From Ashes to Elves

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday and I posted another meditation on the observance on my blog called Renouncing Self-Centered Renunciation.

I have made three posts on an anthropological approach to liturgy called Liturgical Animals. From the first installment, you should be able to follow the links to the second and third.

I have been reflecting quite a lot about economics and questions of economic justice. I have two posts on the subject called Mimetic Scarcity. This includes comments on Paul Dumouchel's book The Ambivalence of Scarcity and Other Essays which I have also reviewed. I also have posted a review on David Harvey's The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism.

In Exile with Jesus offers a Christmas Season meditation about a baby who didn't have a place to lay his head.

The Tree of Salvation is a review of a book on Norse mythology and its transformation into Christianity which gives a Girardian reading of Nordic myth.

Above the Circle of the Earth is a sermon late in Epiphany which looks at the breakthrough in Second Isaiah in understanding creation in contradistinction to Babylonian myth.

Late in December I published a fantasy novella called The Forest of Windellynn that is aimed at young readers (ca. 9-12) but I hope is interesting for older readers as well. The plot is based on legends of elf abduction of children and Gwion, the young protagonist, has to rescue two friends and his sister from the elves. When Gwion encounters the persecutory culture of the elves, he eventually realizes how persecutory his own social life has been as he learns what it means to have a soul. I am hoping that this book might be helpful for young and older readers in understanding some of Girard's insights as well as being an enjoyable read. For those of you coming to the 2015 Theology and Peace conference, I will be bringing a few copies in case anybody is interested. As you can see from my blog page about the book, electronic copies are available in various formats.