Reforming Virtue

To continue my recent trend of blogging without investing the time to think out and type up a proper blog post, I wanted to call folks' attention to an important little change on the Blogroll.  A couple months ago, my friend Davey Henreckson migrated from his Theopolitical blog to a new home with a spiffy new name and a minimalist design, Reforming Virtue.  I have now at last belatedly reflected that change in my blogroll.

For fantastic book reviews on contemporary works in political theology and ethics (currently working through Wolterstorff's Justice in Love, which I'll be very interested to follow), as well as links to interesting discussions elsewhere in blogdom, Davey's blog is a first-rate resource.

Happy Birthday S&P!

Last Friday, July 15, marked the first birthday of the Sword and the Ploughshare in its present incarnation, a dramatic upgrade from its old home on www.johannulusdesilentio.blogspot.com, and with a much more memorable URL.  Blogging here for the past year has been an immense pleasure because of the wonderful opportunities for conversation I've had with friends old and new.  Of all the many things I've learned over the past year, and the many ways my convictions have evolved and matured, probably half has come from my reading, and half has come from this blog.  I particularly thank Donny and Bradley for keeping me honest with their penetrating questions on what seems like every post, Byron Smith for his immense store of relevant statistics on any question economical or ecological, and Peter E. for guiding me to a much richer understanding of the Protestant political-theological tradition.  

In its first year, the Sword and the Ploughshare has hosted 172 posts, 1180 comments, and perhaps a thousand visitors, and new people are coming along and joining the discussion all the time. Here's a recap of some of the year's highlights:

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Sword and Ploughshare Comes of Age

This little blog of mine is now 3 months old, and reached quite a milestone in the past couple weeks with a 39-comment post, "Excommunication and Homosexuality," no doubt the most-commented post on either the old or the new incarnation of the Sword and the Ploughshare.  Of course, based on my experience, this is not so much an accomplishment as a mark of shame, as it tends to be the posts that were most poorly worded and least carefully argued that draw a firestorm of comments.  Anyway, if you missed out on that discussion, and want to add to it, feel free to jump in and drag it on to 40 comments and beyond. 

More importantly, though, my blog is going to stop being just "my blog"--that is, it will no longer serve as simply my personal pedestal for declaiming and unbosoming.  Not, of course, that it was ever intended to be merely that; it is hopefully a forum for discussion for multiple contributors.  However, whatever blithe assurances I may make to that effect, there remains a wide rhetorical chasm between posting and commenting.  And so this weekend the Sword and the Ploughshare will host its first guest contributor, Robin Phillips, who writes for Salvo magazine, the Alfred the Great Society, and a bunch of other things.  Robin will be contributing an essay he has written in defense of liturgical images, against certain contemporary Reformed attacks.  Long-time readers of my blog may recall that I have written rather intemperately on this subject myself at various in the past; thankfully, Robin has had longer to hone his irenic tone, and so I'm excited to host his excellent essay.

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