Author: Jesse

Alasdair MacIntyre and Open Theism: the Lament of a Christian Platonist

While it would be the height of hubris to suggest that I am capable of following the many profound contributions of Alasdair MacIntyre to the world of Christian thought, I can claim him as a long-standing hero of mine. It also seems clear enough in a lecture delivered on November 11, 2022 that MacIntyre has … Continue reading Alasdair MacIntyre and Open Theism: the Lament of a Christian Platonist →

Receiving the World Like Children: Next-Day Reflections on an Evening Stolen from (and Graciously Given by) David Hart

David Bentley Hart can certainly arch an eyebrow. I was not surprised by this, but the experience of his single, powerfully arched eyebrow locked on me for a moment across the table is one of several images that has settled into my imagination on this day after getting to meet Hart in person. There are … Continue reading Receiving the World Like Children: Next-Day Reflections on an Evening Stolen from (and Graciously Given by) David Hart →

Astonishment and New Life: All of Us as the Green Man

Image: "Green Man" carving on a door pillar of the Kilpeck Church What do we make of this human face spewing thick and leafy branches from its mouth while its wide eyes stare out past us in apparent shock? Visual art and theology scholar Stephen Miller in The Green Man in Medieval England: Christian Shoots … Continue reading Astonishment and New Life: All of Us as the Green Man →

Just in Time for Advent: Hart’s Own Summary of Kenogaia with Some Commentary

With the season of Advent and Nativity approaching quickly, I hope that you might consider reading this wonderful story of a young boy entering a dark world carry light and salvation. On October 21, 2022, Michael Martin invited Mike Sauter to join him in interviewing David Bentley Hart on Hart's novel Kenogaia (A Gnostic Tale). … Continue reading Just in Time for Advent: Hart’s Own Summary of Kenogaia with Some Commentary →

Tips on Reading the New Testament Regarding the Afterlife

In a recent online discussion about how difficult it is to discern what the New Testament authors thought about suffering and salvation after biological death, I shared these four top reasons why people today misunderstand the plain meanings of the New Testament on this topic: 1. They have no concept that for most in Christ’s … Continue reading Tips on Reading the New Testament Regarding the Afterlife →

Our Fleshly and Our Spiritual Bodies According to David Bentley Hart

Dear reader, I have transcribed below a good bit that David Bentley Hart had to say recently about spiritual versus fleshly bodies in an interview with Larry Chapp from October 10, 2022. These points by Hart (that he has made many times and in many ways) are extremely confusing to people. Therefore, I’ve put together … Continue reading Our Fleshly and Our Spiritual Bodies According to David Bentley Hart →

Slavery in Gregory of Nyssa as a Wound that We Inflict Upon Christ

In 2009, David Bentley Hart made bold claims about Gregory of Nyssa as the first in the ancient world to denounce slavery in utterly uncompromising terms. This was in Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies (Yale University Press). While Hart does not provide much by way of footnoting or defense in his … Continue reading Slavery in Gregory of Nyssa as a Wound that We Inflict Upon Christ →

What of Hart’s Tradition and Apocalypse is Shared with Wilken’s The Myth of Christian Beginnings?

[Advanced notice: Please see one correction in a comment below from David Bentley Hart.] Robert Louis Wilken Two of Robert Louis Wilken’s wonderful books blessed me a few years ago (The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God and The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity). For another project recently, … Continue reading What of Hart’s Tradition and Apocalypse is Shared with Wilken’s The Myth of Christian Beginnings? →

Some Interviews with Jesse on Fairies, the Fall, and the Restoration of All Things…

I was recently invited by Steven HAuse with Love Unrelenting to talk about universalism (5 minutes), interfaith relationships (7.5 minutes), the atemporal fall (13 minutes), and the aliveness of all creation (7 minutes). Around the same time, I was invited to talk about the restoration of all things by Eric Van Evans with Conscious Philosophy … Continue reading Some Interviews with Jesse on Fairies, the Fall, and the Restoration of All Things… →