Week 39 (2024)
blood in scripture & painful prayer, autonomy, girls & egg freezing, ethicists & medical humanities, convivial words & ministering in prison
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to read: books
Angle Of Repose — Wallace Stegner — Sorry y’all.
However, I have been intrigued by Matthew Stewart’s book about Stegner (reviewed by
here) ever since listening to Stewart discuss his book on Mars Hill Audio Journal a while back. The themes he brought up of transience in Stegner’s own life, and the challenges of community and placemaking in modern America were profound. And they certainly made their way into his novels.(Oh, and here’s an essay on the accusations of plagiarism.)
to read: essays, articles, newsletters
The Need For Protestant Ethicists: A Response To Carl Trueman —
, Mere Orthodoxy (you’ll need to sign in, but there is no paywall) — “They often simply reject overtly Christian ethics in favor of personal preferences or prevailing conventions… I’m unconvinced American protestantism has ever really been familiar with Christian ethics as a theological discipline.”(related: We Need Good Protestant Ethicists, Begotten Or Made (book) the second half of this by , and this on our shallow moral formation, shared previously — more on ethics of the body in the Big Ol' Compilation, to which the below essay has also been added)
How Much For A Dozen? — Patricia Patnode, The American Mind — “…it was a jarring reminder of the strange, almost clinical approach Westerners now reflexively take toward family planning and women’s fertility… Catholics are not reproductively oppressed. We follow a particular theology of the body. We are required to be open to the possibility of children in marriage, but we aren’t a breeding cult.”
(was feeling towards Humanae Vitae in my bones as a young student)
Power In The Blood — Brad East, Hedgehog Review — “A sacrifice without death, a regenerative precondition of life: Menstrual blood figures both creation and new creation. Given the Virgin Birth and premodern theories of conception, Rogers asks in earnest a question posed by theologians and mystics before him: Was the saving blood of Christ the menstrual blood of Mary?”
Medical Humanities And The Specialist (shared a couple years ago, but reupping) — Ronald W. Dworkin, Hedgehog Review — “…medical humanities might do well to revisit its roots, which include the careful study of works of literature, art, history, and philosophy… Many medical specialists are tempted to dwell in the world of pure thought, accompanied by their formulas and abstract classification systems.”
(related: shared this essay from Brewer Eberly a few weeks back, and afterwards came across this short talk he gave at a Veritas Forum event, which draws on his interrelated loves of art and medicine — other physician writers on here include and )
Words For Conviviality — Jeffrey Bilbro, Current — “The metaphors and practices I consider in this book can help us to shift from seeing reading and writing as techniques, for which we just need better tools to ensure a more successful and efficient outcome, and toward verbal arts, by which—if we learn to cultivate them lovingly and skillfully—we might seek the truth alongside our fellow pilgrims.”
- , Dappled Things — “He travels their roads and stops when they stop and gives the Sacraments and is always there for them hidden in the flat lands of west Texas, riding his horses in the canyons where he exclaims that one MUST pray when seeing that red rock shining in the Texas sun. He uses his own writing as a vocation to his prisoners and drug addicts. That they may find their voice in a world that has hardly ever listened to them. What a beautiful use of a priesthood.”
Pastoring While Living In The Trenches Of Prison — Antoine E. Davis, Front Porch Republic — “When a prison official decides to strip search me, I have to remind myself that I am still a child of God, despite the humiliating experience of being forced to show my body to a stranger. When my family drives hours to see me, only to be turned away from visiting because they’re wearing cargo pants that aren’t allowed, I have to remind myself that God is with me, despite being stripped of opportunities to spend time with my wife and kids.”
- , Imprints — “I am weary from the suffering I encounter, though I cannot excuse myself from being present. I’m moreso asking the question—How do you weather proximity to pain? How do you bear it without letting it destroy you, without cutting yourself off from the agony of the questions that remain unresolved? And how long, O Lord?”
Selvage — Dana Ryan, Ekstasis — “We, the Bride,
must gather
the tattered threads—
the worn, the ragged, the thin—
cradling them with
gentle hands, then
weaving weft and warp
to fashion the skirt,
the bodice,
the sheer cascade
of holy veil.”The Autonomy Trap — James R. Wood, Plough — “But what I eventually came to learn was that this “safety” was not so safe after all. Was I ever known? Did I even know myself? With whom was I connected in an enduring way? Was anything stable? Would anyone stick with me? Am I simply unlovable? Are we all alone?”
- , Word On Fire — “Social media and its pornifying pressures are only one piece of the heartbreaking puzzle this generation of young women faces.”
(discussion here — other previously shared favorites from Kerri include this talk on discernment and Our Bodies, Our Anger, included in the Big Ol' Compilation)
to watch, listen to
Put Social Media In Its Place — Andy Crouch on Mere Fidelity — My husband and I were recently driving our family back home from a long weekend in Minnesota. During these instances, we often find ourselves vacillating between Mars Hill Audio Journal, The War On Drugs, or Mere Fidelity. It’s called tradition. Anyways, as a general rule one cannot go wrong with Crouch’s wisdom. Much of what’s discussed will not be (and if it is, buckle up) new information if one is familiar with even a shred of the research and discourse surrounding:
the detrimental effects on children of smartphones, social media, and screen-based childhoods and ways to mitigate them by choosing differently (After Babel, The Anxious Generation, , )
the particular, modern plight of boys and those well into adulthood (The Boy Crisis, Of Boys And Men, ’s Heroic Fraternities)
the particular, modern plight of girls and young women (’s GIRLS)
As this conversation related to Kerri’s post on girls above, I summarized:
He gleans from the public data we are now more familiar with, but adds his own hypothesis on the short vs. long-term effects of digital worlds for girls vs. boys. Basically, he thinks that the social-positioning skills girls learn via social media (while very unhealthy when channeled those ways in the short-term) is actually translatable to the real world in some sense, as we always need social finesse to get along in life. And with all the girls out-schooling men in university settings, they actually do better (in one sense) in the long-term of their adulthood. However, the worlds that boys inhabit online in their formative years are more of the video game and pornography variety. These do not have as bad effects (as social media does for girls) in the short-term. However, his hypothesis is that this contributes to the male crisis due to the fact that there are no real-life translatable skills to be gleaned from the individual simulations of video games and pornography. So ultimately, they are more handicapped to navigate the actual world as men if that is how they spend their boyhood and adolescence. Of course, the detrimental short-term effects we see for girls in all the things you describe are nothing to scoff at. But it does make me think about the short vs. long term effects. Maybe girls are just better than men at unhealthy, functional coping into adulthood. Who knows.
to glean from: tip, product, resource
The Law of Grace: Leviticus Study from Phylicia Masonheimer — Recently put in an order for a few things at the ministry shop. Seriously so many helpful, beautiful, equipping things. But I am most excited to dive into this. (The Grief Is Love poster is another gem, one I plan on gifting.)
Lunch — Greens + salami + aged cheddar + kalamata olives + a simple olive oil salt and pepper mustard vinaigrette + crumbled seed crackers = the best.
News — If you care at all about the interconnected nature of topics shared in the [female] body: a compilation, then you will want to follow
in anticipation of her forthcoming book. This seems a natural outflow of her editing work at Fairer Disputations, the writing of which has certainly been shared here before.
I read "Matthew Stewart" and "Martha Stewart" and was shocked at the expanse of her social influence. Alas... :)
Thanks for sharing the article on plagiarism! It was fascinating and heartbreaking to read.