic; both should go out to publishers sometime in the spring. All in good time. Books For any readers who still haven’t picked up one of my four published 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 less than sixty bucks total—not bad. I’ll add, too, that from now through November 30, you can get my 2021 book The Doctrine of Scripture for 50% off at the publisher’s website. Use code CONFSHIP at checkout; if you select Media Mail, shipping is free. Appearances This past weekend I was part of a small gathering of scholars of Saint Thomas Aquinas each of whom gave a paper on Thomas’s commentary on the book of Isaiah. It was a pleasure to be at Mundelein Seminary, however briefly, and I’m grateful to Prof. Matthew Levering for including me (the sole Protestant present!). I drew some lessons from Thomas’s commentarial habits for contemporary Christian habits of readings. In addition, since the last newsletter went out I appeared on the following podcasts: Writing Four new pieces: “You Don’t Have To Be Radical” (CT, October 7) is a fun little autobiographical ode to the evangelical aughts and the perennial dynamic of young Christians who get it in their heads that there’s only one way to follow Jesus: by being “radical.” “The Connector” (Arc, October 9) is a profile of the wonderful Leah Libresco Sargeant, timed to the release of her excellent new book, The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto, published in October with the University of Notre Dame Press. Thanks to editor extraordinaire Mark Oppenheimer for getting me to do this, or rather letting me try my hand at it as a non-journalist first-timer. “Keeping the Faith” (Chronicle of Higher Education, October 23) is a review essay of Kwame Anthony Appiah’s new book Captive Gods: Religion and the Rise of Social Science, published in October with Yale University Press. My first time in the Review. Finally, the academic journal Modern Theology posted an early-access online version of my review of Philip Ziegler’s new book God’s Adversary and Ours: A Brief Theology of the Devil, which came out in September with Baylor University Press.
Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the following: Die deutsche Übersetzung ist von Christopher Pieper—my CT piece on baptism is now available in German, thanks to this kind soul. Blog Nothing, as per usual in 2025. This shall change in 2026, maybe even by the time of the next newsletter. But 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: Ed West visits America. I enjoyed Paul Tough’s piece in the latest issue of Texas Monthly on the origins, successes, and challenges facing Solar Prepatory School for Girls in Dallas ISD. I had never read Alasdair MacIntyre’s 2008 intellectual obit of Richard Rorty in Common Knowledge: a reflection on Rorty’s biography, training, development, and core ideas, as well as where and why they differed. An illuminating and even moving tribute. In light of Jonathan Lear’s passing I went looking for his 1995 essay on Freud for The New Republic, but the only place I could find a PDF was Scribd. In Liberties, Cass Sustein writes about what AI cannot do, not now, not ever. Read Mark Lilla on John Ganz and the new right, but read him alongside Caldwell’s review of the same book. I read a number of reviews and essays by and about Kwame Anthony Appiah, in preparation for my review of his latest book. Check out this 2022 profile of him in the Chronicle by Danny Postel. See also Appiah on John Rawls, on free speech, and on the dark side of Enlightenment. Mark Oppenheimer’s conversation with Leah Libresco Sargeant for the Arc podcast is good fun, not least because Mark and Leah are willing to tell each other, “You’re dead wrong.” Douthat at his best. On the other hand, I wasn’t persuaded by Douthat’s somewhat negative review of One Battle After Another, but after so much critical writing (already) on the film, I want to see it again. I’m convinced, at least for now, that the film’s politics are far more ambivalent than many take them to be; that the obvious signifiers function like a Rorschach test; that the ’70s-style depiction of the 2030s is purposeful, not lazy; that the Pynchonian humor works; and that PTA knows what he’s doing. But the film deserves multiple viewings before a final judgment. Oh, and while I enjoyed Bill Simmons and Wesley Morris’s conversation about the film, I couldn’t believe they didn’t bring up either the character of the daughter or Benicio del Toro’s character. Neither race nor gender nor “revolutionary politics” can be adequately discussed in relation to the film’s story or themes without talking about Willa and Sergio! This story, by Nancy Walecki, about her father—“guitar guru to the rock gods”—is simply beautiful. The anecdotes alone are worth it, but mix in the music, work, paternal, and Christian themes … it’s almost too much to take in at once.
Forthcoming Tomorrow morning Christianity Today is publishing my review of Guillermo del Toro’s new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for Netflix. Watch out for that. In addition, Commonweal will be publishing my review of Paul Kingsnorth’s Against the Machine sometime in the next month or two. Besides that, and regular pods and CT columns, things are finally on the back burner for the moment. I’ve traveled and written too much the last four months, and I’m ready for a break. As ever, thanks for reading. Peace, Brad
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