Who Am I—and What’s This About?
I am a retired religion journalist, having spent 30-some years embedded in the American evangelical world. I have since become a Roman Catholic.
I have written a number of books, starting with Jesus Mean and Wild Jesus Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God. Most of my books concern spirituality shaped by classic Christian theology. I’ve also written popular biographies of Francis of Assisi and Karl Barth.
I like to explore how the great truths, people, and events of the Christian faith continue to shape us and the communities we live in—more specifically, how God’s startling grace envelopes us always and everywhere, and what it looks like to respond to that mercy.
I make no claims to having arrived or of even being an expert in the topic. Any insights I have are the result of reading those who have made progress in this journey—St. Benedict, Augustine, Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Dostoevsky, and various Orthodox writers, among many, many others.
Subscribe to get full access to these essays—which is the heart of this newsletter. Every new edition, which appears on most Fridays, goes directly to your inbox.
I have started offering a paid subscription option. This is mostly about giving readers an opportunity to support my work—and help me pay for internet access, subscriptions that inform my essays, and the like. Naturally Substack takes a cut, which they deserve for offering an excellent newsletter forum.
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The newsletter’s logo was created in collaboration with Susanna Perry-Ettel, who took some of my raw ideas, added some of her own, and gave Peripheral Vision a fresh look. Susanna is a writer/editor/graphic designer living in rural Ontario, Canada.
