About

“Conversant Faith” is an exercise in reading Scripture with the church across time.

It is also something in the vein of chaos gardening, exploratory surgery, self-reflection, spelunking, creatio ex nihilo, and theological investigation.

It is my personal space to explore ideas, think creatively without the constraints of academic publishing, and share the questions, discoveries, and reflections that arise from my reading and study. Much of what I write here explores themes such as biblical interpretation, the history of doctrine, and what the Christian tradition has sometimes called sapientia experimentalis—the wisdom that comes from knowing and experiencing God.

The name “Conversant Faith” reflects what I hope this blog will be: a place where the Christian faith remains in conversation—with the biblical text, with the great voices of the church, and with the pressing questions of the present.

A few quotes guide this labor of love:

My heart overflows with a good matter; I speak what I have composed concerning the King. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. –Psalm 45:1

We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. –Acts 4:20

What you see write. –Revelation 1:11

I must confess that, personally, I have learned many things I never knew before… just by writing. –Augustine¹

The understanding of history is an uninterrupted conversation between the wisdom of yesterday and the wisdom of to-morrow. And it is a conversation always conducted honestly and with discernment… much remains which I have not yet heard and into which I have not as yet penetrated… Further co-operation is necessary. If only many, better equipped than I, would appear on the scene and set to work to bore for water at the same source! –Karl Barth²

We are not metaphysicians. Our conversation is about people… living of necessity from minute to minute a quite concrete life… It is in the actual tension and movement of human life… that our existential concepts and formulations emerge… To be sincere, our thought must share in the tension of human life, in its criss-cross lines, and in its kaleidoscopic movements. And life is never simple, nor straightforward, nor obvious. –Karl Barth³

Many of us who read the Bible… pick up some points, but we do not relate any of these points to other points… This is not an easy task. This requires you to become conversant with all the verses and crucial points. –Witness Lee⁴

These quotes express three goals:

1. To learn through writing
2. To enter an on-going conversation through writing
3. To become conversant through dialogue

Based on these concerns, I came up with the name “Conversant Faith.” When I first change my blog name to this, I wrote about the rationale for the name change here.

I am interested in reading Scripture with the church and for the church. This means retrieving the great theologians of the past in conversation with the needs of the present—neither trapped in the past nor captive to the present. Whether discussing an obscure patristic text, a translation decision in the Recovery Version, or a line from Karl Rahner or Karl Barth, my aim is always the same: to serve the church by waking us up to the strange new world of the Bible and, through its witness, to the true and living God.

My own theological perspective has been profoundly shaped by the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. One of the recurring aims of this blog is to place their insights into conversation with the broader Christian tradition. Too often their theology is treated as though it emerged in isolation. I am convinced that many of their most distinctive contributions become clearer and more compelling when read alongside the church’s historic theological heritage.

I earned a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary (2024) and am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Theology and Ethics at Baylor University. Much of my academic work has focused on deification, ecclesiology, Karl Barth, and Augustine.

Academic research has taught me the value of precision and careful argument, but this blog is not written primarily for specialists. My hope is that pastors, students, and curious readers alike will find here material that is intellectually interesting, historically informed, and spiritually illuminating. If these essays help readers appreciate more fully the riches of Christ, the Bible, and the Christian tradition, then they will have accomplished their purpose.

Thanks for reading. I hope you’ll join the conversation.

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The Old “About”

At a certain point after talking to a lot of people about the benefits of blogging, it becomes necessary to start one. I fear falling into that critical adage—’those who can’t, teach.’ Actually, I was just waiting for Starbucks to offer free wifi so that my budding blogging career could develop for free outside the confines of home internet. I’d hate to credit Time Warner for all this.

This being my first blog and considering its pro bono nature, I hereby reserve the right to not know what I’m doing, ramble at undisclosed lengths, and receive complimentary beverages at any and all coffee shops I end up blogging at.

I’m not really sure what the direction of this blog will ultimately take, but I’m profoundly interested in the Bible, I studied architecture, and I’m alive. Hence the tag line (Life and Building). I make no promises though and since you probably also have no expectations I think we’re a match.

I’m 27 and have graduated from the University of Texas (in 2005 only 22% of Americans had a Bachelor’s degree), married the girl I took to high school prom, and owned a house. I’m a morning person who inevitably stays up too late. My favorite author is Marcel Proust. I’ve managed to read half of his oceanic novel which surges with 1.5 million words and where paragraph indents are rare. Notable places I’ve visited include Tokyo, Paris, London, Rio, Sydney. I have family on 3 continents.

And now I have a blog.

1. Augustine, De Trinitate 3:127. ↩︎
2. Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, 6^th ed, trans. Edwin Hoskyns (Oxford University Press, 1968), 1. ↩︎
3. Barth, Epistle to the Romans, 424-25. ↩︎
4. Witness Lee, CWWL 1984, 2:243-44. ↩︎