Welcome to a new edition of Weekend A La Carte. These weekend editions focus on longer-form content and think pieces. Read on to see what I tracked down this week.
But first, let me express my gratitude to the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals for sponsoring the blog this week. They wanted to make sure you know about Kids Talk Church History, a one-of-a-kind podcast where young voices bring church history to life.
In Weekend A La Carte you’ll find:
- Vice, virtue, and platforms
- Natural family planning
- Christians and technology
- The week of Trueman
- and more …
Sales & Deals
As you’d expect, the Kindle deals continue today. Among other options, we got Tim Chester’s Closing the Window, Chris Castaldo’s Holy Ground, and my own Seasons of Sorrow.
Recommended Reading
First up, here are a few interesting articles that are not thematically related to one another.
Vice, Virtue, and Platforms. I referenced this article in yesterday’s A La Carte when I defined pusillanimous. Elijah Blalock addresses a common conundrum: Is it ever appropriate to try to gain a platform? “By platform, I only mean some position of influence. This broad sense of the word would include a social media following or a podcast, as well as publishing a book or even taking a pastorate. Building a platform would include things we normally think of (like tweeting), but might also include planting a church or getting a PhD to publish or teach.” I think he does an excellent job of answering the questions. He does so by looking to Aquinas and his concern about vices like presumption, ambition, vainglory, and yes, pusillanimity. Yet Blalock also considers the virtue of magnanimity and how it may call people to a position or platform they can use to do good to others.
If Christianity Is True… Why So Many Religions? (Video) Gavin Ortlund takes on a good question in this video: If Christianity is true, how do we account for the existence of so many religions?
Torn on IVF, Evangelicals Turn to Natural Family Planning. (Gift link) Christianity Today writes about the phenomenon of Evangelicals increasingly turning to natural family planning. “Evangelicals generally have been thoughtful adopters of technology, including IVF. So when the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) declared in 2024 that IVF was generally unethical, many pastors and church members were surprised. Like birth control, IVF is often treated as a matter of wisdom between pastors and church members or, in reality, a personal matter not discussed with others.”
6 Days or Billions of Years? Writing for Reformed Perspective, Rob Slane sketches out an extended metaphor and then defends the historicity of a six-day creation. “Arguments for or against theistic evolution are usually discussions of whether the word ‘day’ (Yom) must be taken literally, or what ‘the rocks’ say, or whether evolution undermines the foundation of the gospel itself. These arguments have been covered very ably by others, but what I want to do is to come at the issue from a different angle.”
Christians & Technology
One of this week’s themes was technology. Some of these articles are from a Christian perspective and some are not, but all of them add something to the conversation.
The Basis for Hope: Christian vs. Transhumanist Eschatology. Michael Horton has a long article at Modern Reformation comparing the basis of hope in Christian and transhumanist worldviews. “Transhumanists and many others in the AI space are drawn to pantheism, not atheism. Accordingly, God is identified with nature. The cosmic All is pure mind, like a supercomputer, simulating a game that we call reality. Christianity, in contrast, is based in reality. There are lots of other reasons I am a Christian, but the main one is that it is true. Jesus is risen indeed and we have to take our coordinates for meaning from him. He is the mediator of both creation and redemption.”
Sorry Kid, Drones Are for War Now. (Gift link) I found this an interesting article from The Verge. It begins this way: “What happens when DJI, the world’s leading maker of drones, is no longer welcome in the United States? You might think other dronemakers would see a huge opportunity with their competitor out of the picture. That didn’t happen.” Why not? Because the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have proven that drones are the “right now” of warfare. Dronemakers have realized there is far more money in making drones for military purposes than for consumers.
The State of the Internet: 2026. This is a tremendous article and one that is deeply challenging. Essentially, it tries to help us understand the Internet as it exists in 2026 and then help Christians consider how they can live well in relation to it. “If the iPhone, social media, and AI have taught us anything, it is that you are impacted by these events regardless of whether you participate in them or not. A changing Internet will change you. It will change you in ways you can see and in ways you can’t. It will change those you live with, work with, play with, build with, and fight with. It will change what is possible, probable, permissible, and prohibited in your life, your vocation, your church, your neighborhood, and any other physical space the Internet touches.”
Anthropic’s Restraint Is a Terrifying Warning Sign. (Gift link) You may have heard that AI leader Anthropic released a new version of its software called Claude Mythos Preview. However, this software is so powerful that it has only been released to a handful of major tech companies. “Mythos Preview has already found thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities, including some in every major operating system and web browser. Given the rate of A.I. progress, it will not be long before such capabilities proliferate, potentially beyond actors who committed to deploying them safely. The fallout — economics, public safety and national security — could be severe.” Though it is too soon to say, some are drawing comparisons to nuclear weapons and the way even enemy nations had to agree on how to use or not use such weaponry.
Inside the Dirty, Dystopian World of AI Data Centers. (Gift link) I am not as concerned with decarbonization as the author of this article at The Atlantic, but I do think he aptly shows how AI and its endless need for power and processing is remaking the physical world. “Even conservative analyses forecast that the tech industry will drop the equivalent of roughly 40 Seattles onto America’s grid within a decade; aggressive scenarios predict more than 60 in half that time. According to Siddharth Singh, an energy-investment analyst at the International Energy Agency, by 2030, U.S. data centers will consume more electricity than all of the country’s heavy industries—more than the cement, steel, chemical, car, and other industrial facilities put together. Roughly half of that demand will come from data centers equipped for the particular needs of generative AI.”
The Week of Trueman
Carl Trueman has proven himself one of the finest thinkers in Reformed Evangelicalism, so it is always an event when he releases a new book. As it happens, this week saw the release of The Desecration of Man. He made the rounds of various podcasts, and here are a few of his noteworthy interviews and conversations. Admittedly, I did not watch them all.
- Thinking in Public with Albert Mohler. ‘The Desecration of Man’ — A Conversation with Professor Carl Trueman.
- Sola Media. Why the Modern World Is at War with Human Nature – Carl Trueman and Michael Horton.
- Gospelbound. What Keeps Carl Trueman Awake at Night.
- The Austin Institute. The Desecration of Man: A Conversation with Carl Trueman.
If you’d prefer a lecture:
- Notre Dame CCCG. “All That Is Sacred Must be Profaned” with Carl Trueman.
Or if you prefer to do some reading:
- Carl Trueman on Why Our Age Celebrates Desecration.
- Or my review of the book.
Coming Soon
Here’s a reminder that my new book God’s Great Big Global Church is set to be released next month. Written for younger readers, it invites them to visit 10 kids and their churches all around the world. The hope is that kids will gain enthusiasm for going to church on Sundays as they discover that they and their local fellowship are part of something much bigger: a family of people worshiping God all around the world! The publisher is eager for people to pre-order it since that helps Amazon and other retailers take notice. You can do that here: Amazon or Westminster Books.
Flashback
Beauty in the Whole and the Parts. In theology we make a study of God—of his works and of his ways. With Scripture as our guide…we gaze deeply into matters almost too wonderful to behold. And as we study our God we find there is blessing in the macro and the micro, in the whole and in the parts.
To compare other things with God is to debase deity, as if you should compare the shining of a glowworm with the sun.
—Thomas Watson
