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.
On "Persepolis Unbound"
This new venture is titled Persepolis Unbound, with an eye toward Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. The tyranny of Jupiter is here eclipsed by what I’m calling my “affective exile.” Protesting against the discourse of authenticity (so common in late twentieth-century Iranian intellectual production) I want to bring to light the vagaries of my experience as a desiring being who speaks from the habitus of the Iranian American diaspora.
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!
Newsletter: In Paris (Part 2)
From November 2021 to July 2022, I kept a newsletter, Dispatches & Ephemera, hosted through Revue. Now, I’m moving my posts here. Below, please find issues 12-20, from March to July 2022.
Newsletter: In Paris (Part 1)
A compilation of my newsletters from Paris; November 2021 - February 2022.