After having written more than 75,000 words on this site this year, I’m ready now to publish my last blog post of 2017. Periodic breaks from blogging and social media help me be refreshed spiritually and intellectually. I plan for my time online to be sparse over the holidays as I focus on our family and our church.
In the past, I’ve usually posted a top ten list of “Most-Read Articles of the Year” (see 2016, 2015, for example).
I won’t be doing the same this year because, with the changeover to the new site at TGC, the statistics have been harder to track. I don’t know what the top 10 list would be this year. (I’m confident, however, that my article on the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why would probably top that list.)
Instead, I’d like to do a special edition of Trevin’s Seven, in which I point you to seven articles of mine in the last year that I spent a lot of time on and might be worth a second (or first) look.
Several of these articles intend to fulfill the overarching vision I lay out in This Is Our Time. I’m thankful for how the book has been received, and for the honor of it making several “Books of the Year” lists – most notably The Gospel Coalition (Christian Living Book of the Year) and Christianity Today (Beautiful Orthodoxy Book of the Year Award of Merit). If you’ve not read the book, I hope you will. It was a labor of love and I pray it serves the Church well.
TREVIN’S SEVEN – END OF YEAR EDITION
1. I Wish Christians Would Argue More. The breakdown of conversational civility and the rise of the echo chamber is something that I hope Christians can lead the way in solving. I wrote this article based on G. K. Chesterton’s distinction between “arguing” and “quarreling,” and I make the case that we need more of the former and less of the latter.
2. The Benedict Option: Good Strategy, Bad Posture. While I affirm Dreher’s strategy for the strengthening of local Christian communities, I question the defensive posture that coincides with it. Christian mission is oriented toward winning a spiritual battle, not surviving a spiritual siege.
3. C.S. Lewis Talks to a Dog about Lust. I wish I’d come across this illustration sooner, because I would have included it in This Is Our Time as an example of one of my book’s main points—that underneath the myths we believe and the actions we perform are both longings and lies.
4. Southern Baptists and Conventional and Cosmopolitan Cultures. Underneath the surface of most of our convention’s arguments and debates is the fact that we are a single denomination with overlapping cultures. Yes, there are debates over doctrine. Yes, there is contention over methodology. But in my view, most often the differences are cultural, which is why they are so difficult to resolve.
5. On Coming Out as Fat. This was the first article I’ve written that Facebook refused to promote. The image and topic was deemed offensive. But I found this subject to be a fascinating look into how people conceive of their identity and express themselves. So, in case you missed it the first time, here it is again.
6. The Revolutionary Traditionalist. Hands down, my favorite film I saw this year was La La Land. After multiple viewings, this one conversation continued to stand out to me. That’s why I wrote about it and how it aligns with a tradition-respecting vision for the future of the church.
7. Three Big Fears in Parenting Teenagers. From the moment we became parents, my wife and I have felt inadequate and unequipped to be parents. Now, at the threshold of a new stage of life, I am reminded that, just as we’ve had to do at every point until now, we must entrust our children to the Lord’s care.