I’ve been too busy over the last month to help ensure you win your next round of pub trivia, so I’ll just flag a couple recent writings and upcoming events before I fall further behind.
Recent
Stories After Virtue (Providence)
“Narrative, as it turns out, is not merely a medium of truth but truth’s necessary vessel.”
I wrote this piece on Brandon Sanderson and philosophy more than five years ago and mothballed it after it was rejected by Tor (now Reactor, a SFF magazine associated with Sanderson). I’ve pitched it around now and then since but with no success. Providence recently rescued it from oblivion, even though it’s a little out of their usual wheelhouse. I’ve been really pleased with the comments coming in so far, especially for a piece that limped into existence.
Providence very kindly asked me to serve as a Contributing Editor, which is a proper scandal considering some of the other names I’m joining on that list:
J. Daryl Charles, Jeffrey Cimmino, Paul Coyer, Dean Curry, Alan Dowd, Debra Erickson, Garrett Exner, Matt N. Gobush, Rebeccah Heinrichs, Michael Lucchese, Timothy Mallard, Jennifer Marshall, Paul Marshall, Walter Russell Mead, Tim Milosch, Eric Patterson, John Shelton, Miles Smith IV, Joshua Walker, Nadya Williams
Speaker Johnson in the Negative World (WORLD)
“Even in the Negative World, Christians are duty-bound to hold steadfast to the truth, regardless of the political or electoral consequences.”
My colleague Jonah did all the heavy-lifting on this one but it was fun to throw a news story about Republican staffers complaining about Johnson praying too much into Aaron Renn’s Three Worlds framework. For the record, my take on his book, Life in the Negative World is more or less the same as my take on Dreher’s Benedict Option: mostly common sense that drew more blowback than was deserved. Renn did a great job incorporating good-faith criticisms of his model into the book, which made it a lot stronger in the end.
Upcoming Events
Faith and Law Senate Reading Group: Christianity and Political Competence (May 10, 2024)
AEI’s Ben Storey wrote a fantastic introduction to René Girard and Pierre Manent—two of the most important philosophers for making sense of the current political moment. I’m thrilled to bring him in for a lunch.
RSVP if you want to join (details in link above).
SoConCon Plenary on IVF (July 25, 2024)
I’m thrilled Family Policy Alliance is dedicating a full plenary session at their Social Conservative Conference to the moral issues surrounding in vitro fertilization. Let me know if you’ll be there!
If you want to read more on this topic, I highly recommend the following resources:
Mike Pence and John Mize’s “IVF in Alabama: The Real Story” (WSJ)
The New Atlantis’ IVF Symposium:
Emma Waters’ “Taming IVF’s Wild West”
Leah Libresco Sargeant’s “Embryos as Schrödinger’s Persons”