March 30, 2026

Today the church is asking what it means to want the right things — and whether our minds are even capable of it. First Things ran a piece on the soul's divided loves, the war between what we reach for and what we were made for. It's old Augustine territory, but the piece earns it. O. Alan Noble is pressing the same nerve from a different angle: against acceleration, he argues that the speed modern life demands isn't neutral — it actively deforms desire, leaving us unable to want slowly or well. That question hasn't gone away. On March 26 we were watching writers ask what genuine faith looks like from the inside. Noble is asking what it looks like when the inside has been scrambled by pace.

N.T. Wright in Relevant says resurrection is the answer — not as consolation but as reorientation, a new frame for everything including desire, death, and meaning. Christianity Today reviewed Arthur Brooks on finding meaning beyond the self, and the review is warm but cautious: Brooks is wise, but wisdom isn't gospel. Kyle Worley wrote about death's door revealing what we actually trust — quiet pastoral piece, sharp underneath. Mere Orthodoxy's piece on judging books sits near all of this: discernment, they argue, requires a formed self, someone who has learned to love well enough to read well. That's the thread running through today. Not just what we believe, but what we love — and whether resurrection has anything to do with it.