Experimental Theology

...trudging into the distance in the bleeding stinking mad shadow of Jesus...the Lord out of dust had created him, had made him blood and nerve and mind, had made him to bleed and weep and think, and set him in a world of loss and fire... --Flannery O'Connor

12.02.2025

The Antichrist and the Katechon: Part 2, Girard's Apocalypse

I mentioned in the last post that Peter Thiel is a follower of René Girard and connects his ideas about the Antichrist and katechon to Girar...

12.01.2025

The Antichrist and the Katechon: Part 1, When Does the Katechon Become the Antichrist?

Recently, my colleague David McAnulty sent me this Wired essay about Peter Thiel's theories concerning the Antichrist and how those re...

11.30.2025

First Sunday of Advent: A Poem

"Exile" Hope cracks dry underfoot, tinder for despair. Dreams sweaty, fevered, tossed. Chewed stories stale in the mou...

11.28.2025

Psalm 130

"I wait for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning" What a line right before Advent. Waiting for the Lord more than watchmen ...

11.27.2025

René Girard and Moral Influence: Part 7, We Await the Eucatastrophe

So, what does it matter if, in the end, René Girard's theory is a moral influence view of the atonement? Let me end this series by answe...

11.26.2025

René Girard and Moral Influence: Part 6, Love Everyone

There was a time when I considered René Girard's theory of atonement to be a species of Christus Victor rather than moral influence. Spe...

11.25.2025

René Girard and Moral Influence: Part 5, Things Aren't Looking Very Good

Let me return to the thesis of this series, that René Girard's reading of the gospels is a moral influence view of the atonement. In the...

11.24.2025

René Girard and Moral Influence: Part 4, The Coming Apocalypse

When René Girard's ideas were all the rage during the Golden Age of blogging, the tone was triumphalistic. Here was a way of reading the...

11.21.2025

Psalm 129

Psalm 129 is noteworthy for a very striking and vivid image of oppression. The image comes at the end of the opening lament: “Greatly have ...

11.20.2025

René Girard and Moral Influence: Part 3, Scarcity and Anxiety

Soon after the publication of Unclean I was asked to present a paper, for the very first time, at a theological conference. The conference ...

11.19.2025

René Girard and Moral Influence: Part 2, The Mechanism is Masked

As I mentioned in the last post, I was an early adopter and enthusiast of René Girard's ideas. And I'm still a fan. I shared Girard...

11.18.2025

René Girard and Moral Influence: Part 1, Why Did Jesus Die?

In this series I want to make a simple point. Specifically, René Girard's scapegoat theory is a moral influence view of salvation. And b...

11.17.2025

To Give Back the Gift

Having finished another reading of The Lord of the Rings , a summer reading tradition of mine, I was working back through the Appendices. I ...

11.14.2025

Psalm 128

"It shall be well with you" Psalm 128 is a Wisdom psalm, expressing a vision of human flourishing for those who fear the Lord and...

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