Christopher West

Do you enjoy a pint and a pipe? If so, you're sorted.

*SCREAMS "EVERY TRANSLATION IS AN INTERPRETATION" AND CLOSES LAPTOP*

Perhaps I am simply being too hard on myself, and this is just another symptom of impostor syndrome.

The worry is that it lacks forward movement and can almost feel stunted. It is as though I am getting splinters on the fence and doubling back in order to go forward, rather than moving ahead with any real energy.

Perhaps the question is not merely whether I should change the habit, but whether I am constitutionally incapable of doing so (irony intended).

At what point is it a horse you simply have to work with, and at what point is it a horse you ought to try to train? My sense is that it also reflects the way I think and reason more generally: not this, but perhaps this… building cumulatively, and with increasing nuance at best.

I have just discovered that so much of what I write relies on the same contrast architecture (that is, the question is not merely X, but Y). I wonder if this comes from preaching and presiding, because I can almost hear my own sermonic and liturgical rhythm behind it.

#WritingLife: Has anyone had a similar experience? In rereading a few drafts for different projects in quick succession, a sudden revelation of a particular quirk of your writing style appears. The more you read, the more noticeable, and the more annoying, it gets.

1 John 4:19

see / through – a poem by Christopher N. West Image credit: Holy Trinity Cathedral, Down see / through(after the installation at Down Cathedral) see / through not there but cut out the air is his him you move and he moves no – he is the moving…

I’m delighted to have my work featured in Amethyst Magazine: an experimental piece that plays with line formatting and the use of blank space to gesture towards the cut-out silhouette of Christ in the installation at Down Cathedral 🕯️⚓

Call for papers!

Theology in Scotland's Autumn 2026 issue will focus on #migration, #displacement, and #belonging: vital themes for Scotland and the world.

Full details/submission info: ojs.st-andrews.ac.uk/index.php/TI...

Follow us at @theoscot.bsky.social for more news, calls, and updates

Cry aloud,

Free Ebooks: Abolish ICE, Abolish the Border In solidarity with all those standing up for our communities against the brutality of immigrant detention and ICE occupation, we're offering free ebooks of three crucial books about migrant justice an...

In solidarity with all those standing up for our communities against the brutality of immigrant detention and ICE occupation, we're offering free ebooks of three crucial books about migrant justice and border abolition.

❤️

From Olga Ravn’s The Wax Child, translated by Martin Aitken. Weird and wonderful.

Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42, and post the second sentence.

“That was how I learned of it, by way of the lead’s travelling through the people’s blood.”

a cartoon character named lisa simpson says " meh " Alt: Lisa Simpson, shrugging and saying 'Meh!'

Solidarity, but remove the ‘today’ in my case...

How interesting! It sounds like the experience gave you something important, even if it didn’t last the way you expected. Running away in the middle of the night feels oddly poetic, though. It also makes sense to me – you can love something and still miss home: both can be true, and so often are!

Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord;

Burnout is genuinely life-destroying and I really can't say, on this website, what I think should happen to managers who not only let it happen to one individual worker but who systemically make it happen on large groups of workers.

This year I'm working on giving up Pelagianism in hopes that this will earn more favor with God

I’ll confess I’m an absolute sucker for decorative wooden wall panels.

So much good stuff coming up in @feministtheology.bsky.social over the next few months kicking off with our first event on 20th Jan which is our panel on publishing in feminist and womanist theologies. Get the dates in your diary & join the mailing list for online links feministtheologynetwork.org

Carcanet Press One of the outstanding literary publishers of our time, Carcanet Press has a special emphasis on poetry from around the world.

Head to @carcanet.bsky.social’s website and get 20% off all current and former Carcanet @tseliotprize.bsky.social shortlisted and winning poetry collections.
A great way to stock up and also but my last collection Eleanor Among The Saints at a discount. Simply use the code.

www.carcanet.co.uk

Gravity Defied A Lent Course based on Wicked, the movie by Rachel Mann - Paperback / softback - 9781917362160 Buy Gravity Defied A Lent Course based on Wicked, the movie by Rachel Mann Paperback / softback from Church House Bookshop - ISBN: 9781917362160

Please buy my new Lent book Gravity Defied … buy lots of copies for your Lent courses … you will have a great time watching #Wicked and spending time studying it.
Do consider using my friends at Church House Books as your supplier:

chbookshop.hymnsam.co.uk/books/978191...

1/2 Fresh snow fell again overnight, leaving campus quietly covered in white. ❄️

With more inches of snow settling across Old Aberdeen, familiar buildings and paths look very different this morning, softened by snowfall and early winter light.

We already have a rich and varied set of papers lined up – spanning the traumatised neighbour, meta-disciplinary questions, eco-anxiety, neighbourliness in a digital age, and so much more!

a woman in a pink dress is holding a wand with a good news sign below her Alt: Glinda herself (Ariana Grande in Wicked) popping in with some good news!

Curious but not ready to present? That’s absolutely fine! You’re warmly invited to attend – simply sign up at the link above. We’d love to see you there.

Are you a postgraduate student or early career researcher? Free on 6 May? Interested in pilgrimage, neighbourliness, and encounter in Christian Ethics? Good news – there’s still time to submit a paper proposal for the SSCE PG Conference. Submissions close on 6 February. Please share! #CallforPapers

I’ll send you the info as a DM 😊