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.
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.
Introducing The Blood Miles
‘The Blood Miles’ is about how it feels to live in a world that is at war with its true Ruler. It is about pressing on when progress seems slow, when failures abound, and when help seems so far away.
Spooky Stories and the Lord of Halloween
I like a spooky story. Maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe it’s unhealthy. Maybe I should be more reformed and less medieval—more Zwingli and less Luther, as Carl Trueman would put it. I know there are definite dangers in thinking too much about spooky things—of drifting into a superstitious mindset where intermediate powers control the ups and downs of life. I know that I am not immune to that temptation, and I know the antidote (see more here). I like the idea that there is a hidden world that still reveals itself. I’m also unsure of how many of the stories one hears are genuine. I have had a few strange things…
Narnia Must Die – Tough Questions for Christian Writers
A few weeks ago, I shared some of my thoughts about the possibilities of Christian fiction: whether it should exist; what it might achieve. I ended on a fairly upbeat note. Stories might refresh our jaded palettes to see what’s true; stories might take us by surprise and sneak past our prejudices and certainties. But there is one important problem that I passed over. The more stories succeed, the greater the danger that we might mistake them for the realities to which they point. We might want to live in made-up worlds rather than turn our eyes to heaven. We might want to keep reading romance rather than live a…
Considering Barbie (and Marriage and Singleness)
Being human can be very uncomfortable … People make up things like the patriarchy and Barbie to endure how uncomfortable it is. Jen and I saw Barbie over the weekend. We both liked it; were both surprised by it. I thought it was funny and smart and multi-layered to a degree that I still haven’t fathomed. The film’s reframing of sexual politics as an existential problem allows it to address deeper human questions that apply to both men and women. I also found it surprisingly compassionate. It managed to proclaim the let’s-take-down-the-patriarchy part of its message without anger and without, as Jen put it, being preachy. Barbie’s final rejection of…
