Inside the Study: February Notes
Letters from the Desk
From the Study:
Over the past month, I have been praying and thinking carefully about whether to enable a paid tier here on Substack. I have been writing on here regularly for more than a year, and it has been one of the great joys of my life to meet so many thoughtful readers along the way.
If you have followed my work for any length of time, you will know that I try to write from an internal conviction rather than just reacting to whatever is hot at the moment. I have little interest in chasing trends or building a platform on immediacy. I want to write in a way that is attentive to our time, yes, of course, but I don’t want to be captive to it.
I admire writers like Lewis and Chesterton because they wrote with such profundity that their works have transcended their time. Now, by no means do I wish to put myself beside these great giants of the faith. However, smoking a little tobacco in my pipe is not the only way in which I aim to emulate them. I write with legacy in mind. I always ask myself: Years from now, how will I be remembered? Will I be remembered at all? Maybe, maybe not.
Longform writing has, however, trained me to be slow: slow to speak, slow to form conclusions, slow to offer opinions before they have been tested by study and prayer. That slowness is costly. It takes time to read deeply, to think carefully, and to write in a way that aims to form through being informed.
So if you have chosen to support this work, thank you. My commitment is simple: these posts will not be filler. These posts will be more personal, meaning you will get to know the person behind the prose. I will also be sharing sneak peeks at upcoming books and some more experimental posts. Until now, the rhythm has been free bi-weekly essays on theology and formation. These will remain free. The weeks when there is no free essay will be filled with paid subscriber content that will include behind-the-scenes type content on upcoming books, deeper theological work with original languages, and insight into my process as an academic and writer. These paid posts will also feature more experimental content, like breakdowns of the theology in popular novels, book reviews, and engagement with other scholars and thinkers in critical ways.
At the end of each month, I will also publish a Letters from the Desk post like this one, more personal, more conversational, that will serve as a window into what I have been reading, wrestling with, and building. These posts will be featured in the last paid post week of every month as a recap. These posts are an informative yet personal door into my life.
So, here we are.
If you are new here, allow me to introduce myself: Hi! My name is Corné Gieselbach, and I am a Christian scholar and author. I serve as a faculty member at TheosSeminary and will be a PhD candidate in October, with my work focusing on Eucharistic doctrine in monastic liturgical scholarship. This post is my first paid post like this; you can expect a free essay again next week. If you want to know what you can expect from The Altar of Moriah, you can read any other post in my archive.
