Febreads, week three

Let's start with this CT excerpt from Michael Wear's new afterword to Reclaiming Hope, because his voice and his call to bear one another's burdens is so needed now (and is important to keep in mind for so much else in this week's list): Make American Politics Hopeful Again

Mere O is doing some exciting things, such as Jake's upcoming book and the general thrust of their publication of late. The Household Worship Project looks like a good way to intentionally shape families into better-formed ambassadors of the Kingdom; Jake and Brandon's thoughts on Christian are always insightful and challenging:
Jake Meador, Mere Orthodoxy, Announcing the Household Worship Project
Jake Meador, Mere Orthodoxy, The Parting of Ways Amongst Younger Christians
Brandon McGinley, Mere Orthodoxy, The End of Bourgeois Christian Politics

A few pieces on liberalism, illiberalism, and political trends from Shadi Hamid in The Atlantic: Bari Weiss and the Left-Wing Infatuation With Taking Offense and The Rise of Anti-Liberalism

Similar is this instance of the Left eating its own: Amelia Tait, New Statesman, JK Rowling created an army of liberals – now they're turning against her

But... at least the Left isn't totally insane w/r/t guns. That's a debate with no satisfying answers that I tend to stay away from, but this week I read these, and am more convinced of the utter depravity of American gun (etc.) culture:
BD McClay, Commonweal, Phenomenology of the Gun
Krishnadev Calamur, The Atlantic, The Swiss Have Liberal Gun Laws, Too

Oh right, I have to read pieces about the President. Some news this week on the Russia front (usually I cut out the straight news pieces I read, but this seemed significant enough to merit inclusion), a well-reported but not particularly insightful piece from Michael Lewis (although the public art metaphor is perfect), and a beautifully scathing review of a book on Trump's "faith": 

David A Graham, The Atlantic, What Mueller's Indictment Reveals
Sarah Grant, Quinta Jurecic, Matthew Kahn, Matt Tait, & Benjamin Wittes, Lawfare, Russian Influence Campaign: What’s in the Latest Mueller Indictment
Michael Lewis, Bloomberg, Has Anyone Seen the President?
Erick Erickson, Weekly Standard, The Apotheosis of Donald J Trump

Speaking of scathing reviews, David Berlinski takes on the transhumanist fantasies ofYuval Noah Harari's Homo Deus at Inference Review: Godzooks

How about good reviews? Here are two on Marilynne Robinson's new collection of essays:
James KA Smith, Comment, Marilynne Robinson's Apologia Gloriae
Dinah Birch, The Guardian, What Are We Doing Here? by Marilynne Robinson review – hope, as distinct from optimism

Russell D Moore deftly examines the tension-filled relationship between Neil Gaiman and CS Lewis for Touchstone. Simply a joy to read work this good: Watchful Dragons

A nice profile of LMM by John Leland for NYT Mag: Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Next Lion of New York

Heading towards religion, with a pitstop at its opposite: Isabel Fattal, The Atlantic, How Should Atheism Be Taught?

Three long, interesting examinations of thinkers from First Things – a theologian, a philosopher, and several thinkers that provide the intellectual underpinnings of the alt-Right:
David Bentley Hart, First Things, The Lively God of Robert Jenson
Richard John Neuhaus, First Things, Kierkegaard for Grownups
Matthew Rose, First Things, The Anti-Christian Alt-Right

Three Christianity Today articles – a great theological corrective to a the limiting view of heaven (I'm very sympathetic to NT Wright, et al, but this is a helpful grain of salt), more on Lent, and Nancy Pearcey examines the contradictions of transgenderism: 
J Todd Billings, CT, The New View of Heaven is Too Small
W David O Taylor, CT, Lent Is Here to Throw Us Off Again
Nancy Pearcey, CT, How the Transgender Narrative Perpetuates Stereotypes

The tech section is much less everything-is-terrible and much more "let's get out of here" this week. The first piece (using a helpful urbanist metaphor to ruminate on the environments created by social media) is fantastic. Also, how was I not going to read piece about Infinite Jest?

Frank Chimero, The Good Room
Nicole Dieker, Longreads, Is 2018 the Year We Step Away From Social Media?

Tony Reinke, Desiring God, A Movie So Good It Ruins You

Two last pieces to close things out, each waxing Wendell Berry-esque in their own way:

Tim Wu, NYT, The Tyranny of Convenience
Matthew C Halteman, The Banner, Eating toward Shalom: Why Food Ethics Matters for the 21st-Century Church

Feb reads, week two

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and this was a lovely meditation on domesticity from Ruth Graham in Slate: I’ll Tell You What, Nothing Is More Romantic Than Talking About Trash Cans and Towels With My Husband

It was also Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Tish Harrison Warren wrote about this conjunction for CT: God's Message on 'Ash Valentine's Day': True Love Dies

And here are several other pieces about Lenten practice:
Tara Isabella Burton, Vox, Why "Secular Lent" Misses the Point
Kevin P Emmert, CT, A Lent That's Not For Your Spiritual Improvement
Aaron Damiani, CT, Introducing Lent to Your Congregation

This isn't about Lent specifically, but it is about mortality and the ephemeral nature of life, and of art, and it's simply a great piece:
Justin Lee, The Smart Set, Graffiti These Bones

Also not about Lent, but about suffering and seeing God in it:

Kate Bowler, CT, God Came to Me in My Cancer

Trillia Newbell, TableTalk Magazine, Suffering and the Joy Before Us

They talk more about Advent than Lent:
David George Moore & Fleming Rutledge, Patheos, Interview with Fleming Rutledge

Tech stuff (the first piece is a stellar bit of reporting):

Nicholas Thompson & Fred Vogelstein, Wired, Inside the Two Years that Shook Facebook – and the World
Sarah Aswell, Splitsider, How Facebook is Killing Comedy

Naomi Schaeffer Riley, NYT, America's Real Digital Divide

This has been on my mind a lot, and now I can't not think about it when analyzing what authors I read:
Ed Yong, The Atlantic, I Spent Two Years Trying to Fix the Gender Imbalance in My Stories

I'm not sold on the "sciency" part of this (and I really hate this sort of headline formulation), but this seems somewhat intuitively true, or at least likely, and remembering this is probably crucial to using social media well: 

Amy Ellis Nutt, WaPo, Science shows why it's important to speak — not write — to people who disagree with you

Pornography is a scourge; this isn't mere Puritan scoldery, but it seems evident that, like social media, young generations are being shaped by forces we've never thought to control, and the damage seems virtually incalculable. God have mercy on us. Glad to see these takes in response to the heartbreaking piece on teenagers and porn last week:

Ross Douthat, NYT, Let's Ban Porn
Matthew Schmitz, WaPo, The case for banning pornography

After listening to a fascinating podcast with James Davison Hunter, I read Andy Crouch's Books & Culture (RIP) review of his book: How Not to Change the World

Also Andy Crouch related, this is a good summary of a recent talk he gave on how we should steward our resources in favor of others:

Joseph Sunde, Acton Institute Blog, Beyond mere affluence: Embracing Isaiah's posterity gospel

On the subject of economics: can Christians work in any job with a clear conscience? Is all work sanctified by God, or do the realities of modern capitalism render some professions more morally murky than others? Charlie Clark examines at Mere Orthodoxy: Conscientious Producerism

Some national Bmore coverage, of things bad and good:
Timothy Williams, NYT, In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat
Andrea Appleton, Citylab, What Should Grow in a Vacant Lot?

Quincy Jones is nuts. The second piece was so crazy I had to read some follow-ups with the interview to see how he navigated the stream of consciousness so deftly:

Chris Heath, GQ, Quincy Jones Has a Story About That
David Marchese, Vulture, In Conversation: Quincy Jones
Lauren Stark, NY Mag, Vulture’s David Marchese on His Quincy Jones Interview, How He Prepares, and His Dream Subject
Meg Dalton, Columbia Journalism Review, Q&A: New York magazine’s David Marchese on viral Quincy Jones interview

Some other pieces on various culture-related things. Extra points to K B Hoyle's excellent and nostalgic take on spiritual discipline and formation via Super Nintendo:
Tom Carter, Spectator, How going on pilgrimage cured my millenial malaise
James K A Smith, LA Review of Books, How to Find God (on Youtube)
K B Hoyle, Christ & Pop Culture, Super Nintendo and the Spiritual Life
Cameron McAllister, Christ & Pop Culture, Of Jordan Peterson and Cultural Action Heroes
M V Bergen, Christ & Pop Culture, Telling Stories of Strange Worlds: Remembering Ursula K LeGuin
Tyler Braun, TGC, The Beauty of Lament in Sandra McCracken's New Album

February reads, week one

It's reading time again! This week:

Noah Millman has a stellar essay in The Weekly Standard on Louis CK and Woody Allen. It's wide-ranging film- and cultural-criticism of the best sort: Louis and Woody

Techrything is terrible (but especially the last piece on how porn is shaping young minds and libidos; it is heartbreaking):
Nick Bilton, Vanity Fair, "This Is Serious": Facebook Begins Its Downward Spiral
L M Sacasas, The American Conservative, Our Great Awakening to the Ethics of Technology
Addison del Mastro, The American Conservative, Looking for an Exit Off the Information Superhighway
Nicholas Confessore, Gabriel J X Dance, Richard Harris, & Mark Hansen, NYT, The Follower Factory

Maggie Jones, NYT Mag, What Teenagers Are Learning From Online Porn

Gracy Olmstead is in the Intercollegiate Review, writing that Politics is Filling the Gaping Hole in Human Connection

Unfortunately, I don't always remember to take that advice; I'm trying to break the habit of reading about this man, but these pieces were pretty good (especially Liz's):

James Fallows, The Atlantic, Calling the Trump Era by Its Proper Name

Jonathan Rauch & Benjamin Wittes, The Atlantic, Boycott the Republican Party

Elizabeth Bruenig, WaPo, Trump’s paid family leave plan would punish those who choose to have kids

Several pieces on tribalism, identity politics, pluralism, etc., most of which are very good book reviews:

Alan Jacobs, ABC Religion & Ethics, Embrace the Pain: Living with the Repugnant Cultural Other

Jake Meador, Mere Orthodoxy, Book Review: Confident Pluralism by John Inazu

Michael Wear, TGC, The Blind Spots of Identity (and Liberal) Politics

Andrew Sullivan, New York Magazine, When Two Tribes Go to War

Damon Linker, NYT, The Sickness of Our Time: Is It Populism or Fascism?

Some assorted good Christian writing:  

B D McClay, Commonweal, The Comedy in Ash & Roses
T Desmond Alexander, Crossway, A Biblical Theology of the City of God
D H Dilbeck, CT, The Radical Christian Faith of Frederick Douglass

These pieces are all in response to prominent Church figures – John Piper, Pope Francis, and the President (heh) – and not one is favorable
Sandra Glahn, Bible.org, Reflections of a Female Seminary Professor
The Editors, Commonweal, A Time to Judge
James Misner, TGC, The Greatest Gospel Opportunity in a Generation – Lost

Two last miscellaneous reads:
Malka Groden, National Review, The Power of Domestic Adoption
Andrew Russell, The Rabbit Room, Choosing Our Limitations: Thoughts on Community

The rest of January's reads

Here's the rest of January's reading since the last post:

The absolute best things I read this week were Rachael Denhollander's testimony against serial abuser Larry Nassar, and her follow-up NYT op-ed and CT interview. Her words are so, so powerful: honest about the brutality of her experiences, as well as the institutional failures that enabled it and its lasting impacts, open about the cost of coming forward and seeking justice in the face of these corrupt institutions, and all of it steeped in a full-bodied, theologically rich gospel understanding that balances God's mercy, grace, and forgiveness with His unwavering demands for justice. Without being hyperbolic, this woman is the voice the evangelical church needs to hear right now; while so many ostensible leaders are bowing their knees to Baal and other gods for a reaching grasp at power, she is planted firmly on God's Word, bearing a cross few of us can imagine and speaking passionate truth nonetheless.
Rachael Denhollander, CNN, Full Victim Impact Statement
Rachael Denhollander, New York Times, The Price I Paid For Taking On Larry Nassar
Morgan Lee & Rachael Denhollander, Christianity Today, My Larry Nassar Testimony Went Viral. But There’s More to the Gospel Than Forgiveness.

Several pieces on the inadequacy of the modern sex ethic:
B D McClay, The Week, 'No' is Not Enough

Lili Loofbourow, The Week, The female price of male pleasure

Gracy Olmstead, Washington Post, Divorcing sex from love hasn’t made sex more fun, more safe or less complicated
An interesting conversation between Alyssa Rosenberg & Christine Emba at WaPo, Why are Americans having such bad sex?

Also, Russell Moore discusses on his site how to react When Someone You Admire Does Something Disgusting

I read a lot of responses to Rod Dreher's awful comments on not wanting poor people in one's neighborhood or poor immigrants in one's country, including:

Jemar Tisby (who is heroically restrained here after being directly attacked in one of Dreher's responses), The Witness, Of Sh*tholes and Section 8: A Response to Rod Dreher
Alexander Wilgus, The American Conservative, The Benedict Option & Section 8

Patrick Gilger, America, Is the Benedict Option based on Christian principles—or white middle-class ones?
Mary Pezzulo, Patheos, Of Sh*tholes, Poverty and Rod Dreher’s Errors
Judy Wu Dominick, Life Reconsidered, Why the Affluent Need the Poor (not a direct response, but an older piece the author shared as her reaction)

Some pieces criticizing the system of overarching liberalism:
Damon Linker, The Week, An ominous prophecy for liberalism
Adrian Vermeule, First Things, Liturgy of Liberalism
Jake Meador, Mere Orthodoxy, Debating the Actual Crisis of Liberalism

Several miscellaneous vaguely political pieces:
Robert Joustra, Comment, The Politics of The Good Samaritan
Stephanie Summers, Center for Public Justice Review, Awaiting The King: An Interview With James K. A. Smith

Elizabeth Bruenig, WaPo, The antisocial politics of Trump

Kaitlyn Scheiss, Christ & Pop Culture, The Church Much Offer the World More Than Mere Authenticity

Daniel Cox, 538, Are White Evangelicals Sacrificing the Future in Search of the Past?

Michael Wear has another good earnest-but-trolly piece in Christian Today (sic, did he pitch this to the wrong email or what), on What Barack Obama's Christianity can teach white evangelicals

More political pieces, specifically dealing with where people live and why:

Sarah Jones, New Republic, Telling Rural People To Move Won't Solve Poverty
Sean Illing & Nikole Hannah-Jones, Vox, “Schools are segregated because white people want them that way"
The great Emma Green, in The Atlantic, on the end of Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans and its impacts on their churches: 'An Assault on the Body of the Church'

Ronald C White has a fascinating review of the fragments of Lincoln's personal notes in Harper's, including his lawyerly arguments against slavery and theological musings on God's will in the Civil War: Notes to Self

Some local politics: David A Graham, The Atlantic, The Baltimore Police Department is Badly Broken

Political in a different way (I have no affection for or even much knowledge of Jordan Peterson, but I thought this was a good piece) – Conor Friedersdorf, on how we talk past one another and caricature our opponents' arguments in The Atlantic: Why Can't People Hear What Jordan Peterson is Saying?

On the subject of how our political attentions are distorted, and the deleterious effect of social media on public discourse, these two pieces go well together: 

Nicholas Carr, Politico, Why Trump Tweets (And Why We Listen)
Zeynep Tufecki, Wired, It's the (Democracy-Poisoning) Golden Era of Free Speech

And more technology-everything-is-terrible, but with much extra terrible:
Samantha Cole, Vice Motherboard, We Are Truly Fucked: Everyone Is Making AI-Generated Fake Porn Now

Jake Meador, Mere Orthodoxy, The Politics of The Last Jedi

Tyler Huckabee, WaPo, The radical – but gentle – faith of Mister Rogers

A couple pieces approaching the pro-life from different angles, one apologetic and one practical:

Karen Swallow Prior, CT, How Poetry Might Change the Pro-Life Debate
Lyman Stone, Institute for Family Studies, One Way to Boost Fertility: Babysit Other People's Kids

On the other hand, there's death. The first piece here (on the history and complications of the "brain death" designation) is simply incredible. 

Rachel Aviv, New Yorker, What Does It Mean To Die?
Gilbert Meilander, First Things, A Complete Life

Kate Bowler, NYT, What to Say When You Meet the Angel of Death at a Party

Andrea Palpant Dilley, CT, Kate Bowler: I Reject the Prosperity Gospel but I Still Crave What It Promises

A few more somewhat philosophical pieces:

Charles Taylor, The Immanent Frame, Ethical Journeys
Olivia Goldhill, Quartz, The idea that everything from spoons to stones are conscious is gaining academic credibility

Chris Krycho, Mere Orthodoxy, Faithful Extension and the Question of Human Origins

A few articles about drugs:

Matthew Loftus, NY Post, Sorry: Sometimes drugs are vital to escaping depression
Dan Diamond, Politico, First There Was Prince. Now Tom Petty. When Will America Finally Wake Up to the Opioid Crisis?

Miscellaneous Christian-specific stuff:
Thomas Kidd, TGC, When Christians Began Speaking of 'The' Antichrist
Stephen Witmer, Desiring God, The Secret Small Churches Know Best
Caleb Lindgren, CT, Translating the N T Wright and David Bentley Hart Tussle

A really interesting (and LONG) interview of Ross Douthat by Tyler Cowen on Medium: Ross Douthat on Narrative and Religion

And to close, a big part of why I'm doing this is to keep better track of what I'm reading, so here's Julie Beck, in The Atlantic, on Why We Forget Most of the Books We Read