Confronted by Grace

This little collection of sermons by John Webster did my soul great good.

Seven Languages in Seven Weeks

A now-classic read for software developers. How did it age?

Theology is not liturgy. But…

How do you make a charismatic thing?

One of the best quotes I have ever read on the discipline of design.

Hierarchical systems

Tools for Thought, Not Shortcuts for Thinking

the establishment of fellowship

Webster on “revelation” as more than imparting information: as being God’s very presence.

boundary-drawing and system design

Notes from Thinking in Systems which I find particularly applicable to software.

Stocks, Flows, Resiliency, and Layoffs

The costs of decreasing a business’ capacity to absorb change.

running / patience

Sanctification

Be a quality detector.

Questions Posed

People, Strategy, Execution

A few choice quotes from Phil Rozenweig’s The Halo Effect.

necessarily simple abstractions

The Man from the Future

An interesting study in the life of a profoundly influential man.

the possibility of being caught off guard

Thinking Out Loud on “Trauma”

Some musing and notes after reading the first fifth of The Body Keeps the Score

One challenge to the new moral science

Hunter and Nedelisky on the any kind of “moral science” which takes “social consensus” or majority preferences as the limit of actual ethical reasoning.

A question of authority

On Brad East’s approach to Scripture and Tradition.

the heart of the life of the Church

Program modifications at low cost?

Tentative 2022 Reading List

The books I would like to get through this year.

Study

A good word from John Webster to all students (not just of theology).

Courage

how to sorrow/pilgrim knowledge

“I cannot not be a creature made and called by God’s love”

The incredibly good news about us of which Christ is the guarantee.

a moral undertaking

Reading “A Functional Programming Language with Versions”

The first academic research I’m aware of which actually takes Semantic Versioning seriously!

…such is God’s mercy

Reading for world-building

God Without Measure: Working Papers in Christian Theology – Volume I: God and the Works of God

The first of two volumes of collected essays and papers by John Webster. Very, very scholarly.

…revelation disturbs

‘It is “an interruption which addresses us.”’

Praising God

Two quotes from a John Webster sermon of the same title: on worship, and the one worshipped.

creation is pure generosity

Two quotes on creatio ex nihilo

Reread Books!

Fiction, nonfiction, steak, popcorn: find books you love and reread them.

not the imposition of an alien will

exposition precedes disputation

Three considerations on reading the Bible

Webster expounding/expanding on Bonhoeffer and Barth.

“…our enemies, sin, the curse and death, are beaten.”

“If you have heard the Easter message, you can no longer run around with a tragic face and lead the humourless existence of a man who has no hope.”

Dogmatic portrayal of the canon

A path away from Kant?

Koyzis’ provocative thesis on authority and liberty.

God with us, God for us

holiness and jealousy

God as the Holy One and God as Redeemer and Saviour

not primarily morally legislative but soteriological

God is holy as he bends down to us in mercy

thus… have we made the world

the trap of thinking that we know what's going on here

all the difference in the world

the requirement for theological reason

an exercise of fellowship with the saints

We speak in God’s presence

reason is a field of God’s sanctifying work

an exercise of holiness

the unholy science?

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore

Robin Sloan’s debut novel was just astonishing.

God teaches us

Finding Holy in the Suburbs

A solid popular-level book—which I wish pushed just a little harder than it does.

Politics & The Order of Love

A good book, if not quite the one I hoped for.

A Chalcedonian conceptual grammar for love and justice

What if we thought of “love” and “justice” like the hypostatic union?

All is broken and incomplete, and politics can not heal the rupture.

Summarizing the basic shared commitments of all Augustinian liberals, whatever their many other differences

the mixed moral qualities of any age

In which Eric Gregory makes it clear that this book is extremely for me.

Good theology demands good theologians

How spiritual formation is not mere interiority or “authenticity” but death-and-resurrection at the hand of the living God.

The first and last act of theological existence

Polemic is Hard

One can only take so much bludgeoning-of-bad-ideas before growing weary of a book.

theological self-criticism

the story of modern theology

Christian Theology’s Place in the University

Or, John Webster cracking very wise.

The Real Aim of Utopias

Perfectionism Without Perfectibility

An anti-culture

What theology must be if it is to be healthy and fruitful as a field.

Christian astonishment

Good Theologians

Sourdough

Easily the most delightful book I’ve read in years.

All places tell stories

The Lost World

Not quite as spectacular as the first entry… but still a lot of fun.

Jurassic Park

A book that knows it is both a sci-fi thriller and sociotechnological commentary.

The Triune Creator’s Relating to Creation

God’s self-commitment to creatures

Adding a Reading List Page

A central place to see what I’ve read and what I’ve said about it!

Problematic

You keep using that word. I’m not sure you know what you think it means.

Fall-Centered Theological Anthropologies

Tiamat’s Wrath

The things only the eighth book in a series can do.

Tell Me Your Priors!

A gap I wish David H. Kelsey’s introduction in Eccentric Existence had filled.

Dark Matter

I could not put this book down. Also, it was kind of creepy.

Recursion

Blake Crouch’s latest thriller is—delightfully—about something.

Red Mars

Kim Stanley Robinson’s imagination is provocative in the best ways.