The Weekly (Occasionally...) October 19, 2023
Hi everyone,
It's been a minute. I'm still learning to get on a schedule with this and how to fit it in with (vague handwavey gestures in the direction of everything at Mere O). But here's the latest:
I continue to be interested in articulating an alternative to the unhappy (and quite false) dichotomy posed to us in our contemporary politics, which is basically support for an ethnonationalist Christian nationalism project or support for what I called "woke liberalism" in a recent essay. My latest attempt to articulate an alternative framing is now up at Mere Orthodoxy.
Reading
Books
I recently finished Samuel James's Digital Liturgies, which I think will end up on some kind of end of year book list I put together for Mere O this year. If you're looking for a book on tech and the Christian life that a small group could read together, this will be a very good option for you—it's pitched at the right level, raises the right questions, and is just overall a very well done, well put together book.
I also finished Andrew Wilson's Remaking the World, which may end up being my favorite read of the year. It's another one of those "how did we get here?" cultural analysis books, similar to some of what I've written or something like The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self by Trueman. But what I really appreciate about Andrew's book is that it avoids catastrophizing, over-simplistic explanations, and it manages to account for both intellectual and material factors that have driven us to the place we now find ourselves. It's also just full of fascinating history.
I'm currently making my way through Eric Nelson's Theology of Liberalism and Jeffrey Stout's Democracy and Tradition. Both of those books are related to my desire to figure out a non-woke, non-ethno-nationalist politics for our moment. I also have Herdt and Bowlin in my queue to pick up next.
I haven't been reading as many periodicals lately due to travel, book reading, plus trying to do some admin and development work for Mere O. I am pretty sure I've had three trips since the last newsletter: I went to Orlando to speak at a faculty retreat for RTS Orlando (I published my presentation there on Mere O), then I was in Indianapolis for TGC 23, and lastly I spent a weekend in Chicago at the Touchstone conference. All three trips were great, but I'm now ready to be home for awhile and hopefully get some focused time to work on Mere O and also make real progress on my next book for IVP.
Elsewhere
One bit of cooking advice: Go to an Asian grocer and buy a tin of Maesri curry paste—I've been on a massaman curry kick lately. From there, it's pretty easy:
Thin slice some chicken or pork (breast or thigh for the chicken, chop for the pork), salt it, and set aside.
Chop one onion into a fine dice. Set aside.
Roughly chop several small potatoes, a couple medium-sized potatoes, or one large one. Set aside.
Next: Open a can of coconut milk and spoon the cream that sits on the top into a skillet and turn the skill to medium high. Once the cream and water in the coconut milk start to separate, add in the full tin of curry paste. Once the paste and coconut milk are fully incorporated, add the rest of the coconut milk to the skillet and bring to a simmer.
Now add in your chicken, potato, and onion and set a timer for about 20-25 minutes. Then leave. (Or make some rice now.)
When the timer is done, you can spoon the curry onto a bed of rice. Congrats, you just made massaman curry. (If you want to get slightly fussier about it, start here.)
What's also great is Maesri makes green curry paste, red curry paste, and panang curry paste, all of which are excellent. So you can use this basic framework, swap in different proteins and vegetables, and make all sorts of different Thai-style curries.
We're excited at our house because tomorrow we'll be having a birthday party (with Peter Pan theme) for our six-year-old and then heading out later that night to visit some close friends in northwest Iowa on their homestead for the weekend where we'll be staying in a cabin on their property. So we have campfires, lots of outdoor play for the kids, and lots of time for conversation for the adults in our immediate future, all of which are needed.
Thanks all for reading! Blessings to you all.
~Jake