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