The Weekly, February 26, 2024
Hi all,
I'm traveling this week and have three different presentations I'm doing in three days—Christian ministry in a therapeutic culture, staying human in the fourth republic, and whatever it is I'm going to end up calling my paper on Saturday. (If you're in DC, I'd love to see you at the conference!)
Because of that, I'm going to just keep this brief and share a particularly beloved poem that I'll be hauling out occasionally during my time in DC. The poem is "Under Which Lyre" by W. H. Auden. I won't share the entire thing here, but instead share the delightful conclusion, though you really should read it all. I may try to memorize it. It seems like the sort of thing one would do well to have at hand in that way.
Thou shalt not do as the dean pleases,
Thou shalt not write thy doctor's thesis
On education,
Thou shalt not worship projects nor
Shalt thou or thine bow down before
Administration.
Thou shalt not answer questionnaires
Or quizzes upon World-Affairs,
Nor with compliance
Take any test. Thou shalt not sit
With statisticians nor commit
A social science.
Thou shalt not be on friendly terms
With guys in advertising firms,
Nor speak with such
As read the Bible for its prose,
Nor, above all, make love to those
Who wash too much.
Thou shalt not live within thy means
Nor on plain water and raw greens.
If thou must choose
Between the chances, choose the odd;
Read The New Yorker, trust in God;
And take short views.
Never commit a social science, friends.
Reading
Books
No new books this week—still spending time working on Stout, still reading Camus. I did pick up the new Guelzo book on Lincoln and it's been quite good so far.
Articles
Grace Olmstead on storytelling and narration
Ted Gioia on dopamine culture
Matthew Crawford on integralism
Timothy Lee and James Grimmelmann on why the Times might win its anti-AI lawsuit
John Ahern on the alienated man's guide to modern music
Miles Smith on rejecting Trumpism for conservative liberalism
Ross Douthat on being optimistic about America
Jack Bell on the speech of kingfishers
Elsewhere
This past Sunday the sermon at my church was an overview of the book of Job, which is part of the "suffering servant" series that our pastors are preaching as we move toward Easter.
Near the end of the sermon, our pastor made an observation about the book that is lingering with me: What does God say is required before he will forgive Job's three friends? He says Job must intercede for them.
Or, to put it another way, an innocent man subjected to undeserved suffering must intercede to God on behalf of the guilty.
That's the cross in the book of Job.
Praise God for the suffering innocent who intervenes on our behalf.
Under the Mercy,
~Jake