Welcome to another installment of Weekly Wrapped.
If you are new here, this is basically like virtually grabbing a cup of coffee with me and I share with you about everything I am reading, watching and thinking about. Rather than avoiding anything stained by the world, here at Jenna’s Column, we seek to find glimpses of the good in all things.
I post every Monday and alternate between these recommendation posts and longer form pieces about Gen Z and faith. Subscribe to stay tuned!
Hi friends. I am writing to you from a beautiful Saturday afternoon here in sunny Southern California. I hope your day/morning/afternoon/evening/week/weekend or whatever time construct you find yourself in is going well.
Guys, we are almost at 1,000 subscribers for Jenna’s Column, which is absolutely INSANE. It is hard for me to wrap my brain around that number. You guys are seriously my favs and I am so grateful for the support I receive from you each week!
Quick housekeeping note: I used to do an advice column, but I put it on hold since I had a smaller audience and it dried up pretty quickly. But since there are so many new friends here, I thought I would open that back up for the summer as another bonus for my subscribers.
On this anonymous Google Form, you can submit any troubles you may find yourself in. I (an unqualified young woman) will give you my best advice! My hope is to do a monthly advice column post :_)
Paid subs, there is an upcoming Knowing and Beholding piece coming this week (yay) and last week’s devotional is up!
Thank you to my paid and unpaid subscribers for supporting my journey of becoming a:
*This post is too long for email, read the full-length piece on Desktop by clicking on the title or in the Substack app!
Writing
Articles, Substack Posts/Notes & Poems that I want to show you!
Nobody Has A Personality Anymore
If your Substack algorithm is similar to mine, you have probably been served some essays by Freya India before. She writes poignantly about Gen Z. Her pen is her knife—perhaps scalpel would be a better word— as she carefully pulls back the layers of secular culture, analyzing them to filth.
Her latest piece, “Nobody Has A Personality Anymore” dives into how our therapeutic culture has malformed any personality difference or quirk into a malady.
This is part of a deeper instinct in modern life, I think, to explain everything. Psychologically, scientifically, evolutionarily. Everything about us is caused, categorised, and can be corrected. We talk in theories, frameworks, systems, structures, drives, motivations, mechanisms. But in exchange for explanation, we lost mystery, romance, and lately, I think, ourselves.
I am somebody who deeply affirms the goodness of a lot of therapy as well as how life-changing a proper diagnosis can be. So does India. But our culture has incorporated ‘therapy speak’ into everyday language—something once only trained psychologists would use.
This has led to a lot of problems, one of them being that we are overly identifying with your quirks/traits and assigning psychological meaning to them despite not being credentialed to do so.
We have lost the sentimental ways we used to describe people. Now you are always late to things not because you are lovably forgetful, not because you are scattered and interesting and secretly loved for never arriving on time, but because of ADHD.
India says it better than I can, so read her piece here!
the gospel doesn't begin with "you deserve to die."
Kristen LaValley responds to the Jackie Hill Perry controversy that has swept the internet this week.
Meredith Miller from Kids + Faith summarizes the controversy well:
If you haven’t seen it, Jackie Hill Perry posted a clip, seemingly with some humorous intent, of herself talking to a group of children on Easter. In it, she tells the kids “You deserve to die. Because you are sinners.” and tells them this has nothing to do with candy, bunnies or treats, making them repeat “This has everything to do with Jesus.”
I don’t know who the kids are or what relationship she has to them. But I do know that she is not good at talking with kids about Easter. And while I rarely enter the fray of quick-response commentary on social media happenings, this felt important.
Her piece is also a great critique, I’ll link it here.
I found LaValley’s piece first after seeing some rumblings on Substack about Jackie Hill Perry saying something ‘weird’ and my jaw was on the floor when I heard that she told a group of kids that. It made me grieve for those kids.
It made me think about the picture of Jesus that we see in the gospels of kids gathering around him, like moths to a flame. He was a comfortable, safe person for kids. We should be the same.
Jesus modeled proximity, welcome, and blessing toward children. Scripture views them as inherently valuable, not just souls to be saved. The Gospel message for children is invitational, relational, and rooted in love, not terror or shame.
As adults, we have a responsibility to care for the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being of every child in our lives. Children do not have the processing skills to understand complex spiritual topics or abstract concepts like sin, spiritual death, justification, or even death itself. They were never meant to carry what grownups can barely hold without breaking. Placing it on them harms them psychologically, developmentally, and spiritually.
We stack theological bricks on their shoulders before their bodies are ready to carry them then wonder why they collapsed under the weight.
Reading
Books I recently read or am reading (sometimes a review) and a recommendation from my library. Let’s be friends on GoodReads!
Read
“The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self is perhaps the most significant analysis and evaluation of Western culture written by a Protestant in the past fifty years.” -Bruce Riley Ashford
Carl R. Trueman is a professor of biblical and religious studies. He’s also a wicked good writer. His masterful work, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, is a lofty summary of how we have gotten to where we are in the West.
Trueman lays out a historical and cultural roadmap for Christians, young and old, to see how morality has gone from fixed to moldable, and really how everything has become so relative. This book has helped me understand how the sexual revolution came to be and how it disrupted so much of modern life. Trueman provides a thoughtful, Orthodox, historical perspective throughout the text that enriched me greatly.
Let the record show that I started this book in February and finished it today (Saturday, July 19), so don’t expect to breeze through it. If you are more of an academic, I am sure you will read it faster than I did, but I definitely had to take it slow.
Mostly because my reading speed was cut in half due to the philosophical, academic style of Trueman. By no means is this book inaccessible, but one I would not recommend unless you are interested in actually studying in putting in work into learning the material.
My copy of the book is littered with stars, explanation marks (!!!!) drawn in the margins and I have a feeling your copy will be too, should you choose to go on the journey of reading this tome.
**Also, Trueman is a bit cynical and harsh, and sometimes that can show in his writing. He is not always the most charitable or kind when writing about certain topics, but overall, I think his book is worth reading. I just wanted to make that disclaimer if you find yourself reading it and wonder if he is a bit of a…curmudgeon.
Currently Reading
I absolutely love Kristin Hannah. If you are new here, you might not have heard me say that yet, but she is a common feature in my weekly wrapped. I feel like I am always reading or recommending her books.
This book follows a young nurse, Frankie, as she serves in the Vietnam war as a combat nurse and the aftermath of returning to a country that does not favor women, or veterans. I am about halfway through and I have been absolutely loving it. I will post a longer review once I finish it :)
Recommending
I am going to recommend The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, which I reviewed above. If you are serious about understanding our current cultural moment, it is an absolute must-read.
Appreciating
Mostly music and movies. Let’s be friends on LetterBoxd.
You guessed it, I LOVED Superman.
James Gunn directing this was such a delightful treat. I love Gunn’s playful, pop-music-infused storytelling. I conveniently also watched Guardians of the Galaxy I & II this past weekend (for the first time, mind you) so I feel like I am taking a crash course on his directorial style (!!!!!)
I have been a Superman fan for years and this rendition was by far the most fun.
That’s the best way to describe it.
I loved that it was not just another origin story or a remake. It has its own distinct storyline that you could follow whether you were a lifelong fan or if you only knew some of the cultural elements of the movie by mere osmosis.
Two really great Christian reviews of the film:
The SkyePod: Superman Nerdfest
Skye Jethani—of The Holy Post—is joined by David French and Esau McCaulley (truly a fantastic trio) to discuss the film. They got to see an advanced screening of the movie together and they each have really valuable insights and engaged with the movie from a thoughtful Christian perspective.
Superman is Only Good Because of Christian Parents
This piece makes a great case as to how Superman’s goodness is rooted in his Methodist Kansas farmer parents’ faith.
It was Ma and Pa Kent passing on Sunday school lessons about loving your neighbor, turning the other cheek, and laying down your life for the least of these that become etched into Clark Kent’s narrative identity. It was seeing how his parents were Christ-like, in whatever limited measure that they embodied the virtues of Jesus, that became the template for Superman’s heroism in his adult years.
Historian Tom Holland makes a similar point in Dominion: the values we treat as “universal”—human dignity, care for the weak, sacrificial love—are not actually universal. They’re Christian. They didn’t emerge from Rome or Greece or Babylon. They came from those who preserved and passed on “The Way.”
I also can not stop listening to this song as a result of viewing this movie two (2) times.
New HAIM album!
I have been listening to this album non-stop, and it is an absolute delight. My favorite one right now is Spinning! **If you are new here, HAIM is one of my favorite bands ever! As you can see, some of their songs are marked explicit so tread carefully!
Pondering
Stuff I can’t stop thinking about (the most random section)
I bought a copy of Devotions by Mary Oliver last week and have been pondering it quite a lot. Here is one of my favorite poems (so far) by her.
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try to
make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.
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Your friend,
The Women ... a must-read, burn the midnight oil masterpiece.