Weekend A La Carte: Concupiscence, Otto Z, Beatrix Potter

Good morning. This Weekend edition of A La Carte has some long-form content, some think pieces, some lists of the most popular articles from the week gone by, and a whole collection of recommendations from readers like you. Enjoy!

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include books on sexuality, forgiveness, Habakkuk, Revelation, and more.

Recommended Reading

Not everyone is familiar with the term concupiscence, but most of us are familiar with some of the debates surrounding it. For example, are our unholy desires sinful, or is it only sinful to act out on those desires? This question often arises when we discuss same-sex attraction. Writing for Logos, Mark Jones explores the concept of concupiscence from a Reformed perspective.

In brief, concupiscence (concupiscentia) originates from the Latin verb concupisco, which means ‘to ardently desire.’ There are proper, non-sinful forms of desire, which we would call ‘non-sinful concupiscence.’ For example, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I have earnestly desired [ἐπεθύμησα] to eat this Passover with you before I suffer’ (Luke 22:15). But because we live in a fallen world, concupiscence typically has in view sinful desire, and usually in reference to sinful sexual desires. Because sin is the privation (lack) of righteousness and proneness to evil, concupiscence involves not just the acts but the desire of the person. Sinful concupiscence can be understood from God’s moral law: ‘You shall not covet’ (Exod 20:17).

Concupiscence: Are Our Unholy Desires Sinful?

The Guardian tells a strange and twisting tale of a death, a scandal, and a desire for revenge, which it summarizes like this: “After his mother died, Otto became convinced he’d been wronged by the forensic investigators – and that one of them was a fraud. The truth was even stranger.” Here’s how the article begins:

On a balmy, quiet evening in June 2020, Otto’s elderly mother, Doria, was fading in her Munich apartment. As she lay with her eyes closed, her pale face, framed by her white hair, was calm.

Otto, masked, gloved and draped in a sterile apron, dozed in a chair beside her. Otto, who sometimes goes by the name Rainer, and whose last name is only known as “Z” because of Germany’s strict privacy laws, was a doctor who had cared for his mother for years, ever since she had suffered a stroke and moved in with him. He described the course of that night to me. He woke to the sound of her short breath and tried to sit her upright. Her eyes were shut, and her lips pursed. She stopped breathing. Otto reached for his phone to call for help, but then Doria opened her eyes and stared into his. She smiled, drew one last deep breath, shut her eyes again, and lay still.

A Death, a Plagiarism Scandal and a Quest for Revenge: The Bizarre Tale of Otto Z.

Jonathon Van Maren sees Beatrix Potter as an example of true conservatism, and explains why that’s the case in a really interesting article about the life of someone whose work we are probably all familiar with.

There is a type of academic who can only get noticed by attacking the legacies of greater men and women, and a prime example was cited by Matthew Dennison in The Spectator in his essay “Don’t Cancel Beatrix Potter.” The beloved children’s author has become the target of “specialist in postcolonial literature” Dr. Emily Zobel Marshall, who hilariously claims that Potter failed “to acknowledge her indebtedness to an oral storytelling tradition of enslaved Africans working on American plantations” and that this contributes to “a damaging and recurring appropriation of Black cultural forms that continues today.”

This is frivolous stuff, and Marshall’s claims are a parasitic attempt to gain fifteen minutes of fame by slandering a woman who cannot defend herself. Dennison handily rebuts Marshall, and I’m glad he did—but I can’t help but think that fortunately, some writers are uncancellable. Potter’s books have sold 250 million copies. Her legacy is just fine. Her characters will continue to be household names for countless children, while Dr. Whatserface will have to find a new target if she wants to trigger further discussion of her own work. People who take these accusations seriously should not be taken seriously.

I do, however, think that a study of Potter’s life has something to contribute to current cultural conversations—not in “postcolonial literature studies,” but in the discussions unfolding in traditionalist circles on how to respond to our civilizational moment, in which many things appear to be ending.

The Conservatism of Beatrix Potter.

Works in Progress is a secular publication that likes to take on big subjects. In this article, Samuel Hughes seems almost surprised to find that some popular mythology is not true: “that a tolerant and affirmative view of human sexuality prevailed in classical Antiquity until it was crushed by puritanical and repressive Christianity.” He’s not alone in finding that Christianity radically changed and improved Roman sexual mores.

It is true that Roman sexual norms were permissive in some ways. In particular, it was entirely permitted for free Roman men to have sex with male and female slaves and prostitutes, including children. No norm of male fidelity existed: male extramarital sex was not merely tolerated in practice but was generally considered completely acceptable as a matter of principle, even if wives found it hurtful. Many men had a general preference for boys or for women, but such preferences were merely personal taste, not a defining identity; most men seem to have been what we would call bisexual. Although only a small minority of Romans owned slaves, the prostitution of slaves was widespread, so coerced sex was ubiquitous. The price of sex in the Roman Empire was about that of a loaf of bread.

Were the Romans Tolerant About Sex?

You may have read in the news this week that Christianity Today has fallen on hard times, laid off a number of staff, and had others resign. Alan Noble responds to the news with a piece about the need for Christian institutions.

Social media (and even my own Facebook page!) exploded with debates about how to interpret this news about CT. Is it good news because CT is “too woke” anyway? Is it possible to be “centrist” as an evangelical publication in the Year Of Our Lord Twenty Twenty-Six? Shouldn’t CT be more prophetic in calling out injustices and criticizing the current administration? What even is an evangelical today? Do we need journalism anymore when we can all get our news from Twitter and hear about the latest scandals from Substackers? And so on.

I want to argue, in echoing Bonnie’s words in her Substack, that we do need CT. That as an institution, the success and proper functioning of Christianity Today is important for evangelicals. As many of you know, my next book, (tentatively titled) Shoring Up the Ruins is on the topic of mediating institutions. So I’m reading this current news through that lens.

Read: Christianity Today and the Need for Institutions.

A lot of people are beginning to use AI agents like Muse, Grok Bot, and soon enough, Claude Duet. I haven’t yet explored their capabilities to any significant extent, but from what I understand, they can do impressive things. Yet as this article from The Verge points out, they are data-hungry and may impact not only their users, but also their users’ contacts. At the very least, we should seriously consider our friends’ privacy before giving these agents too much access to our lives.

“These systems are advertised as autonomous helpers, genies, or servants who do what you need before you ask, seamlessly,” Meredith Whittaker, the president of the Signal Foundation, makers of the popular encrypted messaging app, told The Verge. These autonomous actions are applied “not just to the person who installed Muse on their device, but also to everyone that person communicates with, as extrapolated from their most intimate information — emails, messages, contacts, photos, and more.”

With AI agents, tech companies are letting consumers automate their everyday tasks by extending their omnivorous style of mass surveillance to massive amounts of sensitive data. It’s the same Faustian tradeoff Silicon Valley has been offering us for decades: your private data in exchange for a little bit of convenience. And for many people, the idea of having a virtual assistant that does menial tasks like filling out invoices and sending emails is compelling — especially if they don’t realize how much data they’re actually giving away in return.

Friends Don’t Let Friends Feed Their Data to AI Agents.

Reader Recommendations

I like to solicit recommendations for things readers are reading, listening to, watching, eating, or otherwise experiencing. Here’s what you sent along:

Jessy recommends the preaching of Adrian Rogers through Love Worth Finding. “Sound Biblical teaching, Christ centred, where the doctrines of the Christian faith are presented from the Bible that is read. The name of Jesus is lifted high and every sermon is for man to repent and know and worship Christ.”

Grant has “started listening to Crossway’s podcast, Morning and Evening with Charles Spurgeon. They’re three minutes long and have become a great bookend for the start and end of the day.”

Maximiliano recommends Emanuel Elizondo’s novel Un resplandor en las tinieblas, a mystery set in the Spain of the Inquisition. It kept him gripped from beginning to end, pulled him out of a reading slump, renewed his interest in the Reformation and its protagonists, and stirred gratitude to God for the privilege of having his Word in his own language.

Maria is “really enjoying using the For The Church Institute. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has made multiple workshops and classes for free for the use of the Church to help grow in multiple areas of theology and biblical studies. I am currently doing the one on counseling which is the only one you have to pay for.”

Cody is enjoying Stephen Lawhead’s King Raven trilogy (Hood, Scarlet, and Tuck), a retelling of Robin Hood. “It’s an older book series (2007 – 2009), but it has been a great read so far. I’m nearing the end of book 2 and can’t remember the last fiction series I enjoyed so much.” (TC: I enjoyed it too.)

Bill is enjoying Create in Me a Clean Heart: Experiencing God’s Abundant Mercy in Psalm 51, a new book by Matt Boswell. (TC: It’s a really good book!)

Beth Ann says The Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson “is full of adventure and can be enjoyed by middle-school-aged kids through adults. These books gave me a wee bit of hope during a season of despair because there were a lot of hopeless situations that the characters were in and yet somehow the stories always ended with hope. These books are suspenseful, witty and beautiful. I highly recommend!”

Erik recommends Using Authority Well by Jonathan Leeman. “This book has already been eye-opening to what good authority is and its proper extent in different contexts.” (TC: I agree!)

Dean feels “enriched listening to Sinclair Ferguson’s Things Unseen podcast. It is a short weekday devotion in which Dr. Ferguson selects different weekly themes and each day shares thoughts and reflections based on the week’s theme. Listening to his accent and soft voice is an additional blessing.”

Ami recommends Faron Thebeau’s article “Criticizing the Church.” “Faron writes well from 20 years pastoral experience and though he knows she has faults, he loves the body of Christ. I’ve read most of his articles on Substack, and they ring with a true love for Jesus, authenticity, and biblical depth.”

Evy recommends Artificial Intimacy by Sherry Turkle.

Sean says, “While much of his theological education has been unofficial, the theological writings of Thomas Balzamo are not to be underestimated. He left the fundamental baptist movement years ago, so some of his articles charitably critique the heart of fundamentalism. He is currently a student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.”

Will says, “Shovel Knight is a retro-styled video game that is not only fun, but also carries themes of redemption and regeneration, despite it being a secular work.”

Kristine is reading Love Like You Mean It by Bob Lepine. “Written to help marriages-in-trouble like mine, and based on the infamous love passage found in 1 Corinthians 13, the author pointedly and biblically unpacks what love truly is meant to be. Convicting.”

Flashback

How To Cheapen a Marriage. Is my deepest longing for Christ? Can I honestly say that I long for him? Or do I actually long for the benefits that come with him?