Rod Dreher has been publishing letters from readers of his blog in a series called "Pandemic Diaries." It's an effort to document this historic moment, and the individual threads that make up the entire fabric of our collective experience. I've found many of them interesting and moving, and so yesterday I sent him a letter…
I have written a short piece for the Forefront Festival blog in response to the global spread of the COVID-19 virus. Many long months of struggle await us in the fight against this disease, and I envision a key role that artist of faith may play in manifesting beautiful things to an aching world: These…
Amidst the uncertainty of recent days as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, a deeper sense of disorientation has emerged as well. None of us have experienced something of this nature and scale, yet it has unmistakably felt different than we might have anticipated. The normalcy of our work, habits, diets, institutions and economy have…
As a young boy, I recall watching a documentary on the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. It told the tale of the regional devastation from the ash that buried everything nearby, including the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Interestingly, the film relayed the story through the lens of the modern city of Pompei, following various…
On a frigid December night a few weeks ago, I stepped out of a Christmas party at a farm in Scottsville, New York, a village just south of Rochester. As I walked to my car, I stopped for a moment, feeling the kind of quiet that only comes to you on those cold winter nights.…
I'm late sharing this here, but early in July another essay of mine was published over at Mere Orthodoxy. Drawing from the work of Neil Postman, I wrote in response to the burning of Notre Dame—in particular, I was struck by how quickly we had moved on from giving the cathedral our attention, and how…
As I write, I am sitting in the cathedral of San Giovanni in Laterano. There is a sort of profanity in what I am about to attempt; to resort to written words in such a moment, hoping to capture something of this place, carries a tinge of blasphemy, aside from it being a fool's errand.…
As usual, the most recent Forefront arts review covers a broad spectrum of topics: -I discuss Leo Tolstoy's Confessions, an incredibly profound spiritual memoir, and one with particular relevance to the philosophical underpinnings of Forefront's mission. -Zack reviews the album Lent from Liturgical Folk. -Nate reflects on the recent documentary American Gospel: Christ Alone. -Rich…
In my latest contribution to the Forefront blog, I reflect on our need to adopt habits of "long art." Doing so can reconnect us to a theologically informed stewardship of our world and its beauty, ultimately pointing us toward eternal things: "To participate in the creation of long art, to spend time in its presence—this is…
I recently had the opportunity to interview my friend Dr. Alastair Roberts, who I met last spring during the Davenant Institute's Protestant Wisdom Primer. We discuss here his recently published book Echoes of Exodus: Tracing Themes of Redemption through Scripture, which was a collaborative project with Andrew Wilson. Among other things, we cover the musical…
