This little blog of mine is now 3 months old, and reached quite a milestone in the past couple weeks with a 39-comment post, “Excommunication and Homosexuality,” no doubt the most-commented post on either the old or the new incarnation of the Sword and the Ploughshare.  Of course, based on my experience, this is not so much an accomplishment as a mark of shame, as it tends to be the posts that were most poorly worded and least carefully argued that draw a firestorm of comments.  Anyway, if you missed out on that discussion, and want to add to it, feel free to jump in and drag it on to 40 comments and beyond. 

More importantly, though, my blog is going to stop being just “my blog”–that is, it will no longer serve as simply my personal pedestal for declaiming and unbosoming.  Not, of course, that it was ever intended to be merely that; it is hopefully a forum for discussion for multiple contributors.  However, whatever blithe assurances I may make to that effect, there remains a wide rhetorical chasm between posting and commenting.  And so this weekend the Sword and the Ploughshare will host its first guest contributor, Robin Phillips, who writes for Salvo magazine, the Alfred the Great Society, and a bunch of other things.  Robin will be contributing an essay he has written in defense of liturgical images, against certain contemporary Reformed attacks.  Long-time readers of my blog may recall that I have written rather intemperately on this subject myself at various in the past; thankfully, Robin has had longer to hone his irenic tone, and so I’m excited to host his excellent essay.

If we are lucky, Robin may contribute here occasionally in the future as well, and I have a couple of other prospective guest contributors lined up that we will hopefully see soon.  Although I happen to wholeheartedly agree with this particular essay, guest contributors are bringing their own viewpoints and perspectives, and I expect (and indeed hope) that some guest contributions in the future may represent views that I do not necessarily share, providing a good opportunity for friendly disagreement and discussion.

In other news, you may notice that I’ve added a couple more blogs to the blogroll on the right.  Introductions are in order.  Byron Smith is a fellow New Collegian and that rare gem–a theologian who knows and cares about science.  Craig Beaton was my mentor when I was a high-school student and he was a seminary student; he now pastors an excellent church in Greenville, SC, and posts his excellent sermons on his blog.  Transpositions is the blog of ITIA–The Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts, at the University of St. Andrew’s.  They’ve got a great crop of students putting out some really high-quality material over there, and you should check it out if you’re interested in the arts (and who isn’t?).

Now all I need to do is actually update those pages on this blog like “Resources,” “Writings,” “Projects” which are supposed to make this blog more than a mere blog…which I should do soon.