@christophernwest.bsky.social
PhD candidate in Practical Theology at the University of Aberdeen. Researching how the performance of symbolic actions in liturgy impacts the espoused theology of participants. Opinions are my own, except where they are not. He/him.
The latest of our Practical Theology collab articles is out now! This one is by the awesome @karenod.bsky.social so you know you need to read it. It's genuinely fabulous and also outlines a bit of how the FTN came to be, a tweet from a sun lounger and here we are:
practicaltheologyhub.com?p=2081
Great to see this, and to have been a small part of it with @karenod.bsky.social! Our chapter on feminist trauma theology and masculinities began as a conversation with the brilliant @revdwillrm.bsky.social, which you can find in this thread.
27.02.2026 13:50 — 👍 8 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0Do you enjoy a pint and a pipe? If so, you're sorted.
26.02.2026 15:03 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0*SCREAMS "EVERY TRANSLATION IS AN INTERPRETATION" AND CLOSES LAPTOP*
26.02.2026 15:01 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Perhaps I am simply being too hard on myself, and this is just another symptom of impostor syndrome.
26.02.2026 14:51 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0The 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.
26.02.2026 14:51 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Perhaps the question is not merely whether I should change the habit, but whether I am constitutionally incapable of doing so (irony intended).
26.02.2026 14:47 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0At 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.
26.02.2026 14:47 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0I 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.
26.02.2026 14:47 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0#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.
26.02.2026 14:47 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 01 John 4:19
23.02.2026 17:53 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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 🕯️⚓
23.02.2026 17:50 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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,
31.01.2026 01:40 — 👍 21 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
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.
30.01.2026 15:50 — 👍 625 🔁 427 💬 7 📌 10❤️
30.01.2026 19:57 — 👍 28064 🔁 9226 💬 362 📌 760From Olga Ravn’s The Wax Child, translated by Martin Aitken. Weird and wonderful.
21.01.2026 13:42 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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.”
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!
19.01.2026 13:44 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord;
17.01.2026 21:40 — 👍 12 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Burnout 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.
14.01.2026 14:09 — 👍 651 🔁 157 💬 2 📌 8This year I'm working on giving up Pelagianism in hopes that this will earn more favor with God
12.01.2026 15:24 — 👍 42 🔁 9 💬 4 📌 0I’ll confess I’m an absolute sucker for decorative wooden wall panels.
11.01.2026 12:45 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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
09.01.2026 13:41 — 👍 11 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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
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!
08.01.2026 12:59 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
