Pointing to Christ: John Calvin on Faith, Ministry, and the Offense of the Gospel
In his commentary on Matthew 11:1–6 and Luke 7:18–23, John Calvin offers a profound theological meditation on John the Baptist’s inquiry into Jesus’ identity. Calvin begins by highlighting Jesus’ steadfast dedication to his ministry. Even as the Apostles embarked on their missions, Christ continued teaching and preaching in Galilee. Calvin underscores the significance of the term “commanding,” noting that it reveals the Apostles’ role as emissaries bound by Christ’s explicit instructions. They were not free to act according to their own judgment but were entrusted with a clear mandate to guide their message and conduct.
The Appearing Grace: Living and Waiting in Christ
The grace of God has appeared, Barth tells us, and it is no abstract concept or fleeting feeling. It is found in a person, Jesus Christ, in whom God has concluded His eternal covenant with humanity. This is why, in the Early Church, this passage was read on Christmas Day, for in the coming of Christ, “the grace of God hath appeared.” This grace, Barth emphasizes, is universal: it brings “salvation to all men.” In Christ, salvation is not reserved for a select few but extends to every person, breaking down barriers and reaching across the world. Yet grace does more than save—it also teaches. Barth reminds us that it is “grace itself and as such (incorporated in this person),” not something that precedes or follows grace, that instructs us. Grace is both the principle and the command, shaping us ethically and sanctifying us through its own power.
Angels in the Field: A Reflection on Witness and Glory Based on Barth’s CD III.3, 505
The night was ordinary, or so it seemed. Shepherds watched over their flocks in the stillness of the fields, their lives shaped by routine and the simple rhythms of the earth. But on this night, heaven broke into the mundane. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of God—brilliant, otherworldly, and unmistakable—shone around them. It was not the kind of glory that blinds or terrifies, but the kind that enlightens, liberates, and calls. The shepherds, startled yet captivated, would soon embark on a journey that would change them forever.
Reading the Bible in 2025
Presbyterians interpret the Bible through a Reformed lens, balancing Scripture with reason, tradition, and experience. This approach allows for a critical and thoughtful engagement with the text, appreciating its complexity while remaining open to its transformative power. To read the Bible, then, is not merely to read a book. It is to open oneself to God’s grace, to the wisdom of the Christian tradition, and to the ongoing work of the Spirit in shaping lives and communities. It is to participate in a story that continues to inspire, challenge, and call us to something greater.
On Symbolic Economies of Resistance
In Symbolic Economies, Jean-Joseph Goux explores how Marx’s analysis of the genesis of money and value in Capital can be applied beyond economic contexts to understand broader logics of value exchange, both quantitative and qualitative. Goux begins by adopting a “radicalized conception of exchange,” which goes beyond traditional economic exchange. He is interested in exchange as a fundamental principle that applies to both economic systems and other domains of human interaction.
The Zettelkasten as Rhizome: Discipline, Reflection, and Architectures of Thought
In an era defined by instant gratification, the deliberate, methodical process of zettelkasten stands as a quiet act of resistance. It cultivates cognitive endurance, stretches attention spans, and fosters a richer, more reflective engagement with knowledge. Over time, it transforms the practitioner, nurturing a resilient mind attuned to nuance, complexity, and depth.
An Advent Devotional: Psalm 18:28
The Hebrew word for “light” in the first clause, tā-ʾîr, comes from the root ʾwr, meaning to dawn, shine, or ignite. This imagery is rich and transformative, evoking the power of God’s light to pierce the deepest darkness. The psalmist’s words reflect a profound truth: God’s presence brings not only clarity and direction but also the strength to endure and overcome life’s challenges. The theologian Karl Barth describes Psalm 18:28 as a vivid expression of God’s empowering work in the life of the believer (see Barth, CD IV.1, pp. 605–608). For Barth, the image of God lighting the psalmist’s lamp is not merely poetic—it’s a declaration of divine grace breaking into human frailty. The “lamp” represents hope, vitality, and renewal, illuminated by God’s redemptive and restorative presence. The darkness that the psalmist describes encompasses the weight of Sin, despair, and external threats, but God’s light transforms this reality, offering new strength and a future filled with promise.
Temporal Multiplicity in E. P. Thompson & Reinhart Koselleck
This paper attempts to trace the semantic valences that invest particular textures of temporality with significance. I borrow the term “semantic valence” from the discipline of linguistics for reasons that should become more explicit. We need not dwell on the more scientific implications of these terms for linguistics. For my purposes, semantic valences are the varying shades and degrees of formal meanings associated with a particular concept, synchronically or diachronically. With this understanding of semantic valence in mind, I contend that one method of undertaking such a “trace,” especially when its object of inquiry is the characterization of time, is a historiographical comparison. This “trace” will sketch out how two scholars—who have been received as paradigmatic in their respective spheres of influence—characterize, express, and represent temporal change and multiplicity. In order to advance this inquiry, I will place E. P. Thompson’s seminal essay, “Time, Work Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism,” and Reinhart Koselleck’s Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time into conversation.
On Elective Affinities
To begin theorizing with Weber’s ideas about the “Protestant ethic,” i.e., to theorize alongside Weber (and perhaps even against him), I think it behooves us to come up with a working definition of what he could have possibly meant by Wahlverwandtschaften [Elective Affinities]. Perhaps it was Goethe’s play that exposed Weber to this idea and perhaps Goethe learned about it from the eighteenth-century Swedish chemist, Torbern Bergman, who coined the term in a treatise about molecular combinations. Swedberg and Agevall (2016) concede that “‘Elective affinity’ is not a carefully defined technical concept in Weber’s writings but rather a key phrase.” Scott (2015) argues that Weber used the term to “describe the relationship between Protestantism and capitalism.” In Scott’s view, the term “refers to the resonance or coherence between aspects of the teachings of Protestantism and the ethos of the capitalist enterprise: the contents of one system of meaning engender a tendency for adherents to build and pursue the other system of meaning. The actors concerned may not be consciously aware of this affinity.”
The Ringstrasse: Schorske, Olsen, and Bourgeois Self-Representation
In 1994 , a volume of essays entitled, Rediscovering History: Culture, Politics, and the Psyche, edited by Michael S. Roth, was released in which several historians contributed original research and analytical reflection. All of these essays relate, in some way, to the diverse methodological, conceptual, and theoretical insights articulated by intellectual historian Carl E. Schorske. Roth, in his introduction to Rediscovering History, provides a practicable avenue through which one can situate herself or himself in relation to Schorske’s own research goals as discussed in his 1980 book of essays (some of which were published earlier) entitled Fin-de-siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture. Upon its publication, Fin-de-siècle Vienna became an inflection point in Schorske’s career as a historian.
Recent Work on Colonial Violence in French Algeria
The primary texts under discussion include Benjamin Claude Brower’s A Desert Named Peace: The Violence of France’s Empire in the Algerian Sahara, 1844-1902 (2009); Jennifer E. Sessions’s By Sword and Plow: France and the Conquest of Algeria (2011); Judith Surkis’s Sex, Law, and Sovereignty in Algeria, 1830-1930 (2019); and Joshua Cole’s Lethal Provocation: The Constantine Murders and the Politics of French Algeria (2019). Taken together, these texts provide insight about four typologies of violence and violent behaviors in the French Algerian colonial field: physical violence (including structural violence), ideological violence (including symbolic violence), juridico-discursive violence, and inter-communal violence (by way of) provocation.
A Lenten Devotional: Hebrews 1:8-12
In these passages (quoting from the psalter and Isaiah), the author of the Epistle wants to show us that Jesus Christ is superior to the angels—that he is the Lord. We labor under a misapprehension if we understand the lordship of Jesus Christ as just one among so many doctrinal points to be believed. These verses elaborate on God’s temporality (that is, his time) in Jesus Christ. The eternity of God’s throne is closely tied together with God’s endless righteousness. The righteousness of God is coextensive with the terrain of God’s kingdom, which encompasses and transcends the cosmos. Only Nothingness exists outside of God’s kingdom; Nothingness will not, however, have the last word.
An Early Karl Barth Sermon: The Discipleship of Jesus (1907)
The following is my unauthorized translation into English of one of Karl Barth's earliest sermons: Homiletic Seminar in Bern, Summer Semester 1907: In the summer semester of 1907, his last semester in Bern before he moved to Tübingen, Barth had taken "Homiletic and Catechetical Exercises" with Moritz Lauterburg (1862-1927; since 1905 Professor of Practical Theology in Bern), according to his "Zeugnisheft" from the Bern University of Applied Sciences.
A Lenten Devotional: John 7:14–31, 37–39
At the Festival of Booths, Jesus told the crowd, “Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him.” There is a symmetry between Jesus’s activity in the world and the divine activity of the Creator God. The Father “has given [Christ] these works to accomplish in the Father’s name and for the manifestation of this name.” We also see the corollary. “Because the Father dwells in Him, the Son, it is the Father who performs the works through Him. Thus the Son is not really alone in His action, but He who sent Him is with Him” (Barth, CD III.2, p. 63). The Triune God is at work in the Christ-event, for us and for the life of the world, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’s call, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink,” is precisely an invitation to reimagine what Lent means for us today.
Reading & Heuristics
Someone recently asked me if I keep a list of books I’ve read, am reading, or plan to read. In fact, I used to be much better about this. In college, I was fastidious about keeping a tidy LibraryThings account. I toyed around with Goodreads, too. In reality, however, I think there’s something about record-keeping for its own sake that elicits jouissance. I don’t value my opinions highly enough to offer reviews of things with any reliable regularity.
Victor Turner, Christian Women, & Emancipation in Ritual
Rituals are a common thread across culture, time, and space. Examples of rituals studied by ethnographers include everything from circumcision ceremonies in central Africa to Christmas holiday shopping in megamalls across the United States. There exists a rich trove of theoretical apparatuses from which we can mine to better understand the seemingly impenetrable worlds of other religious procedures that defy Euro-American norms of liberated femininity and female emancipation. This is never more true than it is in the realm of the anthropology of theology, religion, and religious ritual.
An Advent Devotional: Phil. 1:3-11
Paul’s peace (eiréné) is literally a tying together—in Greek, the word derives from eirō (to tie together). Joined together in life’s creative wholeness, the united community of God, which “[shares] in the gospel” (koinōnia), joyfully perseveres through all hardships in thanksgiving and gratitude.
Towards an Apocalyptic Catechism
What would an ecumenical, Reformed, and apocalyptic exposition of the Christian faith look like?
Elsewhere: Forms Podcast (II)
My Twitter friends @henryjwallis, @masonmennenga, and I (@WoeToChorazin) recorded a new podcast on Forms about religious deconstruction and American evangelicalism. Be sure to listen to it today!
Elsewhere: Fruitless & Mammonburg Podcasts
Featured interviews from the “Fruitless” and “Mammonburg” podcasts.