Jipp’s view is that Paul wants to offer “a robust theory of how relation to Christ is humanity’s supreme good, and is, therefore, necessary for human flourishing”, and he is right to insist on the importance of facing the inevitability of death”, as our “fundamental human predicament”, which means that in this life human flourishing is unobtainable because of the undeniable presence of sin and death (“this present evil age” — Galatians 1.4). But for Paul, of course, death is not the end; our only hope is that God has raised Jesus from the dead. Paul sees the possibility of a “transformed moral agency”, whereby we are seen to think, act, and feel in a way that is orientated towards, and therefore unified by, loving and worshipping God.

This is a very rich and powerful doctrine, in which Christ is seen as the “foundation of a new epistemology for persons-in-Christ”. Love is absolutely central here, making of us a sacred community, related to Christ and to one another, where the Church has to be a reconciling and forgiving community.

Jipp offers a very attractive vision of how “persons-in-Christ” can speak to our world. What, in your view, does it mean for any of us to flourish and live a good life in the world? I strongly recommend this book; it is not easy reading, but sheds interesting new light on the remarkable apostle Paul and his very telling use of athletic and military imagery.

Read it all (registration or subscription).

Book review: Nicholas King looks at being in Christ in St Paul's theologyhttps://t.co/baVGtgLjKc pic.twitter.com/ICUNsKhtA0

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 21, 2025

Rising political tensions in South Sudan threaten to drag the country into a new civil war, but even if rival factions can safeguard a 2018 peace deal, more fighting is set to occur in the northeastern Upper Nile state, which will likely draw in growing involvement from Sudan’s warring parties. On March 18, the party of South Sudan’s First Vice President Riek Machar, SPLM-IO, announced it was halting its participation in key provisions of a 2018 peace deal, including joint security and ceasefire monitoring committees, until authorities released allies of Machar who are currently being detained. The announcement comes amid rapidly surging tensions between Machar and South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, who in early March ordered the arrest of pro-Machar figures after the White Army, a militia drawing support from Machar’s Nuer ethnic group, captured the town of Nasir in Upper Nile state on March 4….

Read it all.

🇸🇸 Rising tensions and violence in South Sudan's Upper Nile State risk reigniting civil war, threatening the fragile 2018 peace deal.https://t.co/BfMf97HiCx

💻 Jan Pospisil, @covcampus#Politics

— The Conversation Africa (@TC_Africa) March 21, 2025

Buried in China’s latest government budget were some numbers that add up to an alarming trend. Tax revenue is dropping.

The decline means that China’s national government has less money to address the country’s serious economic challenges, including a housing market crash and the near bankruptcy of hundreds of local governments.

Weak tax revenue also puts China’s leaders in a box as they square off with President Trump, who has imposed 20 percent tariffs on goods from China and threatened more to come. Beijing has less spare cash to help the export industries that are driving economic growth but could be hurt by tariffs.

The drop in tax collections leaves China’s leaders in an unfamiliar position. Until the last several years, China enjoyed robust revenue, which it used to invest in infrastructure, a rapid military buildup and extensive industrial subsidies. Even as economic growth has slowed gradually over the past 12 years, taking a dent out of consumer spending, tax revenue held fairly steady until recently.

Read it all.

China’s Government Is Short of Money as Its Leaders Face Trump https://t.co/ElmQsX47Dt

— Michael Standaert (@mstandaert) March 21, 2025

Since….[2023], stories like the ones we found in Levittown have become far more widespread. With federal law remaining largely silent on the legality of creating nonconsensual deepfake pornographic images, state prosecutors have scrambled to find charges that fit a new kind of harassment.

AI-based deepfaking services are hitting a peak. Traffic to the 10 most popular “nudifying” apps soared by more than 600% year over year, from 3 million views in April 2023 to 23 million in April 2024, according to figures provided to Bloomberg by a research company that asked not to be identified in connection with its data on online pornography. In January this year alone, the websites received 18 million views, the research shows.

With a stamp of approval from first lady Melania Trump, lawmakers this year are expected to pass a bill criminalizing the posting of nonconsensual pornographic deepfakes on the internet. It will penalize the posters with prison time and the platforms with fines if they don’t remove the fake pictures quickly enough.

The proposed Take It Down Act, which passed in the Senate in the last Congress with bipartisan support, wouldn’t outlaw the apps themselves. So San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu last year tried to tackle the root cause. He brought a first-of-its-kind lawsuit charging the deepfake app creators, arguing they broke federal and state revenge and child pornography rules and broke California’s competition law. The apps named in the lawsuit have either closed or appear to be operating under different names. Some have geofenced their services so they can’t be accessed in the state. Out of 16 apps named, representatives of only one of them have responded to Chiu’s complaint.

Read it all (and consider listening to the accompanying podcast).

A new podcast tries to understand exactly who was behind a global clearinghouse of nonconsensual deepfake pornography https://t.co/ERCR6WvrLm

— Bloomberg Markets (@markets) March 21, 2025

Almighty God, who didst give to thy servant Thomas Ken grace and courage to bear witness to the truth before rulers and kings: Give us also thy strength that, following his example, we may constantly defend what is right, boldly reprove what is evil, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and ever.

#OTD 19 March 1711: death of Thomas Ken, non-juring bishop and hymn-writer. pic.twitter.com/jVKCoTpsyw

— Caroline Murray (@Prof_hedgehog) March 19, 2025

Eternal God, who has made all things for man, and man for thy glory: Sanctify our bodies and souls, our thoughts and our intentions, our words and actions.  Let our body be a servant of our mind, and both body and spirit servants of Jesus Christ; that doing all things for thy glory here, we may be partakers of thy glory hereafter; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Grand Rising…#FridayFeeling #spring #weather #sunrise #GoodVibesOnly #StormHour #jefinuist #outerhebrides #Scotland pic.twitter.com/1wXR3XpNnF

— DaliMach (@frenchscotjeff) March 21, 2025

Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
    look and take note!
Search her squares to see
    if you can find a man,
one who does justice
    and seeks truth;
that I may pardon her.
Though they say, “As the Lord lives,”
    yet they swear falsely.
O Lord, do not thy eyes look for truth?
Thou hast smitten them,
    but they felt no anguish;
thou hast consumed them,
    but they refused to take correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
    they have refused to repent.

Then I said, “These are only the poor,
    they have no sense;
for they do not know the way of the Lord,
    the law of their God.
I will go to the great,
    and will speak to them;
for they know the way of the Lord,
    the law of their God.”
But they all alike had broken the yoke,
    they had burst the bonds.

Therefore a lion from the forest shall slay them,
    a wolf from the desert shall destroy them.
A leopard is watching against their cities,
    every one who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces;
because their transgressions are many,
    their apostasies are great.

“How can I pardon you?
    Your children have forsaken me,
    and have sworn by those who are no gods.
When I fed them to the full,
    they committed adultery
    and trooped to the houses of harlots.
They were well-fed lusty stallions,
    each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.
Shall I not punish them for these things?
                says the Lord;
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?

–Jeremiah 5:1-9

Red sky in the morning…Friday dawns spectacularly over the Leg of Mutton Pond in #BushyPark 21.03.25 @theroyalparks @TWmagazines @Visit_Richmond1 @TLTeddington @Teddington_Town @Visit_Richmond1 @SallyWeather @itvweather @RSPB_Richmond @SurreysWildlife pic.twitter.com/k2i1E3BjSF

— Sue Lindenberg (@patlinberg) March 21, 2025