Brian Zahnd
@brianzahnd.bsky.social
Founding pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri; author of eleven books, including The Wood Between the Worlds.
Prayer School number 103 is in John Mellencamp’s “Small Town”—Seymour, Indiana. Amen.
November 22, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Prayer School number 103 is in John Mellencamp’s “Small Town”—Seymour, Indiana. Amen.
“Our every experience of the natural is always already ‘supernatural’ in both origin and end…”
-David Bentley Hart, The Light of Tabor
-David Bentley Hart, The Light of Tabor
November 21, 2025 at 4:11 PM
“Our every experience of the natural is always already ‘supernatural’ in both origin and end…”
-David Bentley Hart, The Light of Tabor
-David Bentley Hart, The Light of Tabor
I Believe In An Interventionist God.
brianzahnd.substack.com/p/i-believe-...
brianzahnd.substack.com/p/i-believe-...
I Believe In An Interventionist God
I really do!
brianzahnd.substack.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:09 PM
I Believe In An Interventionist God.
brianzahnd.substack.com/p/i-believe-...
brianzahnd.substack.com/p/i-believe-...
One can be pragmatic or prophetic—
but one cannot be both.
but one cannot be both.
November 19, 2025 at 4:13 AM
One can be pragmatic or prophetic—
but one cannot be both.
but one cannot be both.
It’s tricky living as exiles in Babylon.
youtu.be/jGleS-QhnzM?...
youtu.be/jGleS-QhnzM?...
Exiles In Babylon || Pastor Brian Zahnd
YouTube video by Word of Life Church
youtu.be
November 17, 2025 at 4:08 AM
It’s tricky living as exiles in Babylon.
youtu.be/jGleS-QhnzM?...
youtu.be/jGleS-QhnzM?...
“The only punishment capable of punishing Hitler, and deterring little boys thirsting for greatness in coming centuries from following his example is such a total transformation of the meaning attached to greatness that he should thereby be excluded from it.” -Simone Weil, 1943
November 15, 2025 at 7:30 PM
“The only punishment capable of punishing Hitler, and deterring little boys thirsting for greatness in coming centuries from following his example is such a total transformation of the meaning attached to greatness that he should thereby be excluded from it.” -Simone Weil, 1943
A wheel of Stilton cheese from England. This is the good stuff, people.
November 15, 2025 at 2:03 AM
A wheel of Stilton cheese from England. This is the good stuff, people.
The gospel is not a fiction, but it is a story.
brianzahnd.substack.com/p/lord-of-th...
brianzahnd.substack.com/p/lord-of-th...
Lord of the Story
The Gospel is not a Fiction, but it is a Story.
brianzahnd.substack.com
November 13, 2025 at 6:25 PM
The gospel is not a fiction, but it is a story.
brianzahnd.substack.com/p/lord-of-th...
brianzahnd.substack.com/p/lord-of-th...
Once Christians tie their faith to partisan politics they eventually have to defend the indefensible.
Pledge all your allegiance to Jesus Christ and let the politicians fend for themselves.
Pledge all your allegiance to Jesus Christ and let the politicians fend for themselves.
November 13, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Once Christians tie their faith to partisan politics they eventually have to defend the indefensible.
Pledge all your allegiance to Jesus Christ and let the politicians fend for themselves.
Pledge all your allegiance to Jesus Christ and let the politicians fend for themselves.
Imagine what the Hebrew prophets would say about trillionaires.
November 7, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Imagine what the Hebrew prophets would say about trillionaires.
A Brief Q/A
Unseen Existences
A Brief Q/A
brianzahnd.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:05 PM
A Brief Q/A
“…among whom licentiousness was taken for gaiety and cheap cynicism for intelligence.”
-Fyodor Dostoevsky, Demons
At the beginning of the year I’ll teach a ten-week online class on Dostoevsky’s “Demons.”
It’s not for the faint of heart.
Try wolc.com/demons and you might find more info.
-Fyodor Dostoevsky, Demons
At the beginning of the year I’ll teach a ten-week online class on Dostoevsky’s “Demons.”
It’s not for the faint of heart.
Try wolc.com/demons and you might find more info.
November 6, 2025 at 1:45 AM
“…among whom licentiousness was taken for gaiety and cheap cynicism for intelligence.”
-Fyodor Dostoevsky, Demons
At the beginning of the year I’ll teach a ten-week online class on Dostoevsky’s “Demons.”
It’s not for the faint of heart.
Try wolc.com/demons and you might find more info.
-Fyodor Dostoevsky, Demons
At the beginning of the year I’ll teach a ten-week online class on Dostoevsky’s “Demons.”
It’s not for the faint of heart.
Try wolc.com/demons and you might find more info.
When the church seeks to change the world through political power, it does not change the world, it becomes the world.
As Stanley Hauerwas famously says, “The first task of the church is to make the world the world.”
As Stanley Hauerwas famously says, “The first task of the church is to make the world the world.”
November 3, 2025 at 3:50 AM
When the church seeks to change the world through political power, it does not change the world, it becomes the world.
As Stanley Hauerwas famously says, “The first task of the church is to make the world the world.”
As Stanley Hauerwas famously says, “The first task of the church is to make the world the world.”
Word of Life Church was born on All Saints Day 1981. This Sunday we’ll celebrate our 44th anniversary and I’ll preach a sermon called “The Word of Life” (1 John 1:1).
November 1, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Word of Life Church was born on All Saints Day 1981. This Sunday we’ll celebrate our 44th anniversary and I’ll preach a sermon called “The Word of Life” (1 John 1:1).
Dark As Midnight || The Story of Job - Part 3
YouTube video by Word of Life Church
youtu.be
October 27, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Random: My photo of the inkwells, pipes, and tobacco of C.S. Lewis.
October 26, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Random: My photo of the inkwells, pipes, and tobacco of C.S. Lewis.
Wherein I talk about the enigmatic Tom Bombadil.
youtu.be/UGXUGMK16So?...
youtu.be/UGXUGMK16So?...
Tom Bombadil: Tolkien's Greatest Characters | Brian Zahnd
YouTube video by The Plunge With Derek Holser
youtu.be
October 24, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Wherein I talk about the enigmatic Tom Bombadil.
youtu.be/UGXUGMK16So?...
youtu.be/UGXUGMK16So?...
Resist the tyranny of tiny screens. Read big books. 📚
October 23, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Resist the tyranny of tiny screens. Read big books. 📚
In “Demons,” Fyodor Dostoevsky portrays the adherents of Marxist atheism and the adherents of (Russian) Christian nationalism as both under the sway of demonic isms.
October 23, 2025 at 12:48 AM
In “Demons,” Fyodor Dostoevsky portrays the adherents of Marxist atheism and the adherents of (Russian) Christian nationalism as both under the sway of demonic isms.
Any attempt to use Jesus Christ to serve some nation, politics, ideology, ism, or cause, other than the divine mission to reconcile all things so that in the end God is all in all, is to reduce Jesus Christ to a false idol.
October 21, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Any attempt to use Jesus Christ to serve some nation, politics, ideology, ism, or cause, other than the divine mission to reconcile all things so that in the end God is all in all, is to reduce Jesus Christ to a false idol.
DEMONS
A 10-week online course through Dostoevsky’s darkest and most prophetic novel.
The course begins in January.
Registration is now open.
Cost: donation of any amount.
The registration link has all the pertinent information.
Join me in January for…DEMONS!
www.eventbrite.com/e/demons-onl...
A 10-week online course through Dostoevsky’s darkest and most prophetic novel.
The course begins in January.
Registration is now open.
Cost: donation of any amount.
The registration link has all the pertinent information.
Join me in January for…DEMONS!
www.eventbrite.com/e/demons-onl...
Demons Online Course
A 10-week study of Dostoevsky's novel Demons led by Brian Zahnd
www.eventbrite.com
October 20, 2025 at 10:44 PM
DEMONS
A 10-week online course through Dostoevsky’s darkest and most prophetic novel.
The course begins in January.
Registration is now open.
Cost: donation of any amount.
The registration link has all the pertinent information.
Join me in January for…DEMONS!
www.eventbrite.com/e/demons-onl...
A 10-week online course through Dostoevsky’s darkest and most prophetic novel.
The course begins in January.
Registration is now open.
Cost: donation of any amount.
The registration link has all the pertinent information.
Join me in January for…DEMONS!
www.eventbrite.com/e/demons-onl...
Dark As Midnight || The Story of Job - Part 2
YouTube video by Word of Life Church
youtu.be
October 20, 2025 at 3:34 AM