Introduction

This, Dear Reader, is the Wayward Disciple's first foray into the blogosphere. You will find herein, should you honor me by reading this, the reflections of a Christian of poetic spirit and broad sympathy, on religion and prayer, art and culture, politics, sex and God only knows what else. I will tip my hand far enough to let you see that I am an Anglican with evangelical theological convictions (think Luther, please, not Billy Graham), catholic devotional tendencies and mystical proclivities. I am a working-class layman, a somewhat battered and rusted knight-errant of the spirit, and a lover of all things chivalrous, romantic and fantastical. While I by no means sneer at pop-culture, I do hate everything that smells of discourtesy, misogyny, prejudice or fastidious moralism. Very unmanly, all that. My heroes are William Blake, Thomas Merton, C.S. Lewis and all that crowd, Julian of Norwich, Simone Weil, Thomas Traherne, Bede Griffiths, S.T. Coleridge, Novalis, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the Pre-Raphaelites (especially Rossetti and Burne-Jones), Stanley Spencer, Samuel Palmer, George MacDonald, Ingmar Bergman, the list goes on...you get the idea. Among the living I admire Fleming Rutledge, The Black Keys, John Tavener and Clint Eastwood. I'm fond of children's stories, anime and comics, too. Tattoos are cool. Also, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the greatest TV show of all time. If any of this intrigues, please stay tuned.