Ekstasis Curated, February
Our culture, art & faith favorites this love month
Welcome to the February edition of Ekstasis Curated. Below, you’ll find our favourite in culture, art, and faith this month, brimming with links on the philosophy of love, the viral manifesting trend, pilgrimage notes, a recommended Lenten companion, and more, all bookended by a moment of ekstasis. — Carolyn Morris-Collier
The Bookshop: Hot off the shelf
🍎 Reading Genesis with Marilynne Robinson at with
Beloved novelist Marilynne Robinson has taken a deep dive into a biblical book whose themes and characters infuse many of her own stories. Check out Reading Genesis. In this essay, Karen helpfully highlights Robinson’s accessible approach, her gaps in analysis, and her usual addicting prose.
“In a theological, literary, and hermeneutical world marked today by anxious turf wars over any disagreement or indeterminacy, Robinson’s approach is refreshing (albeit not infallible), marked by the ‘faith over fear’ that so many Christians profess but lack.”
🥖 Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter with Plough Books
If you need a beautiful little book filled with selections from widely-adored Christian writers and dripping with Easter themes and musings, then this Lenten companion will be just right for you. Click the link to see the five-star line up of contributors.
“Dorothy sayers writes that to make the Easter story into something that neither startles, shocks, terrifies, nor excites is ‘to crucify the Son of God afresh’”.
🎓 Is Ross Douthat Our C.S. Lewis? at the Front Porch Republic with
Ross Douthat’s new book Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious is trending in Christian circles. In this review, Ben tries to persuade his readers that Ross’s apologetics mean he might just be the new C.S. Lewis. Are you convinced? Oh, and check out Ross’s side quest, writing children fantasy on Substack.
“While Lewis was an Oxford don and Douthat is an opinion columnist at the New York Times, both have similar reputations and instincts. They are public intellectuals in positions of influence who are irenic rather than polemical. Both write across many genres—essay, memoir, fantasy.”
The Cafe: Where faith mingles with contemporary culture
🔮 There’s more to manifesting at Seen & Unseen with Daniel Kim
With the practice of manifesting highly in vogue, Dan pulls back the curtain on its philosophical roots. By exploring the ‘Western Esoteric Tradition’, he uncovers Christianity’s own legacy of the mystical and the strange. Dan challenges us to develop more grounded theological critiques of modern spiritual practices.
“After all, Christians believe in a divine-human Messiah who reigns above angels and archangels who conquered demons and turns his ear to the whispered prayers of broken hearts on dark cold nights. What do you mean that ‘manifesting’ is ‘unscientific’? If you want to critique manifesting or astrology, you’ll need arguments rooted in your own rich tradition—not borrowed Enlightenment dismissals, the same ones once aimed at Christianity itself.”
🛤️ ‘Between Borders’ Calls to Christians at Christianity Today with Christopher Kuo
In the new film Between Borders, immerse yourself in a gripping story about a refugee family fleeing the conflict between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenians. Christopher explores a theology of care in a moment fraught with heated immigration discourse.
“As Christians, we are each caught between borders, situated as we are between the present principality of darkness and the future coming of the risen King. We are sojourners and exiles, strangers in a foreign country (1 Pet. 2:11).”
🌀 The Boom Boom Vibe Shift with the
Join an interview with the modern prophet, Sean Monahan, who coined the term “normcore” and was first to name/predict the “vibe shift,” as he breaks down fashion trends, defines ‘vibes’, and helps decipher the morals and moods of our times.
“Shadi wants to know whether American culture has fundamentally shifted to the right since the rise of Trump. Christine detects a mean streak to this new culture: a certain cruelty or at least, ruthless competitiveness. Sean puts things in perspective, explaining how generations create, condition, and then abandon trends.”
The Pub: Your watering hole for big ideas
💞 Hannah Arendt on Love and How to Live with the Fundamental Fear of Loss at The Marginalian with Maria Popova
If Valentine’s Day had you contemplating love on both an interpersonal and societal level, here’s a philosophical article that may also bring you to tears. Turn to the flagrant wisdom of Hannah Arendt, political philosopher and journalist, friend of W.H. Auden, and passionate love letter writer with Heidegger. You won’t be disappointed.
“It was from Augustine that she borrowed the phrase amor mundi — ‘love of the world’ — which would become a defining feature of her philosophy. Occupied by questions of why we succumb to and normalize evil, Arendt identified as the root of tyranny the act of making other human beings irrelevant. Again and again, she returned to Augustine for the antidote: love.”
🤖 Writing Doesn’t Start with Words at with
Host of Rabbit Room’s popular The Habit Podcast Jonathan reminds us that the act of writing is an outpouring of experiences—something Robots don’t have. He points to John Warner’s book, More Than Words, to remind us of the solid distinctions between the human soul and machines.
“This is good news to any writer who is afraid of losing his or her job to the robots. Robots don’t have experiences. For that matter, argues Warner, robots can’t think. They are incredibly good at processing information, but that’s not the same thing as thinking, and it’s a very long way from experiencing.”
🌲 Elsewhere Today: Sing Tenderly to the Winter Woods at Current with
Wander through the woods with Nadya and the dreamy music of Franz Schubert composed in 1828, through the ‘long, uncertain, unfinished’ way of winter—mirroring our own lifelong meanderings, aspirations, and desires.
“Ideas and dreams have much in common, beckoning us to draw deeper into a world inside our head, a world much more complicated and tumultuous than our regular lives of relationships with real people, beautifully loud and messy flesh and blood.”
The Sanctuary: Church chat with a side of wonder
🏞️ Following No Other Way at Comment Magazine with Nathan Beacom
How do you explain the rationale behind a pilgrimage? Maybe you can’t. Journey with Nathan—guided by the poetry of T.S. Eliot and the writings of Luigi Giussani—as he weaves stunning prose to reveal a pilgrimage as a counterpoint to modernity, an awakening to God permeating our reality.
“Since then, thousands of pilgrims’ feet had trodden the same dust, and here were we, under the stars, with a sort of poet-wizard and a white-bearded scholar debating questions of metaphysics and salvation. It was a beautiful slice of eternity.”
🍃 All Things Brief and Beautiful with
Check out musician Jonathan’s vibey worship tunes on Spotify and his newly launched Substack. Jonathan opened up the London Inkwell with his music, setting just the right tone for the evening. Enjoy reading and listening to his gentle and melodious words.
“This fading, momentary beauty pours into our everyday like a river. Like the morning sun creeping through the gaps in the curtain. Ah, there it is again. But really, the sun is always there. It’s our planet in its dizzy dance that hides its face from the light every day.”
🖋️ Conversations on the Psalms: Psalms 1 at The Penultimate Image Podcast
During the Covid lockdowns, Poet Malcolm Guite and artist Roger Wagner both published books on the Psalms, David’s Crown and The Book of Praises, respectively. Follow along this podcast to hear the Psalms read aloud and explore the poetic invitation of the Psalter.
“The Psalter is such an outdoor book. I once recited the Psalter out loud over the course of five days walking on the Cuthbert Way. And I suddenly realised, all this about ‘the heavens declare the glory of the Lord’… or ‘set me on a rock’—they’re transfigured when read you read them outdoors.”
A few more quick links for you:
💁🏽♀️ Woman Enough? at
with🐉 The Breakthrough of Myth - Annie Crawford with at The Symbolic World Podcast with Jonathan Pageau
🫁 A Good Pair of Lungs at Christianity Today with
🔥 comfort-culture christians, moralistic therapeutic deism, and some dante at
with💧 is the "good" artist the saddest one? at
with- with
🎸A complete unknown: the enigma of Bob Dylan at Seen & Unseen with Krish Kandiah
📜 Poems for Ephesians at Kingdom Poets with D.S. Martin
🎤 Kendrick Lamar's Political Theology / Femi Olutade at For the Life of the world
Do you have any resources you 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!
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.
“Love needs no cause beyond itself, nor does it demand fruits; it is its own purpose.” - St. Bernard of Clairvaux
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Thank you for the shoutout!! Wonderful lineup here <3
Thank you so much for the shoutout! Means a great deal to me.