Another year, another 12 months spent immersed in the development of early Christian views of the Holy Spirit. A fair chunk of the year was devoted to researching and writing How the Spirit Became God: The Mosaic of Early Christian Pneumatology, which is due out in late 2020 from Cascade. By the time I’ve completed final revisions for this book in the spring, I’ll have spent five years on the subject. With the new decade, it might be time for me to take a break and explore a new topic.

Towards that end, I’ve been working on some ideas on how to bring early Christian theology into conversation with pedagogy (that is, teaching and learning) from a Christian perspective. In October, I read two papers at the Kuyers Institute/INCHE conference on Christian education at Calvin University; the first used John Chrysostom as a lens for re-imagining the nature of our students, and the second used Augustine as an impetus for designing deeper discussions. I plan to post this second paper in full on this site soon in the new year. As a new area for me, I’m particularly interested in any feedback on my work thus far.

I enjoyed writing another book review (on Craig D. Allert’s Early Christian Readings of Genesis One, for RBL), and I’m sure I’ll do another in the new year. But aside from any final edits on How the Spirit Became God, I think I might try my hand at some more informal (here and elsewhere on the internet) writing, particularly on topics related to Anglican theology and spirituality. Thanks for your interest in my research this year, and happy 2020!