Brian LePort

U2’s universal reconciliation Inasmuch as I feel any amount of confidence in my theology as a Christian, I feel confident that if the Christian Gospel contains truth, or at least a truth structure that maps onto reality in ways…

Pondering images of universal reconciliation in the lyrics of U2:

brianleport.home.blog/2025/10/03/u...

The Council of Nicaea at 1700 Years | Bible and Beyond Podcast 1700 years later, the Council of Nicaea still stirs debate. Why did it matter then—and why does it still shape Christianity today?

Nice overview of the Council of Nicaea at its 1700th anniversary:

earlychristiantexts.com/council-of-n...

Against Empathy: When Christians Declare Compassion a Vice

A good conversation responding to the whole “empathy is a sin” trend happening in some corners of American Christianity:

open.spotify.com/episode/5UAY...

If you teach or parent teenagers, you know exactly where in this paragraph you can hear them getting out of control for no apparent reason if it was being read out loud.

Religious, theological, and biblical studies when you can’t go the traditional route I know that there are many people out there who would like to major in something as fun as religious or biblical studies, or go to graduate school to study religion, or seminary to study theology, …

Religious, theological, and biblical studies when you can’t go the traditional route:

brianleport.home.blog/2025/09/13/r...

I’ve been pondering Texas’ influence on how people read the Bible. I’ve listed some *major* figures and institutions below. Am I missing anyone (from let’s say from 1900-present)?

YouTube video by Bible & Archaeology The Forgotten Plague of Marcus Aurelius | Bible & Archaeology

Did the Antonine plague lead to Christianity going from about >100,000 people in the second century to over a million in the third?

youtu.be/zQY5eVa4toQ?...

YouTube video by ReligionForBreakfast Coptic Christianity Explained

Interesting introduction to Coptic Christianity:

youtu.be/a5EnGR1XqmU?...

It’s interesting. He wrote it in the form of a Platonic dialogue, so it’s got that feel, and the goddess “Psyche” seems to be his mouthpiece.

Me: “I need a break from religion and theology. I’ll read some philosophy.”

The philosophy:

The New Geography of Housing in America Podcast Episode · Plain English with Derek Thompson · 07/30/2025 · 44m

Insightful discussion about housing in America:

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

YouTube video by Timeline Theological Videos PHILIPPA FOOT By Lesley Brown

A video introduction to the life and career of Philippa Foot:

youtu.be/K7KkXvHXtGM?...

“…everyone should be allowed freedom of judgement and the right to interpret the basic tenants of his faith as he sees fit, and that the moral value of a man’s creed should be judged only from his work.”

- Spinoza, “Theological-Political Treatise”

How is there not a true crime podcast dedicated to San Francisco? Or am I missing one?

New history of California! So far, so good!

Why Christians should be liberal I’ve been reading through John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty over the past couple of weeks. It’s a short work, less than a couple hundred pages, but dense enough to read slowly. For th…

What Christians can learn from John Stuart Mill:

brianleport.home.blog/2025/07/17/w...

YouTube video by PBS Terra The Real Reason People Move Toward Risk

“On the national and neighborhood level, people are being forced to move to places where housing in available and affordable, and those places are often the riskiest ones when it comes to extreme weather.”

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We want more than "experiences"; we want "reality" Nozick would have hated social media

More on our desire to live in our reality:

open.substack.com/pub/brianlep...

[Bible] Episode 303: Pete Enns & Jared Byas - Is the Bible Even Important Anymore? by The Bible For Normal People

Is the Bible “relevant” even if it isn’t the “inerrant Word of God”?

megaphone.link/ADL3010747337

YouTube video by IT'S HISTORY Why San Francisco’s City Planners Hated the Ferry Building

Cool history of San Francisco’s Ferry Building;

youtu.be/Q01TgTHEiB4?...

Why do we self-sabotage? Dostoevsky had a theory, maybe

Why do some people self-sabotage?

open.substack.com/pub/brianlep...

Studying Philosophy Does Make People Better Thinkers

This study “offers the strongest evidence to date that studying philosophy does indeed make people better thinkers.” www.cambridge.org/core/journal... (h/t @greggdcaruso.bsky.social) #philosophy #PhilSky

California pays about $78,000,000,000 more in federal taxes than it gets in federal spending and I doubt they're vacationing in Nebraska so ...

Simon Critchley on our desire for asceticism It may do the philosopher Simon Critchley an injustice to take these two paragraphs out of the context of his book, Mysticism, when they’re somewhat unfathomable without the context of chapter 2 (“…

The philosopher Simon Critchley says that we “are still drawn by the desire for asceticism” even when we reject its explicitly religious connotations:

brianleport.home.blog/2025/07/13/s...

Good books for a good life: Valerie Tiberius' "What Do You Want Out of Life?" What do you value? What do you do when your goals conflict?

What do you value? What do you do when your goals conflict? If you’ve wondered about these things, you’ll like this book:

open.substack.com/pub/brianlep...

“He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.”

- John Stuart Mill, “On Liberty” (chapter 2)

If the Book of Job teaches us anything, it teaches us that at times like these, theologizing a disaster is precisely the worst thing you can do. Job’s friends were right for the first week when they just sat with him in silence. The mistake was opening their mouth and trying to speak for God.

“God might be ineffable, but the mystics are constantly effing the ineffable, for as long as it effing takes.”

- Simon Critchley, “Mysticism,” p. 63.

The GOP’s budget cuts to NOAA are set to take effect at the start of fiscal year 2026, which begins on October 1, 2025.

Anyone making the deaths of the children in Texas about partisan politics is morally bankrupt. Please reflect.