“The Virgin’s brilliance, moreover, is never obscured by the arrival of [Jesus] the son, as is as the constellation Virgo [which is obscured by the sun], but to the contrary is rendered brighter by the presence of what is superior.” -John Geometres

A genuine delight to tag team with iconographer Nick Papas at Villanova (who created this Augustine icon in a matter of hours), to learn of the art of the equally Augustinian Vernon Adams, to meet author Catherine Ricketts, and to finally meet the inestimable Martin Laird!

Aidan Hart is the real deal. Shame on me for not realizing this sooner (though I did know of his work), thanks to Matthew Dallman for getting me to his talk. And in addition to his YouTube talks, he has written it all down. www.aidanharticons.com/product-cate...

🤯

New piece on some recent happenings at Asbury and Wheaton College: millinerd.substack.com/p/the-art-of...

Bespoke: I want art whose genuine complexity throttles me into a new appreciate for and urgent rediscovery of what is ultimately undeniable, namely… the true, the good and the beautiful.

The above being a summary of this:

comment.org/art-haters-a...

Ashley Lande and I are uniting a divided America at Comment with the modest claim that at least we don't need a bunch of new people dropping acid right now. Things are weird enough already. t.co/mfw3p8AHS4

Raising children as a cheat code.

“I hesitate to use the term “psychedelic” in any kind of a positive way, yet I’ve had the thought that birth is psychedelic in a way that the “best” trip can only ever mimic, and very poorly.”

Intro to this month’s Material Mysticism at @commentmagazine.bsky.social : millinerd.substack.com/p/just-say-no

“I think people are perhaps slowly realizing that psychedelics simply cannot deliver on the promises their proponents aver, and a gradual disillusionment is taking place.”

@millinerd.bsky.social interviews Ashley Lande on psychedelics and Christianity.

The September issue of Material Mysticism at Comment Magazine covering psychedelics and Christianity with the ever insightful Ashley Lande: comment.org/decoy-enligh...

Those stale takes on Luther may need an upgrade. This is the upgrade. 👇🏻

Once more, Christians have known this for 2000 years, but we’re delighted psychology is catching up: “I’m going to crush her like a worm, and then I’m going to crush you.” He cites Christian mystics like Dionysius the Areopagite, Maggie Ross and William Johnston as one response.

That time the all-religions-same crowd lost a big fish.

“Perhaps Julian of Norwich does not “belong” to any of the churches. Instead, she was ahead of and above us all, pulling each of us together into a theology that is bigger than our divided communions.”

@millinerd.bsky.social on Norwich and the gospel of grace.

Count me in @millinerd.bsky.social:

"I invite what’s left of the evangelical elite to join me in full scale disillusionment not with the church (how easy that would be), but with the entire enterprise of scholarship & publishing that some deploy to expose it."
millinerd.substack.com/p/i-kissed-e...

It’s been called the Marian event of 2024… by me. The latest of my continuing Comment Magazine ADVENTures begins at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham #MaterialMysticism comment.org/the-secret-o...