Second City No More

penitential regionalism... and some upcoming writing and speaking

I often miss the New Jersey and Manhattan of my youth and young adulthood (such memories). But it's hard to imagine how New York will ever (in my lifetime at least) match the fact that the first North American pope comes from the great Marian city of Chicago. As transplanted Midwesterners going on two decades now, my wife and I have been celebrating with Malört, celery salt and sport peppers on our hot dogs. Though we will never convert to square-cut pizza. Never.

Another way to celebrate might be by formulating a theology of the Midwest, and to that end Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal was kind enough to publish an excerpt from The Everlasting People. All proceeds from the book, by the way, go to support the Wade Center. It’s also on audible.

Please stay tuned for the upcoming Material Mysticism column, which will be my attempt at reversing an unfortunate trajectory of Thomas Merton interpretation. Merton haters are an especially tough crowd, and I’m going to try to win a few of them back (again). After that comes a piece on the theology (not just the “spirituality”) of the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. Nature writing, I am happy to report, is not just for the theologically illiterate (although I concede that it mostly is). Also coming up are interviews with some of the most interesting writers I know. You can sign up for free here (only one email per month), but I’ll post links to the columns at substack too. I’m also glad that a piece on the Precious Moments Chapel will soon appear at the wonderful Mockingbird magazine.

A few upcoming speaking engagements: I’ll be at the Triangle Conference on Theology and Culture at Triangle Grace Church in Durham June 27-28, where I’ll be attempting to deploy the full art historical arsenal to combat contemporary image saturation, because we need all the help we can get. Please come by if you’re around, including to Sunday worship (which is something we Christians do when we tire of just talking about things). Expect the promotional image below to be thoroughly deconstructed (again).

If you’re an East Coaster as I once was, on July 15 I’ll be at Watch Hill, Rhode Island for a talk on the Role of Art & Architecture in Religious Experience (spoiler alert: they play a large role). Moving south, the waiting list for a late July Laity Lodge event on Mary is open. I’ll be unpacking the clear front runner candidate for Our Lady of Texas, and the gathering includes luminaries such as Kristen Johnson, Wesley Hill, Debbie Taylor and even the Guerras (!!!). After the semester gets going, I’ll be at Villanova on Oct. 8 for a talk on Our Lady of Guadalupe, and will be giving an address entitled “Toronto the Holy” (an upgrade from the city’s standard nickname “Toronto the Good”) at the Larkin-Stuart lecture at the University of Toronto on November 19.

It’s a long shot that you might be in Crete, but if so, I hope to see you at the Entangled Christianities conference where—in the spirit of Pope Leo XIV’s opening ecumenical gestures—I’ll be giving a paper on a truly, really, actually CATHOLIC (according to the WHOLE) church, that is, one that (however unwittingly) represents Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Miaphysite, Church of the East (and even Protestant) theologies in its gorgeous medieval frescoes.

Still, there is no venue like the Wheaton Public library, where I’ll happily re-enter the regional interest bracket (previous talks here here and here) with a talk on December 8 tentatively entitled “Some Miracles on Roosevelt Road.” Because, as the conclave wisely concluded, Midwest is best.