Transcendentalish
A curated selection of articles of interest from the past two weeks related to Christianity and culture.
News et cetera
Stephen Hawking has died. [BBC]
When will we stop killing humans with Down syndrome? [WP]
Balkrishna Doshi is the newest winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, known as the Nobel for architects. [NPR]
Today’s Skyscrapers Assault the Skyline and the Street [Am Con]
“Then came the 2016 election.” A Quiet Exodus: Why Black Worshipers Are Leaving White Evangelical Churches. [NYT]
The Last Temptation: “How evangelicals, once culturally confident, became an anxious minority seeking political protection from the least traditionally religious president in living memory.” [Atlantic]
How Trump is remaking evangelicalism. [Atlantic]
Not an easy read. Andy Savage’s Victim, Jules Woodson, Speaks Out in a New Video: ‘I Was Assaulted. He Was Applauded.’ [Relevant]
When Smug Liberals Met Conservative Trolls. Some interaction with Jonathan Haidt’s recent work. [NYT]
The world is better now than ever. Why are we miserable? “I sat there for an hour slowly being buried in a fast-accumulating snowdrift of irrefutable statistics showing human progress: the decline of violence and war, the rise and rise of democracy, the astonishing gains against poverty of the last couple of decades, the rise of tolerance and erosion of cruelty, lengthening lifespans, revolutions in health, huge increases in safety, and on and on. It was one emphatic graph after another that bludgeoned my current depression into a kind of forced rational cheeriness. There were no real trade-offs here; our gloom is largely self-imposed; and is entirely a function of our media and news diets.” [New York Mag]
Another review of Marilynne Robinson’s new book. [NYT]
Why the new film ‘Mary Magdalane’ is the Hollywood film Christians have been waiting for. Joaquin Phoenix plays Jesus… so there’s that. [Premier Christianity]
Go hug somebody! Are we living through a crisis of touch? [Guardian]
Extreme frugality allowed me to retire at 32 and regain control of my life.[Guardian]
How many roses go into a bottle of Chanel No. 5? [New Yorker]
Music
The miracle of Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks.” [New Yorker]
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