The State Of Things

In the 2000s I was an active participant in the theoblogosphere. I began Theophiliacs with a group of friends, all of whom had been in the Assemblies of God but who had experienced a crisis of faith of one kind or another. Most of us became Episcopalian priests. Some left Christianity entirely. One made a half-turn back and joined the ACNA. That period was, for me, a time of rich exploration, nourished by conversations and debates with people in and out of the Christian faith. I’ll not bother giving a narrative of theoblogging’s decline. If one were interested in what it was, they could read Adam Kotsko on What Was Theology Blogging?

After shutting down the blog I turned to Twitter. For a not insignificant amount of time I had a similar feeling of connection and exploration, but the limitations of the microblogging format are obvious in retrospect. I love connecting with others on Bluesky but for a variety of reasons I don’t use it with the same vigor I did Twitter in its prime.

In 2019, fed up with the open embrace of right wingers by the major Episcopalian magazine, my friend Caleb and I began The Hour, which was to be narrowly focused on the Anglican Socialist tradition, applied to contemporary ecclesiastical issues. This venture was just as rewarding as theoblogging, and gave me direction for my graduate work. Its last issue was in 2021. We never had the capacity or intention to keep up on news but we weren’t able even to complete the second issue before the COVID lockdown went into effect. We felt that it would have been a violation of priorities not to address it, so several pieces were about the theological ramifications of the pandemic. I’m genuinely quite proud of what Caleb and I managed to put out as editors, and what my friends contributed. Meanwhile I was in the ordination process (again). So between also being in seminary, and attempting to start a devotional society, I overextended myself. The Hour and the Society of St. Nicholas Ferrar went extinct. I did manage to finish discernment and become a priest, though I have yet to secure a full-time position in church or academy, piecing together supply work - both regular and irregular.

There were several factors that contributed to my continued inability to maintain the Hour. One was that Caleb needed to step away because life was more pressing. That was perfectly legitimate, but the zine sprang from our sympathetic minds and interests; it was difficult to sustain a vision without him. Another was the burden of formatting the zine. For inexplicable reasons our aesthetic was well-received by our readers. Inexplicable because it was cobbled together on Canva. Have you ever tried to format an 80+ page magazine in Canva? Would not recommend. Being a rank amateur, it took many hours just to make my campy prayer cards, let alone format the entire thing. But not to do so would’ve felt like abandoning the niche we had carved out. Finally, bringing together enough writers who could align with and understand our editorial vision was incredibly difficult. There is no shortage of “progressive Christian” voices, but what proved intractable was bringing a socialist analysis to the table. I’m deeply proud of the work my friends and I managed to release, but to continue to secure and edit a diverse set of writers was a barrier to my ability to keep at it. Though I hope to publish guest pieces, they will be sporadic.

I recently joined Substack. This new venture will intentionally maintain the interests of the Hour, but I will also allow myself the freedom to cover a more diverse range of topics within theology, biblical studies, music, and urbanism.

I have labored over how I wish to approach the question of the Hour’s Patreon. There are enough of you still contributing to keep the website’s lights on, so I don't really want to close it. But I have taken your support for granted. I kept saying to myself "We'll get things up and running again soon," and never committing to it. I sincerely apologize for my negligence.

Some people, for reasons of conscience, do not want to follow me on Substack. What do I do about that? The choice for me, then, is whether to close up Patreon, where there are still several active members, and restart the whole thing on Substack, or run two publication venues with potentially two separate subscriber models. I am inclined to fold everything into Substack, which has the liveliest network of writers I know of.

But before I made a final decision I thought it would be fitting to put the question to you, the chosen few. Would you prefer I keep Patreon, do both, or put everything together on Substack? As with The Hour all my written content will remain free, but to reward those who support the venture I will be doing a book reading group and an Epiphany intensive available only to paid subscribers and to members of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Solidarity in Christ,

Tony Hunt