David Russell Mosley 3 March 2014 On the Edge of Elfland Beeston, Nottinghamshire Dear Friends and Family, Over on Christ and University, Matt Moser has been doing a series on the difficulties of teaching Dante. In his most recent post Moser notes that a significant issue in reading Dante is his cosmology which we no longer share on a broad societal level. This is an issue one often sees when reading Ancient and Medieval literature. In a sense, this is... Read more
David Russell Mosley Festival of George Herbert27 February 2014 On the Edge of Elfland Beeston, Nottinghamshire Lately there have been some new (or at least relatively new to me) blogs and websites from my friends and colleagues across the world (primarily the US). So, I thought I would do a quick post to fill you in on these blogs you should be reading and give you a quick introduction. So here they are in no particular order: Christ & University... Read more
David Russell Mosley Dear Friends and Family, 25 February 2014 On the Edge of Elfland Beeston, Nottinghamshire I’ve got several new posts in the pipeline, but before I write any of those, I needed to tell you something. After several years and different hosts, my blog finally has a new web address. What was once christianityandvirtue on blogger and became christianityandvirtue on wordpress has now become elflandletters.wordpress.com. If you’ve followed my blog via wordpress this shouldn’t change anything. I am not so... Read more
David Russell Mosley 22 February 2014 On the Edge of Elfland Beeston, Nottinghamshire Dear Friends and Family, I am a little behind the times on this, but a few weeks back now, Christianity Today had a piece called ‘Theologians in Place’. It gave examples of American Reformed churches (not that these are the only churches doing this, but they make up the majority of the examples) who are hiring theologians onto their staff. There is some concern noted in the... Read more
David Russell Mosley 13 February 2014 On the Edge of Elfland Beeston, Nottinghamshire Dear Friends and Family, Since reading John Milbank’s latest book (which I’ve reviewed here), I’ve had King Arthur on the brain. You see, Milbank argues that kingship––by this he means a kind of monarchic rule that takes into account the one (monarchy), the few [oligarchy/aristocracy, and the many (democracy)––has a role that is simultaneously above and below that of the priest. This is because the priest... Read more
David Russell Mosley 11 February 2014 On the Edge of Elfland Beeston, Nottinghamshire Dear Friends and Family, Here is a book review I’ve written for John Milbank’s Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2013. The most recent work from theologian, philosopher, social commentator, and poet, John Milbank, is his book Beyond Secular Order. This book, not unlike others written by Milbank, is in two sequences. The first sequence, On Modern... Read more
David Russell Mosley 10 February 2014 On the Edge of Elfland Beeston, Nottinghamshire Dear Friends and Family, Here’s a relatively brief book review I’ve written for John Milbank’s The Legend of Death: Two Poetic Sequences. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2008. Readers familiar with John Milbank’s work, particularly essays he has written but also books like The Word Made Strange and Beyond Secular Order (which I’ll be reviewing in the next few days), will not be surprised that John desires poetry and... Read more
David Russell Mosley 5 February 2014 On the Edge of Elfland Beeston, Nottinghamshire Dear Friends and Family, Well, its taken me nearly all day, but I’ve finally finished watching the Ken Ham-Bill Nye debate over creationism (as defined by Ham) as a valid model for a scientific explanation of origins. For any of my non-American readers who don’t know who Bill Nye and Ken Ham are: Bill Nye is television personality who had a popular TV show during my childhood... Read more
David Russell Mosley 29 January 2014 On the Edge of Elfland Beeston, Nottinghamshire Dear Friends and Family, A few weeks ago now at our church, St Nicholas (an Anglican church in the Church of England), our rector, Steve gave a sermon on Acts 2.42-3.10. The gist of the sermon (you can listen to the whole series here) is about our public impact as we attempt to live life together. At the end of the sermon, Steve enjoined us to start... Read more
Gabrielle Thomas 22 January 2014 On the Edge of Elfland Beeston, Nottinghamshire Dear Friends and Family, *This is a guest post from Gabrielle Thomas on the three books that have influenced her theology. Nazianzen, Gregory. Festal Orations. Translated by Nonna Verna Harrison. Popular Patristics Series. Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2008. I happened upon Gregory whilst writing a graduate essay and was utterly inspired by his vision of the Christian life. His theology is beautifully interwoven with his practice,... Read more
Letters from the Edge of Elfland
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