Christopher Douglas

Cultural Christianity’s Secular Cathedral | Political Theology Network Macron’s speech in Notre Dame on the occasion of its reopening was a transgression of the principles of French laïcité, confirming the worldwide tendencies towards the increasing culturalization of…

"Cultural Christianity's Secular Cathedral"

Thrilled to have this new piece out with the Political Theology Network, written with my collaborator Yasemin Ural at the University of Leipzig!

politicaltheology.com/cultural-chr...

“How does one mourn and commemorate an atrocity against your people in the midst of an atrocity done to another people in your name?”

I feel this very keenly today.

The course from my undergraduate days that I use most often in my job by far is Intermediate Composition, where I learned to write essays. Obviously the physics and math (and astronomy) were foundational, but that course has proven the most useful.

As Thomas argues in this piece, we’ve been led astray by the assumption that “extremism” is by definition “fringe.” Today’s GOP has fully embraced a politics that in 2015 would have been considered bat shit extreme. That is THE story of contemporary US politics. bsky.app/profile/thom...

Virtual Virginia Humanities Fellow Talk | Nationalism & Cosmopolitanism in the Creation of Richmond’s Confederate Monuments Join us for a virtual presentation from Donovan Schaefer, a Virginia Humanities Fellow, on his research project “Nationalism & Cosmopolitanism in the Creation of Richmond’s...

Very excited to be giving this virtual talk on Wednesday at noon, covering some of the research on Confederate monument societies I did at the Library of Virginia in May!

lva-virginia.libcal.com/event/15295882

hey, my review of Paula Fredriksen's ANCIENT CHRISTIANITIES is out in the new Journal of Early Christian Studies!

(spoiler: it's good)

muse.jhu.edu/article/970939

i do not respect this belief but it is enlightening to wrap your head around the fact that a significant number of your political rivals believe you are literally in league with satan, and act with concomitant zeal and brutality

I thought I'd put the administration's proposed "compact" with universities in context, so I wrote the blog post below.

It's especially for journalists covering this story!

Many details about how the compact itself works and why the administration has retreated to this strategy.

If you’re white, your accomplishments are your own and you can resent and criticize the country all you like, but if you’re black and successful you should be grateful to white people for allowing you in their presence. bsky.app/profile/jess...

They Radicalized Themselves And we can pinpoint when it happened.

All Trump loyalists get a libidinal thrill watching him piss on the Constitution, but I wrote about the subset who feel exposed by their obvious hypocrisy, and so pretend it's all a regrettable consequence of Barack Obama radicalizing them. www.offmessage.net/p/they-radic...

A bot is trying to curry my favor for some reason

Rarely is the question asked: is our children learning conspiracy theories on their phones? Cell phone bans in K-12 institutions were a hot topic this back-to-school season. All 50 states and D.C. have instituted some version of a cell phone ban at the state or district level. These bans are...

being the editor means no one can stop you from making dumb GWB jokes in the headline

the latest from @religiondispatches.org by @thebugbeardispatch.bsky.social on why "media literacy" falls short in addressing the infowars for democracy

religiondispatches.org/rarely-is-th...

I listened to the whole exchange between Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ezra Klein, and to the original "Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way" column, and among the takes this piece is the best I have read. Long-ish, so set aside a bit of time. (Disclosure: I have been on Ezra's show...)

The Right-Wing Infosphere: You're Soaking In It Their machine is so effective that even liberals don't realize it's warping their views.

I wish I could find the post, but someone on here recently pointed out that the elite pundit addiction to Twitter is distorting their worldview even further.

They really think America is far more right-wing than it is, which requires ignoring actual data.

paulwaldman.substack.com/p/the-right-...

18 Lawyers Caught Using AI Explain Why They Did It Lawyers blame IT, family emergencies, their own poor judgment, their assistants, illness, and more.

Spent many (many!) hours pulling legal explanations and apologies from lawyers who were caught using AI that hallucinated in which they explained to a judge why they used AI. The explanations are astonishing and extremely good:

www.404media.co/18-lawyers-c...

Genre Grapevine: Book Club Scams Are a Warning of Emerging AI Super-Scams | Jason Sanford's Genre Grapevine Get more from Jason Sanford's Genre Grapevine on Patreon

My new Genre Grapevine dives into the book club scams targeting authors. These scams now include creating fake Discord communities filled with AI slop and chatbots. Artificial intelligence circles every level of this scam like water down the toilet.
www.patreon.com/posts/139940...

As you think about how to respond to Portland news, maybe think about dif between rhetoric of Newsom & Pritzker. Newsom mirrored; Pritzker spoke clearly about just how dangerous the moment it is. Do you want to be glib? My argument is that the main agency we have now is precision of language. 1/

and the podcast is up! sorry I'm in such dim light it's, uh, the mystery of biblical conspiracy surrounding me

www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9o1...

YouTube video by explodingplant Castle of Aughhhh - Holy Grail

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlIz...

Lower Than Cowards The surrender of America’s elites

In which @adamserwer.bsky.social makes a useful distinction between "chickenshit" and "cowardice." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

CHOTINER: So You created us right
GOD: Yes
CHOTINER: In Your image
GOD: Yes
CHOTINER: And sometimes we do bad things
GOD: Oh Yes
CHOTINER: And then you send plagues and floods
GOD: OK I think I see where you are going with this

Literature & Theology Books for Review Public

It's that time of year when I do my periodic update of books available for review in Literature & Theology. Instructions on how to request a book are found via the link in the very top row. This is LAST CALL for books published in 2023.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

CARTOON OF THE DAY

(Updated Version)

How Can We Live Together? - Boston Review Ezra Klein is wrong: shame is essential.

"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply."

me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually

www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

Already reposted but for those who may see this thread outside of that, here ya go

I would read an annotated version of today's proceedings with annotations done by all of the scholars of religion who couldn't get jobs in the past few decades because it wasn't relevant.

Pro tip: Don't use AI to write your PhD inquiries

Starting a new thread to collect critical perspectives on AI, as they are articulated dozens of times every day and appear repeatedly on my timeline. I can't read everything right away, but if, like me, you want to stay up to date, then this might help a bit:

Again Bouie from the top rope

What Has New Haven to Do with Hungary? On Theological and Political Postliberalism* | The Journal of Religion: Vol 105, No 4 Abstract In recent years, a growing number of political theorists and religious writers and activists—including Sohrab Ahmari, Patrick Deneen, Rod Dreher, R. R. Reno, and Adrian Vermeule—have aligned ...

My long-awaited article, "What Has New Haven to Do with Hungary? On Theological and Political Postliberalism" is finally out in the new issue of the Journal of Religion.

If you'd like a copy of the article, please DM or email me.
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...