Thank You Readers
Year 1 of Emmaus Road is in the books.
This has been quite the year. The first year I attempted longer form writing, and I just want to say—thank you. Thank you for reading this year’s set of articles. Thank you for taking part, and for the wonderful feedback and support. You are the engine room behind these Emmaus Road articles.
The goal of this project was to create a space for contemplation at the intersection of cultural-tidal-movement and a Christian discipleship for life. Our theme was always ‘to encounter Christ on the road, and be surprised by Him again and again.’ And so in that spirit we have discussed some modern movements, philosophies, trends, and hopefully held some Christian contemplations in our arms to reframe and navigate them.
And because of this pilot year, I am encouraged to keep going next year with even more topics. And to reissue my promise to you, I promise to continue to do my upmost to write pieces that will utilize vetted material, and the best sources I can employ, combined with thoughtful arguments that might add some value to your personal reflective time, and your moments of conversation.
In a world where everyone is trying to be an expert, I openly admit I am not one. All I can be is a champion of curiosity, learning, and try to connect you, my kind readers, to some of the great minds, writers, and artists that I have found helpful—and have seen friends of mine find helpful as well.
We as Christians face a lot of ideas, arguments, and thoughts in the public square, and that will continue to be the reality in the future as well, and so this is a wonderful time to meet these challenges not with reaction, but with contemplated response.
This year I was able to release 12 publications, and next year it is my aim to exceed that. I would love to hear what you thought of this year, and so if you are able, please leave a comment below this article. Also, it is my goal to never put any content on here behind a paywall, and so if you would kindly consider donating to this initiative, my wife and I would be incredibly grateful. What we do as a team to make these, and other discipleship material and art, is made possible by kind folks like you. (The buttons below are how Substack has directed me to do these donations.)
Ok, like you, I don’t like that monetary part of the whole thing, so that’s the last time I will talk about it for a good while. Let’s get onto something that will interest you for next year, some of the topics coming up:
Our Perfect Theologies
Love and Suffering
Denying Yourself (A Christian Idea of Sacrifice)
The Only Machines are the Machines
Two Legged Beasts (The Hedonistic and the Heroic)
Beyond Our Current Age
Apogee and Decay
Again, leave a comment below if you have any themes you’d like to see included, if we missed something, and/or if you are keen for any of these!
Now I want to end with my book recommendations for 2024, these are some of the books on my desk that were key for this year’s research, general reading, and ones that I thought were wonderfully insightful!
A New History of Western Philosophy — Anthony Kenny
The Abolition of Man — C.S. Lewis
Into the Heart of Romans — N.T. Wright
Dominion — Tom Holland
A Secular Age — Charles Taylor
The Grand Miracle — C.S. Lewis
Creation and Doxology — Gerald Hiestand & Todd Wilson
Introducing Eastern Orthodox Theology — Andrew Louth
Basic Christianity — John Stott
Spiritual Writings — Søren Kierkegaard
Two Dozen (Or So) Arguments for God — Jerry L. Walls & Trent Dougherty
Knowledge and Christian Belief — Alvin Platinga
From the my wife and I to you, again, thank you, have a Merry Christmas, a blessed New Year, and we will see you in January for more thoughts together!