Jacob W. Torbeck
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jacobtorbeck.bsky.social
Jacob W. Torbeck
@jacobtorbeck.bsky.social
760 followers 370 following 500 posts
Professor of Theology, Religions, Philosophy, and Ethics | Mysticism & Spirituality | Attention, Memory, and the Divine Ideas
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Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
rhysticstudies.bsky.social
the greatest magic writer ever strikes again and again and again and again

www.hipstersofthecoast.com/2025/11/one-...
One Battle Damage After Another
Writing from a cold and sanitized chain hotel, Rob ponders the effect that wear (or lack thereof) has on the value of our items.
www.hipstersofthecoast.com
November 7, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
charliejane.bsky.social
I don't use AI for the same reason I don't eat tapeworms... I don't like parasites.
November 8, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
assisiproject.com
"Migration is always a double right: a right to find the conditions for a respectable existence in your own country, and a right to move away when those minimum conditions do not exist." #PopeFrancis #Hope
November 4, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
sojo.net
"But segregation still haunted the church. /
For three hundred years you were /
a saint-in-waiting, invisible as the poor /
of Peru.
(Philip C. Kolin, 2018)"
sojo.net/magazine/nov...
A Litany for St. Martin de Porres
A poem.
sojo.net
November 4, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
richraho.bsky.social
Pope Leo: “I am very pleased to welcome the official delegation of the Church of England…your presence today expresses our shared joy at the proclamation of Saint John Henry Newman as a Doctor of the Church. From Heaven, may he accompany Christians on their journey towards full union.”
November 1, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
johnwfarrell.bsky.social
Exactly.
October 31, 2025 at 8:34 PM
jacobtorbeck.bsky.social
A ghost draws near! Command?

#dragonquest
Me, in a navy blue screen printed Dragon Quest Halloween shirt.
October 31, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
rust910.bsky.social
Tolkien definitely a degrowther and definitely not reform voter so seems likely
October 31, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
bretdevereaux.bsky.social
If you need to explain to an idiot why Tolkien would have despised these goons, I have already grabbed a picture of the relevant passage (and I doubt I was the first):
An image of a passage from the Return of the King, in which Robin the Hobbit Shirriff explains that 'the Chief' (Saruman) has coopted the shirriffs and uses them to lock up or beat people who protest is tyranny - and he always wants more shirriffs, "with all these new rules."
October 29, 2025 at 10:42 PM
jacobtorbeck.bsky.social
Since it’s close to Halloween, I’ll repost some past spooky contributions to @hipstersofthecoast.com —

Here’s one that a recent TikTok by @vorthosjay.bsky.social reminded me about:

www.hipstersofthecoast.com/2020/10/reli...
Religion and Horror in the Season of the Witch
What's going on with the witches of Magic?
www.hipstersofthecoast.com
October 30, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
baconetti.bsky.social
Aca-Christmas-Horror-Colleagues

I’ve an emergency for an essay on eco-horror and Christmas involving supernatural or magical creatures, pointing to a pagan/folk horror past. Can’t involve ghosts but can be in any media.

If interested drop me a message to: baconetti@gmail.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:49 PM
jacobtorbeck.bsky.social
I’m just going to share all of these I think.
October 28, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
sojo.net
"Día de Muertos honors our loved ones and mourns the multiplicity of deaths surrounding us, from job losses, to war 'casualties,' to dead democracies."
sojo.net/articles/dia...
Día de Muertos Reminds Christians To Grieve
Western Protestant Christianity mourns fast. But God remembers those who are broken-hearted and crushed in spirit.
sojo.net
October 28, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
nicoleteburbach.bsky.social
This might be a genuinely historic moment: the first time a Pope has been deliberately, non-maliciously and publicly trolled in a piece of ecumenism. It really embodies the shift towards a more informal, personal model of papal communication that began under Francis.
dicknixon.bsky.social Richard M. Nixon @dicknixon.bsky.social · 18d
Mar Awa III, patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, also born in Chicago, gave Pope Leo a Cubs jersey.
Mar Awa III, in red cassock, smiles as he gives the jersey to Leo, who looks as though he's been given a bomb to hold
October 28, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
althistorian.bsky.social
If we try hard enough, I believe we can get the next Archbishop of Canterbury to be from Chicago.
dicknixon.bsky.social Richard M. Nixon @dicknixon.bsky.social · 18d
Mar Awa III, patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, also born in Chicago, gave Pope Leo a Cubs jersey.
Mar Awa III, in red cassock, smiles as he gives the jersey to Leo, who looks as though he's been given a bomb to hold
October 28, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
soraaad.bsky.social
Religion and Violence

IYKYK
dicknixon.bsky.social Richard M. Nixon @dicknixon.bsky.social · 18d
Mar Awa III, patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, also born in Chicago, gave Pope Leo a Cubs jersey.
Mar Awa III, in red cassock, smiles as he gives the jersey to Leo, who looks as though he's been given a bomb to hold
October 28, 2025 at 2:27 AM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
museum.of.emilyk.art
"Tzefardea Tzedek" (Frog of Righteousness)

As soon as the Portland Frog became a meme, Jewish social media blew up with jokes about the 2nd Passover plague - tzefarde'a (frogs) - and the Rabbinical commentary around it. I knew I had to make a calligraphy piece encompassing all of it. (more in alt.)
Hebrew calligraphy in dark green stretches in lines across the image. Negative space makes room for a simple representation of an inflatable frog costume with a blue bandana. That shape consists of the English translation of the Hebrew, in a lighter green, and in much smaller text. -- Famously, the Egyptian tyrant causes Egypt to be overrun with frogs because he refuses to free the Hebrew people, but there are additional details that make this a fun one to ponder. For one, the Hebrew says "the frog came up" - ONE frog - even though the rest of the time it says "frogs." So there are a few explanations rabbis have come up with to explain this. One is that a single frog multiplied to create swarms. A more creative explanation is that there was a singular giant frog who traveled and brought destruction. Jewish social media was sharing videos of the Portland Frog protester with the caption, "One Big Frog! One Big Frog!" Of course the frog protesters did multiply, and many were seen in crowds all over the world on "No Kings" Day. This calligraphic work takes the verses addressing the frog plague and combines them to form a simple rendering of the Portland Frog protester. The frog figure itself is made up of the English translations of the Hebrew around it. At the bottom left my signature is in the shape of a lily pad.
October 25, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
jackjenkins.me
Per @chicagotribune.com, the pajama-pants-guy is a former county prosecutor.

And he had some things to say. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/25/c...
A different video captured after agents unleashed tear gas showed plumes of smoke billowing down the street as the crowd's piercing shouts and whistles reached a fever pitch. Onlookers scurried to the sidewalk to get away from the chemicals, with one neighbor, Brian Kolp, seen walking away barefoot and in Chicago Blackhawks pajamas. Kolp, 41, said he was drinking coffee on his couch and watching the news as he always does on Saturday morning when he saw what's become an all-too-familiar scene unfold outside his window. Two U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents were tackling a man to the ground on his front yard. Meanwhile, Kolp's TV continued to blare a news segment discussing the ongoing temporary restraining order restricting federal immigration agents' use of tear gas. Kolp, a former prosecutor with the Cook County State's Attorney's office, sprang into action as he sometimes wondered he would have to do throughout the Trump administration's "Operation Midway Blitz" these last two months. He didn't even have time to put on his shoes or change out of his pajamas, he said, drawing jeers from one of the agents as he screamed "Nazis!" and "Gestapo!" at the agents. "Quite honestly, when all this started happening, I thought to myself that if the opportunity ever came my way to have to get involved in one of these situations, I was certainly going to do what I could to make sure that they weren't openly and flagrantly violating the law or the Constitution," Kolp said. "And yet, they just went ahead and did it anyway."
October 25, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
jonathanrheaps.bsky.social
I tell grad students worried about “originality” that, if you get good at asking your own questions, the ones that emerge from the context of your experiences, the “originality” takes care of itself.

No one else has had your experiences, no one else has your desires to understand.
catholickungfu.bsky.social Anne M. Carpenter @catholickungfu.bsky.social · 24d
Every time I cheerfully tell people that I promised a chapter on Balthasar and the human body that is NOT about gender, they get lowkey upset at me. Then I get lowkey upset at them. Why are you telling me my homework. YOU can do the other thing. I will be over here, not doing it.
October 22, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
thejenna.bsky.social
there are still TWO SPOTS open for my Folk Horror class, happening virtually this Thursday! Get 'em before they're gone!

www.newberry.org/calendar/fol...
thejenna.bsky.social Jenna Stoeber @thejenna.bsky.social · Oct 1
happy SPOOKY SEASON, folks!

I'm teaching a virtual class on FOLK HORROR (and how to better understand themes in movies), and there are 10 spots left!

You'll get access to all the required movies.
Subscribers to my patreon or twitch get a 15% discount code!
www.newberry.org/calendar/fol...
October 21, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
jamellebouie.net
the president has destroyed the east wing of the white house without so much as a word of input from anyone else to build a royal ballroom paid for with bribes
chrisgeidner.bsky.social Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 24d
NEW: After The Washington Post reported Monday on the demolition of the "East Wing facade," a new picture obtained by Law Dork that was taken on Tuesday shows that a substantial portion of the entirety of the East Wing has been demolished.
Photograph of ongoing demolition of the East Wing of the White House. Monday's photo from the Washington Post
October 21, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
thatpastor.bsky.social
On this day in 3018 of the 3rd Age, Gandalf and Elrond flooded the Anduin, drowning the horses of the Nazgûl.
The hobbits swore they saw horses of water.
Scholars today think elvish protestors in inflatable horse costumes drove off the Nazgûl.
The truth probably lies somewhere in between.
October 20, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
kthorjensen.bsky.social
we are in a self-awareness crisis
Quote post from X by "OscarAI": Never do this: Passing off someone else’s work as your own. This Grok Imagine effect with the day-to-night transition was created by me — and I’m pretty sure that person knows it. To make things worse, their copy has more impressions than my original post. Not cool 👎 Quoted post: Prashant @Prashant_1722 Oct 15 Grok Imagine trick: Add "day to night transition" to your prompt. In shots like this, you’ll see a beautiful, harmonious effect as the day turns int... (AI slop animation video)
October 19, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
matthewshadle.bsky.social
I have to say, Petro is not fooling around.
meidastouch.com MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 27d
🚨 NEWS: Colombian President Gustavo Petro accuses U.S. government officials of murder and violating Colombia’s sovereignty and says the Trump-ordered strike of a boat in the Caribbean killed a fisherman named Alejandro Carranza.
Screenshot of a post on X from Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s verified account. The post reads: “US government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters. Fisherman Alejandro Carranza had no ties to the drug trade and his daily activity was fishing. The Colombian boat was adrift and had its distress signal up due to an engine failure. We await explanations from the US government.”
October 19, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Reposted by Jacob W. Torbeck
assisiproject.com
"They don't want anyone going in there, seeing the horrible conditions inside and offering any support to these people that they are detaining." #LiveTheGospel #ShareGodsLove #RememberThePoor #PrayForAmerica www.ncronline.org/news/activis...
Activists in Chicago, barred from giving Communion to ICE detainees, plan next actions
A group of Catholics who marched to a Chicago immigration processing center and were prevented from giving Communion to detainees said they are not about to back down.
www.ncronline.org
October 14, 2025 at 12:27 PM