Happy Birthday, Blog!

Christ the Tao has gotten off to a modestly successful start in it's first year.  Taking it for a spin around the blog, as it were, I've posted just 46 (now 47) times, a little less than once a week.  I've tried, on the other hand, to offer arguments a bit more substantive than the norm for the format, including responses to a variety of skeptics, a series on how Christianity has helped women, posts on great missionaries, world religions, and the reliability of the Gospels.  What we lack in quantity, we try to make up in quality.  I've also posted pictures from places along the way -- Iceland, Oxford, the Cascade mountains -- and even a little political satire.

The site has recorded approaching 14 thousand page visits the first year, with some 700 comments from probably most of a hundred people.  The numbers have grown steadily over the past several months.  Thanks for visiting, and letting us know what you think!

But we're just getting warmed up.  I've started to figure out some of the basics, and am having fun with the site.  In the future:

* Short term -- expect more interesting articles.  Next up: "The True Face of Norwegian Christianity."  As usual for Christ the Tao, in this article I will seek to go beyond the talking points, and dig for deeper truths, not only about Anders Breivik and the murders he committed in and near Oslo, and his alleged Christian identity, but about how Christianity has helped to form Norway, as surely as but more deeply than the glaciers that carved its fjords. 

* Don't be surprised if you see more debates, not least with atheists.  (Though maybe we should pick on someone else, for a change.)  I argue, therefore I am.   

* Also look for more profiles of great Christians who crossed cultural divides to change the world, including (hopefully) by other scholars. 

* Look for more about our upcoming anthology, Faith Seeking Understanding, perhaps including exerpts from some of the wonderful contributors.  I'll probably be posting a list of contributors pretty soon -- an impressive group.   

* Other books and articles are also in the works, including my dissertation, which aims no less than to change how the world sees Christianity in its relationship to other faiths.

* I also plan to continue posting scenes and experiences from diverse, strange, and (usually) beautiful places, as I have the good fortune of visiting them.

* Who knows what else will turn up? 

* I also hope (well, probably -- let's be honest!) to hear from you.   

David