Ekstasis Curated, December
Collection for your Christmas reflections
Welcome to the December edition of Ekstasis Curated. We’ve collected some of our favorites in culture, art, and faith this month, as well as resources to spark conversations and fuel your imagination—all bookended by a moment of ekstasis. Within this post, enjoy links galore on Advent, old and new books, being a woman in the ideas space, poetry (always), Notre Dame’s reopening, and a T.S. Eliot motif.
The Cafe: Where contemporary culture and faith mingle.
🕵🏼♂️ ‘Bonhoeffer’ Bears Little Resemblance to Reality with Myles Werntz
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a figure who generates endless conversations within Christian circles on questions of faith and political action in our times. Yet his story and motivations are often twisted, as Myles argues, which is the case in Todd Komarnicki’s recently released movie, Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. As a bonus, check out Matthew Kirkpatrick’s new book titled Bonhoeffer for the Church: An Introduction, which confronts misuses of Bonhoeffer and lays out the nuances of his theology.
“Undermining the Nazis with paperwork and diplomacy is far less cinematic than explosives, and the makers of Bonhoeffer may have changed their main character’s worldview for mere dramatic effect. But the ideological thrust of the film feels too on the nose to be justified by drama alone. What kind of connection is the film making by suggesting that Bonhoeffer changed his mind about the ‘narrow way’”?
🪩 The End of 'Eras' with Jessica Schurz
Why does Swift’s music speak to something deep inside so many? What is the source of her magic that led to the most profitable music tour in history? Jessica takes a minute to gush about the undeniable power of the Eras roadshow. She argues that it’s not the quality that has brought millions out, but instead, it’s the way Swift speaks to the human experience, channelling nostalgia and ‘particularity’.
“They love her songs in the same way one loves a favorite bench in the park, or the local summer ice cream stand, or the hometown drive-thru frequented after high school sports games. That is to say, fans love her music for its particularity.”
🔔 Ekstasis Issue 11 Print Edition
Need your next Saturday coffee shop read? We’ve just dropped Issue 11 for pre-ordering. Come on a sensory journey with us through stunning poems and essays as we reckon with the influence of language and Logos in our world. Grab the Christmas Bundle if you and your friends need more.
“In this issue, we feature voices that are both established and emerging, to trace the influence of our words across all spheres of life—arts, culture, church, family, and sometimes even politics. These artists and writers will guide us into stained-glass cathedrals and looming castles, fluorescent hospital rooms and college halls, and through a vivid carnival of scenes.”
The Bookshop: Hot off the shelf.
🎄 Advent I: Christ the Bee with Grace Hamman
Do you like old books and good literature? Then you need this podcast in your life. Join medievalist Dr. Grace Hamman as she reads aloud old Advent sermons from the Middle Ages, kicking off this year with St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Also enjoy her many interviews with scholars and authors on the topics of faith, history, and literature, like this one with Nadya Williams or this one with Joy Clarkson.
“We’re not the first ones to long for Christ’s return, to trace his character, and to prepare our hearts for Christmas. And so I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be wonderful to feel the weight and heft of the body of Christ across time also longing with us for Jesus?’”
💧 Thirsting: Quenching Our Soul’s Deepest Desire with Commoners Communion
Strahan Coleman is a devotional mastermind. His words are steeped in raw wonder and infused with longing for God. Get a copy of his new book for Christmas and crack it open in the New Year. Below are a few lines from his latest post about the miraculousness of the Advent season.
“Time can taunt childlike faith in that way. We all face spiritual entropy without an antidote. Unanswered prayers stay with us as unanswered questions in our hurting places, threatening to weigh down divine anticipation. But then comes Advent.”
🛷 Wild writers for those who wish to wonder with Elizabeth Wainwright
Elizabeth acts as your guide through a tour de authors who capture a sense of reverence for the natural world and want to restore our connection to it. Jot down names from this brilliant list to be extra enthralled with the wilderness winter ambiance that Elizabeth calls to mind.
“There are writers I turn to when I need to remember the diverse wildness and unlikeliness of our planet that is, as far as we so far know, an island of life in a cold and vast universe. When I read them, I wonder at our shared earth, at our hearts, and at the mysterious holiness of it all.”
The Pub: Your watering hole for big ideas.
⚔️ Against Christian Civilization with Paul Kingsnorth
As the train of public intellectuals converting to Christianity continues, Paul Kingsnorth narrates this phenomenon and pushes the conversation forward with his critiques and concerns. If you’re interested in social trends and Christianity’s relevance in society, this cutting-edge lecture is a must-listen.
“Almost everyone who is paying attention has, by now, noticed some of those people in response have come to a conclusion that since Christianity was the basis of this Western culture of ours and since this culture is now sick or even dying the way to revive it must be to revive Christianity not so much as a faith but rather as a social glue or even as a weapon.”
🙋🏽♀️ Just call me token woman with Elizabeth Oldfield
In her full-hearted fashion, which makes Elizabeth a magnetic presence, she dives into the ‘stickiness of being a public female in the world of ideas,’ a place crowded with credentialed and left-brain men. Elizabeth points out that the female perspective may actually be especially necessary in public conversations when talking about something as personal as religious belief. Elizabeth, please keep showing up with your poems. We need them.
“The absence of women and more right-hemispheric voices for these high stakes questions has consequences. Ditto, the question of many of the panels I’m invited onto: God. These approaches leave too many thinking Christianity is not for them because they can’t figure out the physics of the resurrection.”
🍀 Malcolm Guite on T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets (Part 1)
Malcolm, a pipe-smoking poet and priest embracing a shire aesthetic, talks about decades of experience with Eliot’s Four Quartets poem and inhabiting the physical land that inspired it. Also, follow his blog during Advent for daily poetry read-aloud that corresponds with his beloved seasonal companion, Waiting on the Word.
“What the poet does, is he takes the fleeting apprehension, that glance of heaven, and finds, makes, forms a living body for it and that brings it for us into the world of comprehension…Eliot does that supremely throughout the Four Quartets. He gives body and form to otherwise inarticulate things within us.”
The Sanctuary: Church chat with a side of wonder.
❄️ Midwinter Carols, Vol. 2 with Joel Clarkson
Make sure to surround yourself with the music of winter through this enchanting collection. Joel’s work as a theologian and composer is worth following along if you’re yearning for sounds and words charged with Beauty. Check out his latest piece for Plough on the history of the ‘O Antiphons’ in the Advent liturgical tradition.
“Likely already part of Christian worship by the sixth century, the O Antiphons have brought countless Christians through the final days of Advent in preparation for the light of Christ’s arrival, and have found expression in a multitude of Christian denominational practices in the West, not least through the nineteenth-century hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” which gathers all the O Antiphons into one declaration of praise.”
🍯 'Like winter’s bees eating my heart’s honey'- Psalms 32 with Andy Patton
Join Andy, who formerly worked at the English L’Abri and is now a Rabbit Roomer, as he adventures into the Psalms through this Substack poetry project, The Darkling Psalter. He’s spent years immersed in the poetic voice of T.S. Eliot, which shines through in his lines dedicated to the beauty, imagery, and symbolism alive in the Bible.
“So watch me. Learn from me.
Listen where the honey is;
To buzzing bruises that have been singing
So low, so long you hardly hear them.”
🕯️ The Divine Light of Notre-Dame Cathedral with Allan Greenberg
After the devastating fires in 2019, Paris’s most beloved cathedral finally opened its doors again this December. Allan commemorates his own first encounter with Notre Dame as a nineteen-year-old, later turned architect—always carrying a deep appreciation for its magnificence and meticulous craftsmanship.
“Notre-Dame was erected as a labor of love—built to thrive for centuries. The roof trusses, for example, were made from heavy air-dried oak timbers that were meant to last a thousand years or more. These were taken from trees planted in the eighth or ninth century.”
A few more quick links for you:
🍬 What Spotify Wrapped really tells us about ourselves with Belle Tindall
🪟 Advent Vignettes Series with us, Ekstasis
⛪ Our Parish Manifesto with Ross Byrd
🪦 UK Christians Lament Landmark Vote to Legalize Assisted Dying with Christopher Kuo
👑 Journey of the Magi by T.S. Eliot
🍃 The Sacred Sounds of Hildegard of Bingen with Susannah Black Roberts
Do you have any resources you’d recommend—like the podcasts that were at the top of your Spotify Wrapped or the Substacks you’re currently hooked on? Please share. We’re eager to hear!
Additionally, let us know about your favorite historical & contemporary cafes, pubs, bookshops, or sanctuaries to be featured in a future Ekstasis Curated.
A Moment of Ekstasis 💫
Pause, breath, and take this in. Ekstasis was born out of a desire to help us be brought outside of ourselves in an experience of awe, wonder, and worship.
"The mystery of Christmas lies in the terror of its joy: it burns like a star, distant and untouchable, yet it draws us close to its fire." - Flannery O’Connor
"Pause, breathe...." yes.
Also, just pre ordered Issue 11. Any ideas when it'll ship? And is it the final final, as in no more print mags? Sad face...
For podcasts, I really enjoyed this conversation about God's presence in the chaos of Hurricane Helene contrasted with the disenchantment of mundane normal life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw0DlLIoVFk