Joshua Gibbs

Prayerfully

If you’ve just heard or read the word “prayerfully,” you’ve just been asked to consider giving money. It’s the only time anyone uses the word “prayerfully.” Please prayerfully consider making a donation. Let me prayerfully ask you to consider using this word in other contexts, though. As in, “Please prayerfully chew with your mouth closed.”Continue reading “Prayerfully”

Conjectures

The real thought leaders are the people “thought leaders” rip off. The real thought leaders are the people “thought leaders” secretly want to impress.

Like

What TikTok does to ninth grade girls, Twitter does to mid-range Christian intellectuals.

Bad

Tom: I had to stay after school to deal with a bad student. Harry: A “bad student.” Wow. That’s such an extreme judgment. I don’t know that I believe in “bad students.” I believe in misguided students, underprivileged students, wild students. But “bad students”? Yikes. Tom: Do you believe in “bad teachers”? Harry: That’s different.Continue reading “Bad”

Paradise Lost for Beginners Starts This Friday

In the next three months, I will teach Paradise Lost five times. I will teach it to three sections of sophomores at Veritas. I will teach it to Veritas parents on Tuesday nights in September. And I will teach it online for fourteen weeks through Gibbs Classical. If you are interested in taking the classContinue reading “Paradise Lost for Beginners Starts This Friday”

My Favorite Things: Summer 2022 Edition

This is what made the Summer of 2022 for me. 10. Wordle and Framed: I now start every morning with a cup of coffee and five minutes spent playing these two games. You really need a few people to share scores with to make this worthwhile, preferably friends you’re about on par with. 9.Continue reading “My Favorite Things: Summer 2022 Edition”

Talk To Me

“I don’t allow students to email me about anything which could be addressed in person. Students who don’t have the nerve to boldly ask adults for favors, opinions, or permission will be at a significant disadvantage when they enter their 20s. The only way to acquire such nerve is through practice.” -from “Do Not EmailContinue reading “Talk To Me”

Mid-Level Christian Intellectuals On Social Media

Christian thought leader on Twitter: I bought a new toothbrush today. *4000 likes* There is absolutely no way this level of affirmation for something so banal is possibly good for the soul of anyone purporting to offer spiritual guidance about anything to anyone.

“The Bear” Is Glorious

FX’s “The Bear”: Part “Parts Unknown,” part Jiro Dreams of Sushi, part “Chef’s Table.” Best new TV show of 2022.

Favorite Fall Records

15 years later, still one of my favorite fall records. There was a minute there where Ewan Pearson was making a bid to become the most diverse producer in popular music. This is some of my favorite work of his: