Friday Recs: RIP reading
Plus an offer to swap 30-minute consultation convos
Hi friends! Up first, some housekeeping:
- As promised, I'm going to do media recommendation posts on Fridays, though I won't be promoting these on social media. I'll keep them open to both free and paid subscribers for now. Still working on figuring out how to make it worth paid subscribers' while but still benefit as much of the formation ecosystem as possible. Ideas? Drop me a line.
- Speaking of getting ideas, thanks again to the folks who filled out my recent reader survey. The new publishing cadence definitely reflects some of your ideas, and I'll be thinking about other ways to respond to what you shared!
- In a similar vein, I'm hoping some of you might be willing to chat with me for 20–30 minutes about ways I can better serve you and formation leaders like you. I've got lots of ideas as I re-enter the world of full-time freelancing, and I'd love some help narrowing things down by gauging interest. I have a menu of thank-you gifts you can choose from, including a free 30-minute consultation you can schedule after our conversation.
Read: 'An Obituary for Reading the Internet' (Culture Study)
This piece, written on the occasion of the shuttering of nerdy web darling Pocket, gave me all the feels. I do think it's easy to over-romanticize the 2007–2015 era. My sense is that we hadn't yet fleshed out all the business models for web content, and part of what we hate about the internet these days is that particular bird coming home to roost.
But it's also true that we got here by giant venture-funded companies building addictive gardens and then walling them off. Epic bummer.
Anyway, it's definitely the case that launching this newsletter was, in part, a desire to get back to some of the kinds of writing I got to do in those days. Thanks for making it possible!
Anne Helen Petersen
Browse: The Nones Project
I'd just been thinking about how I needed to update some of my go-to research about religious nones. Then what should land in my inbox but an email from the great and good Ryan Burge, perhaps the premier social scientist of religion studying such things!
I'm still taking this resource in, but I like the four-part typology they've proposed:
- Nones in Name Only (so helpful!)
- Spiritual but not Religious (we tend to treat all nones like they're this)
- Religious Dones (well-established and important category)
- Zealous Atheists (good name)
Online Class: The Rise of the Nones
Contribute: Formation Landscape Survey
In case you've missed it so far: Forma is trying to get the current lay of the land in the Episcopal Church faith formation ecosystem. If you lead formation in a ministry context like a parish, campus ministry, or other faith community, I hope you'll consider participating. This kind of research is so important to people making decisions about how to support you and people like you!
