Glad to have found you here on Substack! I discovered you in the Colson Fellows program and am looking forward to your content here. If this article is any indication of the caliber of thinking on the issues facing today’s church, we will all be blessed by your incisive and clear commentary, especially regarding re-enchantment and church history.
My training at the Fellows program (2018-19) focused more on apologetics, but in the years since then, the topic of re-enchantment has come to the fore of the church. And I’m glad for it! I couldn’t agree more that the lack of prayer (stemming from the absence of training/modeling how to pray) and emphasis on developing a holy imagination have been catastrophic to the health of the church. Someone who has an active prayer life and regular engagement with God, grounded in reason and truth, of course, is very unlikely to walk away from the faith. We’re desperately in need of people to teach us how to pray!
Hi Renee. In my last years teaching in college I found that traditional reason-based apologetics wasn’t effective in reaching a lot of my students. If they didn’t see it as relevant to their lives or if it didn’t catch their interest, they ignored it. I think we need a different apologetic built around goodness (i.e. Christianity offers better answers to the world’s problems), beauty, and imagination, the latter two to capture their interest. From there, we can move to truth—not only is it good and/or beautiful, but it’s true, and here’s the proof. Cultural apologetics is likely to be the essential part of this. In house, we need something similar. I like the idea of inculcating a holy imagination for this. Thanks for your comment!
A ray of Sunshine in the Substack- glad to follow you here. I appreciate the perspective on tradition sorely needed in the non-denominational evangelical community- the need to be ever reforming is well known, but your point about reenchantment is right on. To my evangelical friends considering orthodoxy (Catholic or Eastern), Protestant history has epic roots unrivaled and amazing in the history of Christian Missions that are a treasure trove. Keep up the good work Glenn - would love to connect with you at some point.
I look forward to reading your posts here on Substack. Anyone interested in your work should certainly check out Why You Think the Way You Do. I love the way that you are able to contextualize the events and ideas of history. Very helpful book in understanding my faith in light of the scope of history.
Glenn, Thank you for mentioning your Substack writing in today's Colson FIT webinar. I checked it out right after you wrapped up the webinar and enjoyed a number of your articles so far. I have recently "rediscovered" my love for CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien's work as well others from my old literature classes of High School and College. So a lot of what you have been writing about really resonated in combination to what I have been learning through the CFIT program. Thank you for all you do. I hope to get the opportunity to meet you in person at a future Colson event.
Hi, Glenn. Welcome to Substack! I followed Rod Dreher here a few months ago, so I’m happy to see you here as well. Allison and I saw Dreher in Birmingham last Fall talking about “Living in Wonder.” Therefore, I’m interested in hearing your perspective on re-enchantment as well (I’m trying to catch up on your website videos on this topic).
Good to see you here, Diane. I met Rod at the Touchstone Conference and have had an email exchange or two with him. I’ve been thinking a lot about reenchantment (or is it re-enchantment? I’ve seen it both ways) and am in the process of putting together a somewhat systematic outline of what I think we need. It’ll be incomplete—there are too many facets to fit in a neat outline, but I’ll be writing about it here as well as teaching on it.
Thanks Brother Glen. I have enjoyed your thoughtful work over the last few years. I’m new to the reformed movement. The first time I saw you was with Doug Wilson in a theatre interview on Canon+ Slaying Leviathan I believe and of course the Pug cast with your buddies at a pub! Loved it. Hope all is well and thanks for all the content you have provided over the years. I look forward to hearing some good stuff. Shalom brother.
Hello and welcome Glenn! I met you when I was in the Colson centurion’s program and really appreciated your view on biblical history. One of my favorite writers here on Substack is rod dreher who also speaks much about the need for “reenchantment” in today’s church culture, and I heartily agree. I look forward to reading your Substack commentaries. You always have a refreshing point of view.
Thanks for coming on board. I have subscribed to Rod for a few years now, and I think he’s dead on with his reenchantment material (though I don’t follow him as far as converting to Orthodoxy). He’s one of several guys I follow on the subject, almost all of which are Orthodox, which tells you something about what western Christians are missing.
Agreed. Thank you for your reply. Although I am not on the Orthodox bandwagon (Sola Scriptura/the Reformers for me!), I do agree that Western Christianity is missing the boat on the “transcendence” of the (Holy Holy Holy) Lord God Almighty. I really enjoyed the Colson Program and learned much from all our book(s) reading and discussion. I still also follow John stonestreet and appreciate his take on todays cultural.
Glad to have found you here on Substack! I discovered you in the Colson Fellows program and am looking forward to your content here. If this article is any indication of the caliber of thinking on the issues facing today’s church, we will all be blessed by your incisive and clear commentary, especially regarding re-enchantment and church history.
My training at the Fellows program (2018-19) focused more on apologetics, but in the years since then, the topic of re-enchantment has come to the fore of the church. And I’m glad for it! I couldn’t agree more that the lack of prayer (stemming from the absence of training/modeling how to pray) and emphasis on developing a holy imagination have been catastrophic to the health of the church. Someone who has an active prayer life and regular engagement with God, grounded in reason and truth, of course, is very unlikely to walk away from the faith. We’re desperately in need of people to teach us how to pray!
Hi Renee. In my last years teaching in college I found that traditional reason-based apologetics wasn’t effective in reaching a lot of my students. If they didn’t see it as relevant to their lives or if it didn’t catch their interest, they ignored it. I think we need a different apologetic built around goodness (i.e. Christianity offers better answers to the world’s problems), beauty, and imagination, the latter two to capture their interest. From there, we can move to truth—not only is it good and/or beautiful, but it’s true, and here’s the proof. Cultural apologetics is likely to be the essential part of this. In house, we need something similar. I like the idea of inculcating a holy imagination for this. Thanks for your comment!
A ray of Sunshine in the Substack- glad to follow you here. I appreciate the perspective on tradition sorely needed in the non-denominational evangelical community- the need to be ever reforming is well known, but your point about reenchantment is right on. To my evangelical friends considering orthodoxy (Catholic or Eastern), Protestant history has epic roots unrivaled and amazing in the history of Christian Missions that are a treasure trove. Keep up the good work Glenn - would love to connect with you at some point.
I look forward to reading your posts here on Substack. Anyone interested in your work should certainly check out Why You Think the Way You Do. I love the way that you are able to contextualize the events and ideas of history. Very helpful book in understanding my faith in light of the scope of history.
Glenn, Thank you for mentioning your Substack writing in today's Colson FIT webinar. I checked it out right after you wrapped up the webinar and enjoyed a number of your articles so far. I have recently "rediscovered" my love for CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien's work as well others from my old literature classes of High School and College. So a lot of what you have been writing about really resonated in combination to what I have been learning through the CFIT program. Thank you for all you do. I hope to get the opportunity to meet you in person at a future Colson event.
https://substack.com/@craigf101/note/c-146298225?r=5vte21
Hi, Glenn. Welcome to Substack! I followed Rod Dreher here a few months ago, so I’m happy to see you here as well. Allison and I saw Dreher in Birmingham last Fall talking about “Living in Wonder.” Therefore, I’m interested in hearing your perspective on re-enchantment as well (I’m trying to catch up on your website videos on this topic).
Good to see you here, Diane. I met Rod at the Touchstone Conference and have had an email exchange or two with him. I’ve been thinking a lot about reenchantment (or is it re-enchantment? I’ve seen it both ways) and am in the process of putting together a somewhat systematic outline of what I think we need. It’ll be incomplete—there are too many facets to fit in a neat outline, but I’ll be writing about it here as well as teaching on it.
Thanks Brother Glen. I have enjoyed your thoughtful work over the last few years. I’m new to the reformed movement. The first time I saw you was with Doug Wilson in a theatre interview on Canon+ Slaying Leviathan I believe and of course the Pug cast with your buddies at a pub! Loved it. Hope all is well and thanks for all the content you have provided over the years. I look forward to hearing some good stuff. Shalom brother.
Thanks, David!
Hello and welcome Glenn! I met you when I was in the Colson centurion’s program and really appreciated your view on biblical history. One of my favorite writers here on Substack is rod dreher who also speaks much about the need for “reenchantment” in today’s church culture, and I heartily agree. I look forward to reading your Substack commentaries. You always have a refreshing point of view.
Thanks for coming on board. I have subscribed to Rod for a few years now, and I think he’s dead on with his reenchantment material (though I don’t follow him as far as converting to Orthodoxy). He’s one of several guys I follow on the subject, almost all of which are Orthodox, which tells you something about what western Christians are missing.
Agreed. Thank you for your reply. Although I am not on the Orthodox bandwagon (Sola Scriptura/the Reformers for me!), I do agree that Western Christianity is missing the boat on the “transcendence” of the (Holy Holy Holy) Lord God Almighty. I really enjoyed the Colson Program and learned much from all our book(s) reading and discussion. I still also follow John stonestreet and appreciate his take on todays cultural.
Btw, I loved your book “ Why you think the way you do”…. Excellent read.
Thanks!