“The Weekend Wanderer” is a weekly curated selection of news, stories, resources, and media on the intersection of faith and culture for you to explore through your weekend. Wander through these links however you like and in any order you like. Disclaimer: I do not necessarily agree with all the views expressed within these articles but have found them thought-provoking.
“Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025)” – Dustin Sigsbee at Daily Nous: “Alasdair MacIntyre, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and Duke University, well-known for his work in moral and political philosophy, has died. Professor MacIntyre wrote extensively on social, moral, and political philosophy. He is known for views which draw on historical and anthropological considerations and on traditions such as Thomism and Marxism. Those views include a virtue-based approach to ethics and what came to be known as a communitarian approach to political philosophy. Professor MacIntyre wrote several books, including After Virtue (1981), Whose Justice? Which Rationality? (1988), Three Rival Versions of Moral Inquiry (1990), and Dependent Rational Animals (1999). You can learn more about his work here.”
“Jimmy Carter, Christopher Lasch, and the Problem with America: A cautionary episode in Christian humanism” – Daniel Hummel in Comment: “The remembrances of Jimmy Carter after his death in December 2024 widely hailed him as a humanitarian for his decades-long work with the Carter Center, Habitat for Humanity, and other organizations and for his presidential administration’s prioritization of human rights. He was, as the New York Times obituary called him, a world-famous “global humanitarian” over his long post-presidential career. Less often mentioned, though no less significant, is that Jimmy Carter was a humanist, and a Christian humanist at that. Comment’s manifesto defines Christian humanists as ‘those who believe that Jesus Christ—God become man—is the ultimate measure of what it means to be human.’ Carter’s Baptist faith and endless fascination with the life and ethics of Jesus, which he credited time and again with grounding his personal and political views, is just such a Christian humanism. Even in profane settings Carter held to this type of Christian humanism.”
“Kierkegaard’s Attack on Cultural Christianity” – Daniel Goodman in Plough: “On September 28, 1855, Søren Kierkegaard collapsed in the street. His legs suddenly became paralyzed. A few days later, he was urgently admitted to the local hospital in Copenhagen. His condition worsened as the malady spread to the rest of his body. The forty-two-year-old philosopher lay crippled for weeks while the doctors tried in vain to find a remedy. He somberly noted, ‘I have come here to die.’ Kierkegaard restricted access to his bedside to a favored few. Despite being on the precipice of death, he demonstrated remarkable serenity and kindness – to most. Yet one family member never made an appearance and was repeatedly denied access: his brother and only surviving sibling, Peter Kierkegaard. Peter, at this time, was a young Danish theologian and a rising bishop in the national church. As a priest, he would be obliged to offer last rites when visiting a deathbed, including Communion. This is something the dying Kierkegaard knew. Thus, when asked about his decision to bar his brother, Kierkegaard revealed his choice to decline receiving Communion from the church. When asked if he did not want Communion, Kierkegaard responded, ‘Yes, but not from a parson.’ Even in his final days, Kierkegaard made clear his uncompromising defiance against the state church of Denmark. He opposed what he considered an establishment system that removed the very spirit of Christianity through its appropriation of political power, and its subsequent lapse into hypocrisy and trivialities.”
“Craig Mod on the Creative Power of Walking: ‘From this boredom, words flow. I can’t stop them'” – Craig Mod at LitHub: “When I’m not talking, just walking (which is most of the time), I try to cultivate the most bored state of mind imaginable. A total void of stimulation beyond the immediate environment. My rules: No news, no social media, no podcasts, no music. No ‘teleporting,’ you could say. The phone, the great teleportation device, the great murderer of boredom. And yet, boredom: the great engine of creativity. I now believe with all my heart that it’s only in the crushing silences of boredom—without all that black-mirror dopamine — that you can access your deepest creative wells. And for so many people these days, they’ve never so much as attempted to dip in a ladle, let alone dive down into those uncomfortable waters made accessible through boredom. For me, from this boredom—this blankness of mind as I walk past sometimes fields and sometimes giant gambling pachinko parlors—words flow. I can’t stop them. My mind begins writing about what we see and refuses to shut up. That gap created by a lack of artificial stimulation is filled—thanks to the magic plasticity of our brains—with words and more words.”
“Greening: My pilgrimage to Iona and my new poem about Greening” – Steve Smith at The Potter’s Inn Substack: “The time has come for me to go on a spiritual pilgrimage. My wife and I are traveling to a remote isle off the coast of Scotland to spend time in personal retreat. Iona has long been a haven; a destination; a place that pilgrims. have travelled to for discernment, retreat and to renew their souls in the lush beauty here. People have gone on retreats for thousands of years. They went away—to go in. They found it necessary and knew that the way through—whatever hard time they might have faced—was to go alone and to go ‘in.’ A quaker writer I so love, Parker Palmer, said it best, ‘The way out is the way in.’ A pilgrimage is a way to go ‘in’ so that one can go ‘on’ with their life—having met the Creator; having drawn near to the Holy and having spent time to ponder, pray and find the way by walking. A pilgrimage is a way into the soul to find the Creator in our midst. It is a human attempt to ‘draw near unto God’ as the writer tells us to do in his book James in the New Testament.”
“How Much Food Does the World Really Waste? What We Know — and What We Don’t” – Liz Goodwin and Brian Lipinski at World Resources Institute: ” Around one-third of all food the world produces never gets eaten — at least according to the long-accepted estimate. But the problem is likely much bigger than this. More recent data suggests up to 40% of food is lost or wasted along the value chain, exposing a major blind spot in global food systems. The consequences of this food waste, even at the lower end of the estimates, are huge. It means that an amount of land larger than China is used every year to produce food that no one will eat — especially egregious in a world where nearly 1 in 3 people face some level of food insecurity. About 45 trillion gallons of water, almost one-quarter of all water used in agriculture, is consumed in the process. And food waste is linked to about 8%-10% of the greenhouse gas emissions warming the planet. The UN has set a goal to halve food loss and waste globally by 2030. But countries and companies can’t begin to tackle the issue unless they know how much food is really lost or wasted — and where and why.”
Music: : Porter’s Gate, “All Creatures Lament,” from Climate Vigil Songs
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Matthew Erickson 