Author Archives: davetcourt

Some thoughts on Roderick Beaton’s Europe: A New History: Listened to this one on audio, which worked fairly well. It’s not the kind of book that demands a ton of underlining, rather it’s interested in drawing out a historical narrative. One that begins with the Greek city-states (or more accurately with the seed bed thatContinue reading “Seeing the World Through a European Lens: Caught Between the Collective and the Superpower”

I loved this move (The Sheep Detectives)  If you get a chance, go and see it and support it. My thoughts: I expected to like this film. I did not expect to love it as much as I did. From the film’s opening montage, which invests us directly in this relationship between this middle aged manContinue reading “When a Family Movie About Talking Sheep is More Philosophically Aware of the Problem of Death and the Struggle of Existence Than Much Adult Fare”

*this is a transcript of a recent sermon I gave on prayer The Prayer of Faith13 Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. 14 Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oilContinue reading “Pray For One Another: Finding God in the Tension”

Looking back at my reading over the month of April, three things have become clear I have apparently adopted a new experimental approach- having multiple books on my currently reading list but reading small portions of each at a time in a given sitting. A chapter or two of four different books instead of myContinue reading “My 2026 Reading Journey: April”

While certainly a primary aim of reading is the act and interest of understanding the other, be it a perspective, person, or story that is different than your own, one of the great joys of reading is also finding those stories and voices that allow you to feel seen and understood. Even better (in myContinue reading “Why I Am Not An  Atheist: That Beautiful Moment When You Discover A Book That Tells Your Own Story”

“This is a book aboute how to be when you don’t know.” Or, as James K. Smith puts it in his latest book, Make Your Home In This Luminous Dark, a book about “how to live when you don’t know what to believe or who to believe, or how you could possibly know.” The liberationContinue reading “Reimagining Philosophy and Renarrating Our Stories: Learning How To Make Our Home in This Luminous Dark”

“As I see it, “yes” to life takes care of the “no” to death- by complexifying the “no” as well, by making one say a kind of “no” that includes a confident “yes”… We llive toward death as those who are suspended over nothingness all along; even our liveliest moments could have not been. HowContinue reading “Yes to Life, No to Death: Recovering the Sacred in a De-Sacralized World”

“Throughout the Gospel, Mark has warned that signs, miracles, and portents do not evoke faith… Along with early Christianity as a whole, Mark is interested in faith in the resurrected Jesus, not in proofs of his existence. It is an encounter with the resurrected Lord, not the empty tomb, that produces faith.” (Edwards, The GospelContinue reading “Why Do I Believe in the Resurrection? Thoughts on Text, History, Faith, Words and Context in Conversation With The Gospel According To Mark”

In the book Glimmerings: Letters on Faith Between a Poet and a Theologian by Miroslav Volf and Christian Wiman, Volf references Scheler’s Ressentiment in referencing Scheler’s particular critique of Nietzsche “wrongly lumping” modern western morality with Christian morality. In his view, one cannot understand the Christian narrative apart from understanding the ways in which loveContinue reading “Love As That Which We Attain or That Which We Are Gifted: Navigating The Difference Between the Modern Narrative and the Christ Narrative.”

Some Good Friday reflections: “This, then, is not a resume of advancement, but of downward movement… these two acts of incarnation and death are actually part of a larger story.” (Michael Gorman) “What is interrupted- in this case, the old age- does not cease to exist. At the same time, however, what is interrupted doesContinue reading “The Story of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: Learning How to Distinguish Between Death and Life”