“A Sort of Refinement in Injustice”
Apropos of absolutely nothing, here is Edmund Burke on the injustice of punishing men for the crimes of their predecessors. Burke, as a Christian…
Homer, God’s Poet
“Melanchthon Mondays” continues! I had a lot of fun reading and working on this one. This week’s poem is about Homer and poetic inspiration.…
On Being a Christian in Late Modernity (Part 2: Is Modernity a Myth?)
5. Before we seek to understand modernity, it is fitting to ask whether there is anything to be understood in the first place. Is…
Martin Luther on Reparations
At the end of his book, Temporal Authority: To What Extent It Should be Obeyed, Martin Luther takes up the topic of restitution, which…
Old Gods in the New Statesman
Even a flick through a weekly leftist magazine reveals that society can't escape religion.
Evangelical Elites, Neoliberalism, and World History
This moment in World History has been playing out on a micro level among so-called Evangelical Protestants. Patricians and plebes are emerging into seemingly…
Of Devils and Advocates: The Meaning of Native Graves
Some recent Roman Catholic takes draw all the wrong lessons from this national crime.
Melanchthon Writes a Decalogue Poem
I’ve written on the Decalogue, and specifically on the Decalogue in Melanchthon and Melanchthonianism at various times in the past. Below is a nice…
Music and Makeup
Perhaps you’ve seen one of those selfies where the person has used software to impose makeup on themselves. They can make their skin glisten…
On Being a Christian in Late Modernity (Part 1: Introduction)
The first in a series navigating the key features of modern life and the crises they provoke.
Not Just More, But Other: Teens, Theodicies, and Classical Theism
A little classical theism can go a long way with the problem of evil.
After *After Nationalism*
The pursuit of a unitary American identity is undoubtedly something that should be approached with intellectual caution.
“The Most Biblicist National Culture in the World”
A few weeks ago, I wrote a review of Sam Goldman’s very stimulating new book, After Nationalism. In the book, Goldman narrates three different…
Melanchthon’s Psalm 111
First Things recently ran my metrical translation of Philip Melanchthon’s poem on the Visitation of Mary and Elizabeth. You can read an accompanying essay…
The Evangelical Victim Ghetto
In his book The Next American Nation (1995), Michael Lind offers a damning prediction of the Evangelical Right's embrace of the politics of victimhood.
Springs Eternal
I’ll have more to say about my intentions for this blog later on. But for my first post I want to direct your attention…
Christian Micronationalism?
I’ve expended a good bit of intellectual energy recently trying to add nuance to the question of so-called Christian nationalism as it relates to…
Introducing Quartet for the End of Blogs
What can you expect from the “Quartet for the End of Blogs”? Pretty bad jokes, as you have already surmised; non-stop farrago, no doubt;…
When Theology Cashes Out
What's the value of theological retrieval in preaching and ministry?
Play as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe
Could religion only have developed among a species that knew how to play?
The Anatomy of Snowflakes
For a significant portion of the human race, the sensation of self-confidence is but a mental construct. Its internal structure is imaginatively “guessed” and…
Feelings, Facts, and Pharisees
“Feelings are not facts,” we hear a lot these days. In a host of intellectual and even pastoral debates, this binary is popular. There…
“Strategy” in the Culture Wars (Part 3 of 3)
Uniting modern persons is no religion or creed or political vision, but rather the world of film and literature. These get to us beneath…
“Strategy” in the Culture Wars (Part 2 of 3)
One way of reading the story of civilization is to read it as a story of divine pedagogy. This can be overstated at the…
“Strategy” in the Culture Wars (Part 1 of 3)
Is the future of civilization still determined by humans? It may seem a scholar’s query, but many ordinary folks, especially with the advent of…
Introducing the Pilgrim Faith Blog
Another blog? Yes. Pilgrim Faith? Yes. Why? Let me tell you. As of January 1’st, I (Joseph Minich) have taken on the role of…
Martin Luther’s Farewell to Arms: The Two Kingdoms and the Rejection of Crusading
Martin Luther’s political theology has fallen on hard times. While it was once common to give him credit for the emergence of modern political…
