Every year I help organize a large conference called Restore. Imagine a Christian TED festival with heapings of music and art. This year’s gathering is next week, September 24-26 at Utah Valley University. The lineup is phenomenal. A few sessions I’m especially excited for are:
McKay Coppins on the transhumanist theology of the tech bros
Tara Isabella Burton on finding Christ in our age of religious remixing
Mallory Everton on how faith alchemizes tragedy
Steven Sharp Nelson of The Piano Guys previewing his new musical on the abolition of the slave trade
Casper ter Kuile on how to build a ritual life
Plus talks on spiritual imagination, UFO’s, building Zion, giving up smartphones, and the dawning of a new renaissance
I’d love for you to join me. You can register here and get 20% off by using the code ZACH. And if you want to come and the cost is a barrier, just message me.
THE TREK WEST
Our summer trek to Utah was a grand adventure, full of religious pilgrimage, Americana, and cheap motels. We’re now settling in to our new life in Salt Lake City.
A TRIBUTE TO STAN BENFELL, A BELOVED MENTOR WHO TRAGICALLY DIED LAST WEEK
My First Professor
The first professor I loved was Stan Benfell. In the Fall of 2002 I arrived at BYU in the fall of 2002 as an idealistic freshman eager to explore all the biggest questions of life. I enrolled in Professor Benfell’s Comparative Literature 201 class and it was everything I dreamed university life could be. We read the Iliad, Oedipus Rex, the Aeneid, Beowu…
