APD’s comeback continues to be fruitful. This month, check out the following if you missed any:
The “Wayfarers” series in particular concluded this month. Here are links to Partes Prima, Secunda, Tertia, Quarta, Quinta, Sextaque.
Several articles published since the revival have been subtitled “A Guide for the Perplexed,” but there appear to be two new series arising from that stream. One, “Ethical Cosmopolitanism,” now has a first part but awaits continuation (forthcoming, I can assure). I suppose various things influenced me to begin it: advising a student thesis this past semester on Stoic influence on the American Founders (indirect); a department meeting that emphasized global citizenship; the premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ second season. I also find that there is no avoiding staking out a distinct political ethos for one’s self these days, and the best I can say is that I consider myself dedicated to the union but not the uniformity of a diverse, pluralistic world, in which I think differences are strengths because they need not mean division, individuals and collectives coexist in networks of mutual responsibility, and the common good, aporetically apprehended but seriously sought, is the primary value.
Another series, overviewing Christian doctrine from a more straightforwardly dogmatic standpoint, now has three entries: “How to Think About the Trinity,” “How to Think About Creation,” and “How to Think About Christ I.” This line will be continued with “How to Think About Christ II” and possibly III, depending on how long it takes to summarize and synthesize the material under review. Beyond that, at least at present, I plan further posts on the Church, the Sacraments, Mary and the Saints, and the Last Things. I’m not entirely sure why this series emerged from the writing desk, other than by way of a twofold desire to clarify what I see as common misunderstandings of fundamental Christian doctrines as well as to prove for certain readers that I am, in fact, a Christian (forgivably obscure in certain entries of the dispatch).
Alia annuntianda:
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APD now offers a 7 day free trial for all paywalled articles. Want to make sure that you like it (or hate it!) before subscribing (or not)? Now’s your chance!
If you are a subscriber, good news!
Substack tells me that if you refer a certain number of people to become paid subscribers of the dispatch, APD will comp you a certain number of months, to the tune of 3 referrals for a month, 5 referrals for 3 months, and 25 referrals for 6 months. This is probably most relevant to monthly subscribers, but yearly subscribers may be able by doing so to delay having to renew their subscription. If you like APD, please—share it with others, and help build the readership community! The more the merrier, and the more stuff we can do. (Cue Mel Brooks.)
Speaking of: it is my great honor to announce that A Perennial Digression is now officially listed as a Substack bestseller, having surpassed the 100 paid subscribers mark. That is all you. I am humbled and thankful for your generous support for this project in my existential meandering.
Please consider becoming a paid subscriber!
Always appreciated, but never expected, and so forth. As readers of the dispatch from its first life to the present will notice, the current rate of production follows a cycle of about two articles a week, one typically free, one typically paid, sometimes featuring a second paid entry if I have the time and there seems to be a need.
This summer, I am supporting my spouse’s transition out of her teaching career by working a summer menial labor job (returning to my roots in cooking, and, incidentally, I’ll have something on cuisine at some point hopefully), and so the effort it takes to sustain that rate of production is manageable but stretching. (This is also a good time to say that if you have commented on something and I haven’t gotten around to engaging you, my firmest apologies: most of the free time I have is spent sustaining the dispatch’s ordinary output.) The calculus around this dynamic continues to be that the more support APD generates, the more time I can spend on it and the more things that can be done with it.
For example, I have suggested before the possibility of offering online language classes this Fall. I am still sketching what this would look like, but for clarity for the interested, I’d need at least 20 interested people, I’d probably charge something like $50 a person for a whole semester (not including a textbook, and don’t quote me, it might change), and we’d meet online probably once or twice a week, and I’d manage a Google Classroom where numerous materials would be regularly available. This and other expansions of the community around the dispatch I have in mind as things I’d like to do, but that I need sufficient buy-in to do and make meaningful for the interested. So, if APD is useful for you, encouraging for you, engaging for you, even as an exemplum of what you don’t like or agree with (I would hope at least the premier such model of what you don’t like or agree with), please consider becoming a paid subscriber and help me continue to grow this strangely resilient and enduring experiment.
I love the idea of language courses. And, for what it's worth, I think you deserve more than $50/semester.