I’m over on Substack now

Thoughts on the passing of a literary hero — We can think only of creatures, of things He’s made. Creatures are all we know, and can be all we know until we know Him. - Gene Wolfe, The Wizard Today Notre Dame burns and Gene Wolfe is dead. These two images seems sadly connected in my heart. I first…

I’ve been engaging in this debate for a while. I’ve been persecuted for my views, o! how I’ve been persecuted: Angry face emojis, sad face emojis, mocking GIFs, I’ve been through it all! …

This was originally printed on https://apilgriminnarnia.com/. If you haven’t visited that blog, you really should. As a lifelong reader of C.S. Lewis’s and his Space Trilogy, in my estimation, the first novel Out of the Silent Planet was enjoyable but the most “slight” of the trilogy: an initial foray into…

I was walking through the city square in Wroclaw, Poland this morning and I noticed a young man curled up on the sidewalk sleeping against a building. The only reason I took any notice of him is because another young man, who appeared to be on his way to work…

For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? — 1 Peter: 2 This is a tough time for orthodox Christians…

Tolkien’s Eucatastrophe and Good Friday He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross… So, also, in John 14:8, where Philip spoke according to the theology of glory: “Show us the Father.” Christ forthwith set aside his flighty thought about seeing…

It’s the 500th anniversary of The Reformation, which is something of a mixed event for me. I’m not one of those “Ah… the blessed Reformers” types who believe The Gospel was buried in a compost pile until Luther and Calvin came along and “rediscovered it”. (Cough, cough, White Horse Inn.)…

A few thoughts on the Bozeman conference by someone who was there. Warning: This is some serious Lutheran inside baseball. Non Missouri Synod members don’t expect to understand this. The last thing I wrote was Highway to the Lutheran Danger Zone in March of 2016 and I meant it to…

“It’s a boy!” Here’s the first time I can remember saying those words: It was sometime after midnight. I was nineteen years old, basically still a kid. I was exhausted, scared. My young wife appeared almost dead next to me, clutching my hand. The last twenty four hours had been…