There’s been a breakneck pace to the dispatch since the last time I wrote one of these summary reviews (all the way back in September), so I thought it would be appropriate to pause this Monday and list out all of the things that the reader might want to have a moment to peruse before I try to resume some of the series I was working through over the summer.
In the main column (A Perennial Digression), the reader may want to catch-up on the following from September:
Then, from the end of September through the whole month of October, more or less one consistent series, On Spirit and the Imagination, was worked out in the following issues:
Autumnus in Litteris, serving as a kind of unofficial prologue
Realms Imaginal (II)
Gates of Horn and Ivory (III)
These Be Brave Spirits Indeed (VII, Concludit)
But there have also been a few posts outside of the main column:
In Errant Epistulae, I wrote a follow-up letter to my friend Grant, Ad Dorotheum II, “On Sex, Gender, and Archetype”;
In Zeitgeist Zephyrs, I wrote Zephyr II, “More Summer 2023 in Review, and Zephyr III, “Fall 2023 in Review: On T-Swift, Wheel of Time, and Masculine Nihilism”
In Homely Homilies, I wrote The Wheel of the Year: Ecclesiastical New Year 2023 right at the beginning of the month of September.
The astute reader will notice that I have largely not continued the work begun in Public Polyglossia on teaching Greek grammar. I will not take down the column and I may return to this series at some point in the near future, but basically, unless or until those articles generate more interest and investment from readers, the amount of time they take to make is not a good use of what’s available to me.
There have also been a few places where my writing has appeared outside of A Perennial Digression altogether:
Back in September, a book review I wrote of Yonatan Adler’s The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022) appeared in The Christian Century. This is about the most prestigious venue I’ve ever had the chance to write for, so I was very gratified by the opportunity. I will also say, the author of the book himself praised my review on the artist formerly known as Twitter, so I can say with certainty that I understood the book. (Do kids still end that phrase with “the assignment”?)
Over at Jacob’s Well magazine, for which I’ve written before, an article of mine for Issue 7, “Christianity’s Asian Future,” appeared. It looks good both online and in print, but I’ve got to say, the print version is far better, featuring all of my footnotes. The original version of the article was intended to be about the future of Christianity in the potential “Asian Century” that foreign affairs specialists like to talk about.
Over at Pop Culture and Theology, which has featured my writing on several occasions, a theological take on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. If you’re not into
Finally, the anime book really is wrapping up: Rob and I are in the final stages of its editing. On both our ends, we have full-time teaching gigs to contend with, and on my end, add to that a toddler with a vocabulary of several hundred words now and a tendency to do parkour off of my furniture. I am not at this point certain whether it would publish in ‘24 or ‘25, but there is an end in sight on it.
So, what’s coming down the pipeline?
I hope this month, November, to get another installment of Ethical Cosmopolitanism in the bag, which I think has been a richly rewarding series to research for and write.
I plan to return to the “How to Think” series on topics in Christian theology, but need to contemplate how I’d like to pick up the thread from the last entry on Sin. Originally, I think I planned to jump immediately to the cross, then castigated myself for skipping, you know, everything else.
There will probably be a Zephyr or two as I continue to imbibe more popular culture than is responsible.
And, finally, it seems clear that with all this structure and planning the dispatch could use some digressions every now and again, so it’s likely that I’ll return to a more meandering style this month, at least until Advent begins in earnest, at which point I may do something more holiday-themed. (Or not. I’ve found Advent and Christmastide a distinctly depressing affair for the last five years.)
A last few notes: first, thank you to those of you who read, who have, I think, declined somewhat in numbers over the course of the year, at least if Substack’s statistics are anything to go by; I appreciate that someone other than the void is benefiting in some way, even by having something to get usefully upset about, in what I write. Second, thank you especially to those of you who are paid subscribers to the dispatch. I’ll level with you that the money generated by the dispatch has been really important as I’ve stepped into a new role as the primary provider in my household. Third, and only if you have the means to do so comfortably (take care of yourselves before you take care of me), please consider becoming a paid subscriber if you are not already. My prices remain, and will continue to remain, as low as Substack allows me to keep them because I believe in making scholarship on religion, classics, and theology as accessible as possible, and because I believe in making good resources, guides, and treatments of complex topics available to as many people as possible is something like a vocation. When you support me in doing this, by reading or subscribing, you also support that work, and I thank you for it.
Curate ut valeatis,
David
David, your "meanderings" are a favorite item in my online life! Much appreciated. I get so many ideas from you it's astonishing. This subscriber, at least, really enjoys your efforts!
Looking forward to it as always many thanks for you and all your stuff much love be well