Season Pass 2: "What About Us?"
If you don't play video games: a season pass is a prepaid bundle. You pay once, up front, for the content that will drop over the coming months. I borrowed it as a publishing model for two reasons. It gives readers a different way to experience one core book. And it hacks my brain. A public weekly deadline is the only thing that reliably gets me to finish what I start.
Last season: God is a Grunt (Logan's version)
I was never satisfied with the book I made with Hachette. Not only did I never get substantive editorial feedback, but when I pressed their marketing lead to invest properly in the military community, he told me to calm down. I took that as civilian bias at work, and it's the moment I stopped trusting his team. From then on I just wanted to get the project over the finish line. It started badly too, make no mistake, but I played along assuming we'd at least try to make some money together. Ever since, I've wanted to make the book better and make it my own.
The God Is a Grunt pass was $13 ($20 list). It got you 13 weekly chapters plus a custom digital icon and a podcast interview with an expert on each chapter's themes, and the complete eBook when it is completed. Nobody bought one, but if someone does, that will be the incentive to give it the polish and finish.
This season: What About Us?
The next pass is built on the book I offered Hachette to satisfy a clause giving them first look at my next project: What About Us? The Earliest Christian Attitudes to Military Service. The title comes from Luke 3:14, where soldiers ask John the Baptist, "And what about us?" It's the same question soldiers are still asking the Church...
The outline is still getting settled on, but there are three parts my brain is currently sorting chapters into;
Part 1 - Civilian theologians and their anti-military hermeneutic.
Think of this as a literature review from the artillery observation post. Not every work will be covered, but here's the gist of the list;
- Cadoux, Cecil John. The Early Christian Attitude to War (Headley, 1919)
- Bainton, Roland. Christian Attitudes toward War and Peace (Abingdon, 1960)
- Kreider, Alan. It Is Not Lawful for Me to Fight: Early Christian Attitudes Toward War, Violence, and the State (translator) by Jean Michel Hornus (Herald, 1980)
- Gracie, David M. Militia Christi: The Christian Religion and the Military in the First Three Centuries (translator) by Adolf von Harnack (Fortress, 1981)
- Koontz, Theodore and Alexis-Baker, Andy. Christian Attitudes to War, Peace, and Revolution (editors) by John H. Yoder (Brazos, 2009)
- Kalantzis, George. Caesar and the Lamb: Early Christian Attitudes on War and Military Service (Wipf & Stock, 2012)
Part 2 - What the (inter)texts actually say.
Three planned chapters, I'll let the working titles speak for themselves;
- YHWH (ain't) a Man of War: Hebrew Fightin’ Words
- Rome 'n Judea: Inter-testamental Interlude
- You shall name him (Joshua): The Politics of “Jesus”
Part 3 - The GI Gospel
An expansion of chapter 5 of GruntGod, since every grunt deserves their moment in the sun.
- Rakes, not sycophants (Luke 3, 7)
- CPT Marvel (Matthew 8, Luke 7, John 4)
- Loginus of Legend (Mark 15, Matthew 27, Luke 23, John 19)
- Cornelius of Caesarea (Acts 10-11)
- Sergius Paulus (Acts 13)
- Dez, the Jailer of Philippi (Acts 16)
- Claudias Lysias of the Jerusalem Cohort (Acts 21-23)
- Julius of the Augustan Cohort (Acts 27)
- Timothy the Christian soldier (1, 2 Timothy)
- Philemon the battle buddy (Philemon)
Commander's intent
Here's the plan, BLUF style. Over the next few months, I'll be working through What About Us? in the open, one chapter at a time. I'm gonna aim for one chapter pre week, written for military families first: soldiers, veterans, and the people who love them. If you're a civilian believer who wants to know your military neighbors better, you're welcome in the formation, and you're going to be asked to leave some assumptions at the door.
I'm going to be wrong in places. This is a draft in public, and the whole book is about what happens when people claim to know what they don't. If you served, or live with someone who did, and I get something wrong, tell me. Reply to this email or comment on the post. The best corrections will make the final product better.
The intro, "(We) know not what 'We' do," is up now for all subscribers, free and paid. Read it here. Already a member? Sign in with the email you subscribed with. Not yet? A free subscription gets you in.
Fall in. First chapter's ready for you. 🫡