Writer, Strategist, Artist, Scholar
What a pleasure it was to hobnob with a bunch of folklorists all weekend, and hear talks on proverbs, Internet cryptids, fairy tales, peep stones, place relationship, and, and, and—I came home with much to think about.
Recently D.C. police conducted an anti-protest crackdown dubbed “Operation Themis.” Read my op-ed in Cunning Folk Magazine about how classical mythology can be weaponized in service to white supremacy, and how this particular goddess flies defiantly in the face of that.
In the first chapter of Before Philosophy, Henri and Henriette Frankfort pointed out that the language of myth, which they called “speculative thought,” isn’t so common these days, because science. In our own time speculative thought finds its scope more severely limited than it …
I mentioned I’ve been reading Before Philosophy by Henri and Henriette Frankfort, et al. And I mentioned it’s one of my favorite treatises on mythology. What I didn’t mention is the lights-on moment I got the first time I picked up this book, which …
In my last post about mythology, I said that myth isn’t metaphor. Metaphor is a popular way to look at myth these days, which is why it deserves some pushback. I maintain that myths are not allegories of the human psyche. Of course, any lens can be …
The other day a friend of mine asked me what I have against the “mythologist” Joseph Campbell. Every time the guy’s name comes up, I swear; also, I love mythology. So what’s your problem, my friend asked. That’s a fair question. …
Asking Jesus into your heart is a dead horse of a phrase that’s been beaten by, I don’t know how many clichés. It’s one of the dearest and perhaps most important ideas to have cemented itself into the vocabulary of evangelical Christianese. …
Jesus Year: What Does It Mean for Christ to Live in Your Heart? Read more »
One of the ideas I’ve always liked best about the story of Jesus’s resurrection is that he didn’t just die and then rise again after three arbitrary days. Rather, it’s that on an ontological level, Jesus had life itself within him. He …
In the beginning there was freshwater Apsu of the abyss and saltwater Tiamat of the deep. Later, when the gods came to exist, Tiamat and Apsu conspired against them until Marduk, patron of Babylon, fought and defeated them. He cut …