Exciting News. A Request. And A Few Photos.

Hi friends!

This post comes to you from San Antonio, Texas where the weather has been warm(ish), the Mexican food has been abundant and the ETS annual meeting (the what now? see below!) has been a whole lot! I’ll explain more about that in a bit. But for the moment…

Some exciting news (and a request)!

The Meaning of Singleness is a finalist in IVP Reader’s Choice Awards!

The fact that an academic book (based on my PhD dissertation) is a reader’s choice finalist in the category of ‘cultural engagement’ is both unexpected and wonderful! I take it to be more evidence of the fact that the evangelical church is beginning to embrace fresh and faithful discussions about singleness in the Christian life and community!

If you’ve read, enjoyed or in some other way benefitted from The Meaning of Singleness would you consider voting for it at the link below?

A win would be a significant boost in keeping the conversation about singleness front and centre in the evangelical discourse.

Voting closes at midnight (I guess CST?) on Friday, November 17th. Yes, that’s tomorrow!

Everyone who votes goes into the draw to win a collection of each of the winning books from all categories. Plus, all finalist titles can be purchased direct from IVP for a 25% discount using the code above.

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What the heck is ETS?

As I said above, this week I’ve been attending the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in San Antonio. It’s a yearly conference where hundreds of theological and biblical scholars get together to present, listen to and engage with a lot of papers on a whole lotta different topics. I haven’t done an actual count of the total number of papers given across the three days but I’m guessing it would be somewhere in the range of 400+.

On Tuesday morning there was a three-hour session focused on my work in The Meaning of Singleness. This was one of perhaps only six sessions across the whole conference specifically and entirely focused on a recently published book. It was an incredibly humbling privilege to have my work taken so seriously by those who gave papers (see below), the organisers of ETS who approved the proposal and all those who attended our session.

Rachel Gilson & Matthew Lee Anderson each presented thought-provoking papers building off and taking further some of the work I had done in the book. We did have another speaker slotted in to give a paper but unfortunately, he was unable to attend for (very good) personal reasons. So I stepped into the breach and presented a paper based on content from my dissertation that hadn’t made it into the book.

From left to right: Rhys Bezzant (session moderator), myself, Rachel Gilson & Matthew Lee Anderson.

As much as that session was a total (surreal) highlight for me, the thing I love most about ETS are the people I get to meet and spend time with. When I wasn’t sitting in a session listening to a paper, I was speaking with theologians in the lobby, bumping into biblical scholars in the (giant) bookstore, sharing meals with friends I only see once a year when I travel to the other side of the world, or having coffee with publishers and other very interesting individuals.

This is a small group of authors who are writing commentaries for the upcoming Hodder Bible Commentary series. The first four volumes of the series will be published in mid 2024. I’m authoring the 1 & 2 Thessalonians volume (it’s a few years away from publication yet!)

All of ETS was great, but the thing I was most incredibly surprised by, thankful for and excited about is the number of people who wanted me to know that God is graciously allowing my work and writing on singleness to bear fruit in their lives and within their church communities. I was genuinely surprised but so deeply encouraged by the number of people who approached me across the course of the conference to share how my work has been significant for them personally and was even inspiring their own work in this field.

I often joke about how I did a PhD in order to write a book. But in all honesty, it’s true. I undertook doctoral research in order to produce both a careful and faithful book on the topic of singleness… for the sake of the church. I wanted to write something that, in God’s goodness and kindness, might be an edifying resource for single Christians themselves but also for the body of Christ as a whole. My part in helping shape this broader conversation is just one small part. But I’m so, so thankful to God for allowing me to play that small part in helping his people see the gospel meaning, dignity and significance of the unmarried Christian life.