Andrew Moody
Andrew Moody lives and writes in Melbourne, Australia. He sometimes works as a lay theologian, sometimes as a graphic designer, and was the inaugural editor of The Gospel Coalition Australia from 2016 to 2023.* Andrew is married to Jenny and they have two grown-up children.
* You can see some more of his old TGCA posts here.
Reading Highlights from 2024
I missed the boat for TGCA’s Year-in-Books series this year (see last year’s picks here). Nevertheless, here are some of the books I enjoyed in 2024. Fiction My two favourite fiction books this year were warning-shots fired from slightly different political trajectories. In Prophet Song, Paul Lynch’s protagonist Eilish Stack—wife, mother and microbiologist—watches in eloquent horror as her native Ireland slouches toward a Pinochet-like tyranny and then civil war. As her personal loses accumulate, Lynch draws us close enough to hear Eilish’s heart break. We feel her dread and see how the ordinary (and extraordinary) concerns of her life make it impossible for her to escape the tragedy. Lynch’s writing…
In a Bleak Midsummer
As you, God born of God long ago, Son of the true Father, eternally existed without beginning in the glory of heaven, so your own creation cries with confidence to you now for their needs, that you send that bright sun to us, and come yourself to lighten those who long have lived surrounded by shadows and darkness, here in everlasting night, who, shrouded by sins, have had to endure death’s dark shadow. (“O Oriens” [“O Dayspring”], Anglo-Saxon Advent Antiphon, translated by Eleanor Parker) In the Christmas traditions of Northern Europe, Christ comes in the dead of winter when all the world is dead and frozen under a pall of…
God in the Flesh: Incarnation Reflections
Last week, I had the great privilege of participating with Mark Thompson and Charles Cleworth in EV Church’s third theology seminar on the Incarnation. We had a good discussion and the staff and visitors asked us excellent questions. I will provide a link to media from the even as it becomes available. But in the meantime, I thought it might be helpful to draw together some of the theological ideas that I tried to stress, both in my paper, and which seemed significant in conversations before and after. There is a little bit of theological terminology here. But if it seems too academic, you can just cut straight to the…
Ghost Stories and the Eye of Faith
I like a spooky story. I like (plausible) spooky stories because they disrupt the arrogant certainties of scientific materialism and fit with the ornate cosmos I see revealed in the Bible: a world of angels and demons and spiritual powers and unclean spirits (whatever they are). I like the idea that there is a hidden world that still reveals itself and confounds atheists and materialists—even when that revelation is malign. Encounters with the Other World Over the last year or so, I have been listening on and off to “Otherworld”—a curated podcast that collects first-person accounts of all kinds of weird and wonderful experiences ranging from encounters with cryptids (Bigfoot,…
Whales & Angels
Jen’s mum went to be with her Lord and Saviour a few weeks ago. It was a tough time. We made it through the funeral, and afterward, we took a week to recuperate in Merimbula. Merimbula is a coastal town just over the New South Wales border. It’s a beautiful place, one we’ve returned to many times over the years of our marriage. However, this trip was marked by several firsts: our first time post-COVID, our first trip without the kids (since 1999, at least), and our first attempt at a working holiday—with computers packed alongside our swimming gear. It was also our first visit during whale season. From September…
Review: Mania by Lionel Shriver
(Contains spoilers for Lionel Shriver’s novel Mania) Cognitive discrimination has been outlawed in the America of Lionel Shriver’s novel Mania (2024). Nobody is stupid, everyone’s brain is equal; the country is falling apart. Mania opens with Pearson Converse, the story’s protagonist, being summoned to remove her son from school after he used the “D-word” about the slogan on another child’s t-shirt. The Principal is unyielding: “Playground obscenities would be one thing. Slurs are quite another. This is a suspension level offense. Any similar violation in the future could merit expulsion.” Pearson initially complies, and teaches her children to hide what they really think. But she is unable to follow her…
On Christ’s Two Wills: Responding to William Lane Craig
A couple of weeks ago the renowned Christian apologist and philosopher, William Lane Craig caused a small flurry on the internet by declaring his rejection of the orthodox doctrine of the two wills of Christ (dyothelitism), and his preference for another Christological aberration known as Apollinarianism. I have a great deal of respect for Dr Craig and often enjoy listening to his discussions and debates. I also think it is possible to make too much of his heresy—especially since I think his pronouncements are (at least partly) the result of a misunderstanding. Yet, because I have done quite a bit of reading and thinking on the topic, I thought I…
An Easter Easter Egg
I like a good Easter egg. Not a chocolate egg—I mean a secret meaning or symbol buried in a film or game or story. I included a whole bunch of them in The Blood Miles and had a lot of fun doing it. The Bible Is Chock Full of Easter Eggs The Bible is chock full of Easter eggs too. Alongside the explicit prophecies and quotes—which are probably too obvious to count—there are moments of foreshadowing, and patterns, and double meanings that seem very Easter-eggy. Think, for example, of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac and his declaration that God would provide the lamb (Gen 22:8). Although the New Testament never spells it out, Christians…
The Storied World: Impassibility, Incarnation & Virtual Reality
In recent months, I have been thinking and writing about the significance of stories, divine impassibility and the incarnation. Here is a post to draw some of those threads together in the light of our Christmas hope. Some of this is an adaptation of a paper I gave up at EV church earlier this month. Here’s an odd truth to consider. The world we live in is virtual. I don’t mean that it is a mere illusion or a light-show, or that there is another physical reality behind it. I mean that it doesn’t have self-existence. The world is not a series of objects existing alongside God. Rather, God is…
The Blood Miles is Released!
The wait is over, The Blood Miles is now available as ebook, paperback and hardback. Head over to the landing page for purchase links, or to preview the audio version.
