Franchement, l’un des meilleurs parfums jamais créés.

There is no mass protest movement in Ba Sing Se, I suppose.

Perhaps he’s afraid of HUAC.

I don’t necessarily think you *need* to read the Bible in a year. Perhaps it’s better to follow the lectionary, reading small chunks at a time, absorbing the message that God wishes to speak into the world today with wisdom and understanding.

Mohamed Harbi has passed away- a participant in and historian of revolutionary politics in Algeria and man of principle who fought against tyranny and for social justice. What a life he led maitron.fr/harbi-mohamm...

Voilà. Pas de commentaire.

It’s too late, I have already portrayed myself as Chortling Bernie and you as Seething Eric Adams

THREAD: Verified videos of anti-establishment protests currently unfolding in Iran Protesters push back police and security forces on Tehran's Jomhouri Street. Location: maps.app.goo.gl/LKZH6YbnT2WE... @geoconfirmed.org

Scenes of unrest at the University of Tehran as students run towards the main entrance gate of the university on 30 December. Verified by @paulybrown.bsky.social maps.app.goo.gl/LNWRqnUSbE6q...

not a sports person but I laughed because I understood a sports-adjacent joke for a change

Happy New Year’s Day, friends. 2026 will not be carried by our resolve, but by God’s faithfulness. We begin again under grace, freed from bravado and from despair, and sent out into joyful love!

I am asking you to pray for everyone in Iran, to inform yourself about the immense suffering of ordinary people there at the hands of imperialism, and to witness the transformation of an informal social non-movement (Bayat) into a fully-formed struggle for democracy, freedom, and women’s rights.

I’m sure the three-letter agencies are devastated that a center-right demsoc (by Scandinavian standards) won a mayoral election and gave a great speech - we will see much of the internet commentariat lamenting this fact by invoking any red herring possible - but pay attention to the policies, folks.

“I have been told that this is the occasion to reset expectations, that I should use this opportunity to encourage the people of New York to ask for little and expect even less. I will do no such thing. The only expectation I seek to reset is that of small expectations.” – Mayor Zohran Mamdani

“They will be Palestinian New Yorkers in Bay Ridge who will no longer have to contend with a politics that speaks of universalism but makes them the exception" proper quote

Remember that God does not ask you to make any decisions. The crucified God *looks at you* with blood on His face and a crown of thorns on His head, speechless and silent. Somehow, some way, we know what to do after we’ve been gazed upon by the living God who died for us.

Mamdani: For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty

2026 is the year I choose me.

Anytime some yahoo says, “all serious historians agree…” I want to say: 1. What is a “serious” historian? 2. Have you ever actually been in a room with more than one historian? We can’t even agree with how long the 19th century was.

It is *God* who justifies sinners in Jesus Christ as an objective divine act, not as a result produced in us by a certain configuration of assent or trust or infused habits. Faith is the Spirit’s awakening to this accomplished reconciliation & the obedient acknowledgement of what is true in Christ.

Reuters is reporting that several people have died in Iran connected to protests over the catastrophic state of the economy. Please join me in praying for peace and justice.

In the spirit of Rebecca’s post, I also want to tell you all the (fiction) books I read in 2025: - Vols. I, II, and III of “On the Calculation of Volume” by Solvej Balle - “Lie With Me” by Philippe Besson - “The Vegetarian” by Han Kang

A massive gathering of young people from across Europe came together not for a party, but for prayer and solidarity to begin 2026, at the 48th European Meeting organized by the Taizé Community, held in Paris where around 15,000 young adults gathered for shared prayer and ecumenical friendship.

Hasbara apparatchiks who were writing violence porn (babies in ovens, etc.) after 7 October & delighting in Iranian ppl dying under missiles in June ‘25 are now trying to jump on the bandwagon & bemoan lack of media coverage of the Iranian protests. Spare us the pretense and buzz off.

New York City has a new mayor

Happy New Year! ✨🥳🎊

The beauty of Taizé is that anyone can do it. It would be a blessing if more people gathered informally to chant and read scripture in the manner of this intentional ecumenical community. The aesthetic truth-to-life of Jacques Berthier’s liturgical compositions is certainly inspired by the Spirit.

When in doubt, always listen to the sound of church bells ringing. If you are fortunate enough to hear them in person, always do so with gratitude and joy. If you, like me, are not so fortunate, listen to them digitally. The closest I get to “natural theology” is through Luther’s theology of sound.

"My sources broke categories: they were monstrous. Studying them meant integrating methods from several disciplines — and being marginalized by the more conservative practitioners in all of them." The final piece in our monsters series, from @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social

Name a more iconic duo.

“Worship is the highest activity of the human spirit. In worship we contemplate the truth, mercy and power of God shown to us in Jesus Christ. We respond with adoration, we acknowledge our failures, and we seek to amend our lives in the strength of the Holy Spirit.” – NZPB 29

Friends, after months of effort, I’ve finally received my copy of the 2024 (New Edition) of A New Zealand Prayer Book, shipped directly from the church in Wellington. So grateful for this liturgical resource, which has been a gift to my spiritual journey for many years.

Just arrived in Michigan. Artemis was so elated to see me. She’s cuddled up next to me, purring like nobody’s business (photos tomorrow). Los Angeles wasn’t a vacation for me (iykyk), but it was so good to see my parents, even if for a short while. Semester starts on the 8th. Exhausted but grateful.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: / ‘God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; / The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, / With peace on earth, good will to men.’

Most kindly warming light! Enter the inmost depths of our hearts, for we are faithful to you. Without your presence we have nothing worthy, nothing pure. Veni, Sancte Spiritus.

Être historien français aux États-Unis, ça coûte cher, hein ? J’ai des abos au Monde, à l’Humanité, à Libé, etc. J’ai aussi un abo à RetroNews. Et malgré tout, j’arrive pas à trouver grand-chose en ligne pour la période 58–90. Du coup, j’ai dû me taper les microfilms et les microfiches !

For my theology mega-nerds: we have to remember that Barth’s actualism *is not* a general metaphysics of creaturely causation. Barth is not a Calvinist Malebranche, however much his detractors claim he is. What Barth’s work seeks to do is to state the following clearly:

Grace is not a stable “something” that a human being possesses or in which a human being participates as a lasting condition (for example, a “habitus” in the soul). Rather, grace is always and only God’s fresh act, newly given, newly effective, at each moment.

I literally just finished spending 7 hours or so finishing up putting together my Canvas site for next semester. It was a pain to do and I hate the website anyway. What the f*** am I supposed to do now? It’s too late to ask students to buy a course reader. I’m thinking of asking them to…

May we all endeavor to be more woke. May we all strive towards greater empathy, stronger love, and joyful compassion. May forgiveness and mercy be in our right hand, and may justice and the law be in our left. May all of this be so for the greater good of us all.

As I said recently in The Guardian: "Despite their hopes to the contrary, anti-trans campaigners have not won the hearts and minds they believed the Supreme Court would give them" So they turn to this; desperate, fascistic calls for the destruction of those they hate (framed as ideas, not people).

Every Gulf state wants to do the UAE playbook, but the ultimate tragedy is the UAE playbook was actually the Jordan playbook circa 2007, but Jordan didn't have any money to do it

The Clarissa fans have found me.

“We do not accept Jews, because they reject Christ! […] We do not accept Papists, because they bow to a Roman dictator! We do not accept Turks, [or] Negroes because we are here to protect…democracy.” – Clayton Townley, from “Mississippi Burning” (1988) My, my, nothing has changed, has it?

Calvin’s Geneva was communist (little c). Dude invented welfare!

Maybe, if you're not actually in university classrooms, teaching students in the age of gAI, perhaps you might want to stop and listen when people actually in those classrooms raise concerns about what they are seeing; and not just dismiss us as luddites, or boomers, or cruel profs playing cops

The joyous shouts coming out of Iran’s protests likely signal a fundamental transformation in the Iranian political landscape. With no money left, no sanctions relief in sight, environmental catastrophe currently taking place, and food/water shortages, I don’t know how things stay the same.

I wrote this, please read! (As usual when I have a thing come out I'm acutely aware of its limits but fwiw I'm excited this is out. I learned a lot writing it. Also: JHI blog editors were incredibly rigorous and vigorous, made the piece better as object and the process of writing it more edifying!)

I think this article is fantastic and everyone should read it. bsky.app/profile/pash...