Co-sign Matthew Lee Anderson’s case against using chatbots for “brainstorming” and writing.
Co-sign Matthew Lee Anderson’s case against using chatbots for “brainstorming” and writing.
I loved this little post on George MacDonald’s Phantastes by Alan Jacobs. I’ve never, ever been able to make my way through that book. I’ve tried many times. Maybe next time will be the one…
Adam Roberts on Homer’s wine-dark sea puts me in mind of a Kenner or Davenport essay that opens with this very example. Will have to track it down back in the office.
Read Timothy Crouch’s fascinating reflections on genealogical ancestors, the apostle Paul, and the patriarch Jacob/Israel.
On the latest episode of Mere Fidelity we talked to my friend and colleague Myles Werntz about his new book on ecclesiology—specifically, what he calls “ecclesiology’s revolutionary century.”
Read Paul Elie on Pope Leo. Mostly balanced and full of useful information, but the unrepentant and possibly unaware commitment to interpreting and telling the story of Catholicism after Vatican II through the simple lens of “rigorist unfeeling right-wing conservatives” versus “thoughtful world-engaging poverty-concerned moderns” is tired to the point of caricature.
Read Charles Fain Lehman on the reasons, known and unknown, for the drop in deaths from fentanyl.
I’m enjoying slow-reading Andrew Liptak’s continually updated history/quasi-biography of George R. R. Martin’s long and winding career.
Makes me wonder how long my own solution will last: Not using an LMS in the first place.
Over on the blog I wrote about reviewing books by people you know—and thus about reading reviews written by someone who knows the author.
On the latest episode of Mere Fidelity we talk Israel, Jews, and gentiles in Paul with Jason Staples. Something of a sequel of a December conversation with Paul Sloan.
Over on the blog I wrote about “intentionality” in the Christian life.
Another reading:
Pluribus is a secular parable of the question asked of candidates for Reformed ministry: Are you willing to be damned for the greater glory of God?
In this case, the question is: Are you willing to be unhappy for the greater good of humanity?
Over on the blog I wrote up fourteen brief thoughts on what Pluribus is about.
Read Philip Ball on the likelihood (or not) of life, and intelligent life, on this or any planet:
Maybe it’s just too early to conclude anything at all about the chances of intelligent life on other worlds from our quest so far to find it.
John Piper is eighty years old. This is a lovely little (pre) tribute to his life and legacy. Also more thoughts on this to come over on the blog.
Read Phil Christman on true crime. Maybe more reflections on the blog about this.
Read Ross Douthat on the end of American conservatism.
Read Vinco Passaro in Harper’s on Malcolm Cowley, American literature, and its present-day disappearance.
Read Stephen Barr on the history of Darwin’s theory of evolution and the teaching of the Catholic Church.
Read Jason Blakely in Harper’s on political scientists, data, surveys, and Trump.
Jim Nantz, riffing on veni vidi vici when offensive tackle Frank Crum catches a ball as an eligible receiver:
He reports, he receives, he runs for the touchdown!