Who Am I?
I teach full-time in Baylor University’s Honors College. I started Mere Orthodoxy and developed 100 Days of Dante, the world’s largest reading group of the Divine Comedy. You can read my full bio here.
My most recent (non-academic) book is Called into Questions: Cultivating the Love of Learning within the Life of Faith, which is ‘theology of the questioning life.’ I am especially happy with my chapter in it on doubt, but I think the whole book is solid (of course). If you want a teaser, read this essay on why the Virgin Mary is a model for the questioning life. If you become a full member for at least $20 a year, I’ll mail you a free copy.
Many of my published essays are linked at my personal website. Here are three of my favorites:
Is there a right to have children? (Plough Magazine)
How pornography makes us less human and humane (The Gospel Coalition). (Fun fact: my requested title was “Why Porn is Like Murder”)
Drunk Tears on a Barren Sea: Augustinian Reflections on Desire (Mere Orthodoxy)
Can justice be saved? (The text for these were published at Mere Orthodoxy.)
(Get a free copy of this book by becoming a member for at least $20 a year.)
My academic writing is linked at my personal website as well.
What is this newsletter?
The Path Before Us is an eclectic newsletter helps readers reason more clearly about practical, moral and political questions. I want to help you discern the shape faithfulness to God in Jesus Christ should take in our lives and the world around us.
One issue will include a close reading of Scripture, another will examine a passage of literature, some issues will give advice about specific occasions, and occasionally I will pass along the best articles and quotes I have seen from around the web.
My aim is always be to help you train your ‘powers of discernment’ through ‘constant practice’ so that you can better ‘distinguish good from evil’ in this world (Hebrews 5:14).
Why become a member?
Most of the action in this newsletter happens behind the ‘paywall.’ I use this newsletter to think out loud with careful readers about important moral questions, so I keep it mostly private. (I explain all my reasons for this here.)
My current interests include how we navigate an ‘ethics of reputation,’ theology and the body (a perennial concern), suspicion, procreation and in vitro fertilization, and sexual ethics.
However, you can become a ‘full member’ for free, no questions asked. While I obviously welcome your financial support, I know it is increasingly difficult to justify paying for memberships in Substack’s growing ecosystem. If your budget does not allow you to support my writing financially, subscribe and email me with a request to become a member and I’ll be happy to add you.
If you want discounts on memberships, use any of the below links.
Take 20% off the price of membership here (paid annually).
If you’re a teacher or college student and want 75% off annually, get that here.
Ordinary subscribers are also very welcome. You will get around one email per month (or maybe mers areore) on ethics, theology, literature, philosophy, or whatever else I am thinking about.
Thanks for your interest and attention. Happy reading.
