Drew Kadel
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drewkadel.bsky.social
Drew Kadel
@drewkadel.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1K following 7.6K posts
Long-time Episcopal Priest and Long-time academic librarian.

Author of How do you Baptize a Whale? An Encouragement to Compassion https://wipfandstock.com/9798385256204/how-do-you-baptize-a-whale/
Blog: https://drewkadel.wordpress.com/
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drewkadel.bsky.social
That's the elevator pitch for my book. The other hundred pages or so are addressing the various delusions that humans use to try to game that for their own personal advantage.
wipfandstock.com/979838525620...
Cover of book: How do you Baptize a Whale? An Encouragement to Compassion. by Andrew Kadel Foreword by Rebecca Lyman. The top of the cover is a photograph of two whales underwater with light coming in from above.
November 9, 2025 at 7:33 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
Here's a better shot of the cover:
Book cover: How do you Baptize a Whale? An Encouragement to Compassion by Andrew Kadel foreword by Rebecca Lyman. Photograph at top is of two whales underwater with light coming from above.
November 8, 2025 at 3:11 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
wipfandstock.com/979838525620...
Cover of Book with a photograph of two whales underwater with light coming from the surface. Title: How do you Baptize a Whale? An Encouragement to Compassion Author: Andrew Kadel Foreword by Rebecca Lyman
November 6, 2025 at 10:08 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
To illustrate, Cuomo wins the brown areas of Manhattan including the Upper East Side, which are the wealthiest parts while Mamdani wins the rest.
New York Times map of mayoral election results, showing Cuomo (Brown) winning the Upper East Side and Battery Park City while Mamdani wins the rest of Manhattan.
November 6, 2025 at 12:55 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
This is the back cover with a transcription in the alt-text. ⚓

As I get the link to the book, I'll post it with further information how to buy it. (Wipf and Stock currently has a big sale!)
wipfandstock.com
How Do You Baptize a Whale? raises the question of why humans believe they rule the universe-especially, when they, share planet Earth with amazing creatures like whales and elephants. Episcopal priest Drew Kadel’s argument is that it’s not tools or technology that make humans great; it’s their ability to show compassion toward fellow humans, and indeed all of God’s creation. He also explores how religion has been misused to justify power, colonialism and racism and invites readers to rethink what it really means to live faithfully and ethically. "Situatmg humankind within a vast universe as we shed our arrogance in discovering, for example, that functional objects are used by monkeys, dolphins, crows, humpback whales, and even bees, Drew Kadel urges us on—through experiences, reflections and listening—into a more compassionate and joyful life in which we ponder what might it mean to baptize a whale.” -DEIRDRE GOOD, Emerita Professor of New Testament Studies, General Theologica! Seminary "The Silicon Valley-led assault on the specialness of being human-embodied in technologies that bid to replace human workers while offering only an insulting facsimile of human speech—is tempting many of us toward an embrace of old-fashioned human exceptionalism. Andrew Kadel's winsome and theologically informed treatise reminds us why we can't solve our cultural problems by retreating into our usual Master of Creation pose. This man’s project is to love both God and dogs, and to help the rest of us to better do the same.” -PHILIP CHRISTMAN, Lecturer, University of Michigan DREW KADEL is an Episcopal priest and Professor Emeritus of the General Theological Seminary, where he was director of the library. For the past decade he's preached at churches in the Bronx and elsewhere. His sermons can be found at drewkadel.wordpress.com. His previous book, Matrology: A Bibliography of Writings by Christian Women from the First to the Fifteenth Centuries, was published in 1995.
November 5, 2025 at 1:38 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
Yesterday was a great day! At 6 pm attended a great concert of my friend David Hurd's music for organ & choir at Trinity Church Wall Street. Then dinner at the Lower Manhattan DSA watch party for the election of the next mayor. Then came home to notification of the official publication of my book!
Cover of book: How do you Baptize a Whale? An Encouragement to Compassion, by Andrew Kadel, foreword by Rebecca Lyman
November 5, 2025 at 1:25 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
One chapter of my book describes growing up as descendant of settlers of the West and Dust Bowl refugees. I don't know how much more it takes for an urban liberal to understand rural Ameica.
How Do You Baptize a Whale? raises the question of why humans believe they rule the universe-especially, when they, share planet Earth with amazing creatures like whales and elephants. Episcopal priest Drew Kadel’s argument is that it’s not tools or technology that make humans great; it’s their ability to show compassion toward fellow humans, and indeed all of God’s creation. He also explores how religion has been misused to justify power, colonialism and racism and invites readers to rethink what it really means to live faithfully and ethically. "S1tuatmg humankind within a vast universe as we shed our arrogance in discovering, for example, that functional objects are used by monkeys, dolphins, crows, humpback whales, and even bees, Drew Kadel urges us on—through experiences, reflections and listening—into a more compassionate and joyful life in which we ponder what might it mean to baptize a whale.” -DEIRDRE GOOD, Emerita Professor of New Testament Studies, General Theologica! Seminary "The Silicon Valley-led assault on the specialness of being human-embodied in technologies that bid to replace human workers while offering only: an insulting facsimile of human speech—is tempting many of us toward an embrace of old-fashioned human exceptionalism. Andrew Kadel's winsome and theologically informed treatise reminds us why we can't solve our cultural problems by retreating into our usual Master of Creation pose. This man’s project is to love both God and dogs, and to help the rest of us to better do the same.” -PHILIP CHRISTMAN, Lecturer, University of Michigan DREW KADEL is an Episcopal priest and Professor Emeritus of the General Theological Seminary, where he was director of the library. For the past decade he's preached at churches in the Bronx and elsewhere. His sermons can be found at drewkadel.wordpress.com. His previous book, Matrology: A Bibliography of Writings by Christian Women from the First to the Fifteenth Centuries, was published in 1995.
November 1, 2025 at 3:48 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
BTW, in case you haven't seen it, here's the cover of my book which should be published this week and which you can then buy for half price this month on the Wipf and Stock website.
How Do You Baptize a Whale? raises the question of why humans believe they rule the universe-especially, when they, share planet Earth with amazing creatures like whales and elephants. Episcopal priest Drew Kadel’s argument is that it’s not tools or technology that make humans great; it’s their ability to show compassion toward fellow humans, and indeed all of God’s creation. He also explores how religion has been misused to justify power, colonialism and racism and invites readers to rethink what it really means to live faithfully and ethically. "S1tuatmg humankind within a vast universe as we shed our arrogance in discovering, for example, that functional objects are used by monkeys, dolphins, crows, humpback whales, and even bees, Drew Kadel urges us on—through experiences, reflections and listening—into a more compassionate and joyful life in which we ponder what might it mean to baptize a whale.” -DEIRDRE GOOD, Emerita Professor of New Testament Studies, General Theologica! Seminary "The Silicon Valley-led assault on the specialness of being human-embodied in technologies that bid to replace human workers while offering only: an insulting facsimile of human speech—is tempting many of us toward an embrace of old-fashioned human exceptionalism. Andrew Kadel's winsome and theologically informed treatise reminds us why we can't solve our cultural problems by retreating into our usual Master of Creation pose. This man’s project is to love both God and dogs, and to help the rest of us to better do the same.” -PHILIP CHRISTMAN, Lecturer, University of Michigan DREW KADEL is an Episcopal priest and Professor Emeritus of the General Theological Seminary, where he was director of the library. For the past decade he's preached at churches in the Bronx and elsewhere. His sermons can be found at drewkadel.wordpress.com. His previous book, Matrology: A Bibliography of Writings by Christian Women from the First to the Fifteenth Centuries, was published in 1995.
November 1, 2025 at 3:10 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
I'm really pleased with the cover that Shannon Carter from Wipf and Stock designed.
Book Cover for How do you Baptize a Whale? An Encouragement to Compassion by Andrew Kadel; foreword by Rebecca Lyman. Text from back cover: How Do You Baptize a Whale? raises the question of why humans believe they rule the universe-especially, when they, share planet Earth with amazing creatures like whales and elephants. Episcopal priest Drew Kadel’s argument is that it’s not tools or technology that make humans great; it’s their ability to show compassion toward fellow humans, and indeed all of God’s creation. He also explores how religion has been misused to justify power, colonialism and racism and invites readers to rethink what it really means to live faithfully and ethically. "S1tuatmg humankind within a vast universe as we shed our arrogance in discovering, for example, that functional objects are used by monkeys, dolphins, crows, humpback whales, and even bees, Drew Kadel urges us on—through experiences, reflections and listening—into a more compassionate and joyful life in which we ponder what might it mean to baptize a whale.” -DEIRDRE GOOD, Emerita Professor of New Testament Studies, General Theologica! Seminary "The Silicon Valley-led assault on the specialness of being human-embodied in technologies that bid to replace human workers while offering only: an insulting facsimile of human speech—is tempting many of us toward an embrace of old-fashioned human exceptionalism. Andrew Kadel's winsome and theologically informed treatise reminds us why we can't solve our cultural problems by retreating into our usual Master of Creation pose. This man’s project is to love both God and dogs, and to help the rest of us to better do the same.” -PHILIP CHRISTMAN, Lecturer, University of Michigan DREW KADEL is an Episcopal priest and Professor Emeritus of the General Theological Seminary, where he was director of the library. For the past decade he's preached at churches in the Bronx and elsewhere. His sermons can be found at drewkadel.wordpress.com.
October 31, 2025 at 11:00 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
Wipf and Stock informs me that my book should be published and available in a few days! ⚓
(This is the back cover which has blurbs from @philipchristman.bsky.social and @djgood.bsky.social, the front cover is in the post above)
Back cover of *How do you Baptize a Whale? an Encouragement to Compassion* How Do You Baptize a Whale? raises the question of why humans believe they rule the universe-especially, when they, share planet Earth with amazing creatures like whales and elephants. Episcopal priest Drew Kadel’s argument is that it’s not tools or technology that make humans great; it’s their ability to show compassion toward fellow humans, and indeed all of God’s creation. He also explores how religion has been misused to justify power, colonialism and racism and invites readers to rethink what it really means to live faithfully and ethically. "S1tuatmg humankind within a vast universe as we shed our arrogance in discovering, for example, that functional objects are used by monkeys, dolphins, crows, humpback whales, and even bees, Drew Kadel urges us on—through experiences, reflections and listening—into a more compassionate and joyful life in which we ponder what might it mean to baptize a whale.” -DEIRDRE GOOD, Emerita Professor of New Testament Studies, General Theologica! Seminary "The Silicon Valley-led assault on the specialness of being human-embodied in technologies that bid to replace human workers while offering only: an insulting facsimile of human speech—is tempting many of us toward an embrace of old-fashioned human exceptionalism. Andrew Kadel's winsome and theologically informed treatise reminds us why we can't solve our cultural problems by retreating into our usual Master of Creation pose. This man’s project is to love both God and dogs, and to help the rest of us to better do the same.” -PHILIP CHRISTMAN, Lecturer, University of Michigan DREW KADEL is an Episcoal priest and Professor Emeritus of the General Theological Seminary, where he was director of the library. For the past decade he's preached at churches in the Bronx and elsewhere. His sermons can be found at drewkadel.wordpress.com.
October 29, 2025 at 5:18 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
The cover for my new book just arrived!
Image of a book cover: Photograph of two whales above the title: How do you Baptize a Whale? An Encouragement to Compassion. Drew Kadel foreword by Rebecca Lyman.
October 29, 2025 at 2:25 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
Perhaps not so dramatic, but our Bulldog, Louie, played with ALL the toys and chewed them up, so we bought a milk crate to store them in. Upon seeing it, Louie decided it was the BEST TOY EVER and swung it around and chewed it up.
Large red and white English Bulldog with his chin on the sidewalk and his back legs pushing forward with a taut leash over his back.
October 22, 2025 at 12:21 AM
drewkadel.bsky.social
A bit of description of my mom from my forthcoming book:
My mother, Bernice, or Berni as she was known all her life, saw nothing romantic about the grind of work on the farm and left for college as soon as she graduated from high school at fifteen.5 She had a Welsh pony, but she wasn’t interested in the outdoors or horses. Instead, she would wrap the reins around the saddle horn and let the pony walk to the school on its own while she read her books.
October 13, 2025 at 11:34 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
Oddly, the English word "priest" derives from the Greek "presbyteros"=elder NOT the Greek "hierus"=priest in the sense of consecrated officer of a sacred and/or sacrificial cultus.
From the preface of my forthcoming book:
I have been a priest for a very long time, by far the majority of my life. In the Christian church, the word “priest” is used interchangeably with the word “presbyter.” That word presbyter means old. For a twenty-seven-year-old, that was a somewhat puzzling and, frankly, difficult burden to bear, but now that I’ve passed the mark of “three score and ten,” it’s just who I am.
October 10, 2025 at 3:40 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
I like this collect from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, not exactly what you're looking for:
ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, who declarest thy glory and showest forth thy handiwork in the heavens and in the earth; Deliver us, we beseech thee, in our several callings, from the service of mammon, that we may do the work which thou givest us to do, in truth, in beauty, and in righteousness, with singleness of heart as thy servants, and to the benefit of our fellow men; for the sake of him who came among us as one that serveth, thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 1928 Book of Common Prayer, p. 44
August 29, 2025 at 1:33 AM
drewkadel.bsky.social
This extract from the manuscript for my book is about them:
Toward the end of the blessings, I particularly remember one boy, about eight-years-old, who asked for prayers for his grandfather who’d recently had a heart attack. He was very serious and clearly worried. I asked his grandfather’s name, “Boswell Joseph Barrett.” I prayed and anointed him. It was only much later, after I had gotten to know Joe Barrett well, that I learned that the only person who used that name Boswell, was this grandson, who was also named Joseph. (Jo-Jo, as he was called, regarded himself, and not his grandfather, to have the exclusive rights to Joseph as his first name.) A retired attorney and police detective, Joe Barrett took great pleasure in being able to help others, especially organizing activities for neighborhood kids, or giving legal advice to people who couldn’t afford a lawyer. He told me that he met his wife because he was on sentry duty near the end of the Korean war and almost shot an “infiltrator” who turned out to be a starving kid rummaging through the camp’s garbage. He decided to take the kid to a nearby orphanage, which is where he met Chang, who worked there. Ultimately, he served time in the brig for marrying a Korean national which was against Army policy. Nearly 70 years later, he still glowed when he talked about her.
August 28, 2025 at 9:33 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
Many of us wouldn't miss capitalism that much, but the chaos that this implies would be pretty grim for quite a while.
www.cnbc.com/2025/08/08/c...?
In a LinkedIn post published in late March, Thallinger made the case for rapid decarbonization, pointing out that entire asset classes were “degrading in real time” as extreme weather events take their toll. Perhaps most strikingly of all, he warned the worsening climate crisis appears to be on track to destroy capitalism.
August 9, 2025 at 2:02 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
Here's the thing. LLMs aren't about answering questions accurately, they're about making plausible looking responses to questions. My daughter's observation describes this admirably:
(apologies, only abbreviated alt-text)
When you enter a text into it, you're asking "What would a response to this sound like?" If you put in a scientific quesiton, and it comes back with a response citing a non-existent paper with a plausible title, using a real journal name and an author name who's written things related to your question, it's not being tricky or telling lies or doing anything at all surprising! This is what a response to that question would sound like! It did the thing!
August 9, 2025 at 2:46 AM
drewkadel.bsky.social
Well, well, well. It looks like Andy Cuomo is Trump's guy against the brown Muslim. (gift link to article)
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/n...
And in a previously undisclosed call in recent weeks, Mr. Trump spoke about the race directly with Mr. Cuomo, an old associate and foil, according to three people briefed on the call, who were not authorized to discuss it.
August 6, 2025 at 8:47 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
A screenshot from the beginning of the preface of my forthcoming book:
Preface I have been a priest for a very long time; by far the majority of my life. In the Christian church, the word “priest” is used interchangeably with the word “presbyter.” That word presbyter means OLD. For a twenty-seven-year-old, that was a somewhat puzzling, and, frankly, difficult burden to bear, but now that I’ve passed the mark of three score and ten, it’s just who I am. At my ordination, as in the ordination of all priests in the Episcopal Church, the bishop read a text explaining the obligations of a presbyter, so I knew what I was signing on for. In short, together with the bishop and fellow presbyters, I was undertaking to: Proclaim by word and deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ; be a Pastor, a priest, a teacher; and to take my share in the councils of the church. Sometimes I think certain church authorities would rather that I didn’t understand that last part as an obligation to call problems with our church to their attention. But, again, that’s who I am, and I have been living with that burden for a very long time. This is a book written from the perspective of an old priest reflecting on and teaching
July 16, 2025 at 9:50 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
How do you Baptize a Whale?
Second half of book Description. ⚓
How do you Baptize a Whale is a reflective theology, designed to be read by general readers. It critically examines historical perspectives, particularly focusing on the legacy of colonialism, racism, and the misuse of religious ideology to justify power. The author tells this story through biblical interpretation, social criticism, and personal stories. Reflecting the influence of William Stringfellow, readers are challenged to reconsider their perspectives on faith, ethics, and their responsibility to all life on Earth.
June 19, 2025 at 9:04 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
How do you Baptize a Whale?
First half of book description.
In How do you Baptize a Whale, Drew Kadel, an Episcopal priest, tries to understand how humans, with their manifest limitations, imagine themselves as lording over the universe, which includes creatures as awe-inspiring as whales and elephants. He argues that it’s human’s tool-making propensity that have led them toward arrogance, sin, and seeking dominance over the world, mistaking tool-making for the image of God, the source of life and the universe. It is compassion, and not our technological abilities, that is the image in which we are created.  
June 19, 2025 at 9:02 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
Final paragraph of "On living humanly in the midst of death" from William Stringfellow *An ethic for Christians and other strangers in a strange land*
The answer to such questions is, I believe, that the act of resistance to the power of death incarnate in Nazism was the only means of retaining sanity and conscience. In the circumstances of the Nazi tyranny, resistance became the only human way to live. To exist, under Nazism, in silence, conformity, fear, acquiescence, obeisance, collaboration—to covet “safety” or “security” on conditions prescribed by the State—caused moral insanity, meant suicide, was fatally dehumanizing, constituted a form of death. Resistance was the only stance worthy of a human being, as much in responsibility to oneself as to all other humans, as the famous Commandment mentions. And if that posture involved grave and constant peril of persecution, imprisonment, or execution, at least one would have lived humanly while taking these risks. Not to resist on the other hand involved the certitude of death—of moral death, of the death to one’s humanity, of death to sanity and conscience, of the death which possesses humans profoundly ungrateful for their own lives and for the lives of others.
January 29, 2025 at 3:12 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
Next paragraph from Bill Stringfellow "On living humanly in the midst of death"
Hindsight, of course, has romanticized the Resistance to the Nazi occupations to a glorious episode. The testimonies I heard from some of those who survived are contrary; they were engaged in exceedingly hard and hapless and apparently hopeless tasks. Why would human beings take such risks? It is not, I think because they were heroes or because they besought martyrdom; they were, at the outset, like the Apostles, quite ordinary men and women of various and usual stations and occupations in life. How is their tenacity explained? It is not just because of faith. Some were—all that I have known are—Christians, but many of their peers were not. Perhaps more tellingly, most professed Christians, as well as the established churches, did not resist Nazism in ways which truly endangered them. Most significantly, perchance, some only became Christians out of their involvement in the Resistance. Why did these human beings have such uncommon hope?
January 29, 2025 at 3:10 PM
drewkadel.bsky.social
Continuing that passage from Bill Stringfellow (he's not easy to excerpt)
been defeated and seized. Realistically speaking, those who resisted Nazism did so in an atmosphere in which hope, in its ordinary connotations, had been annihilated. To calculate their actions—abetting escapes, circulating mimeographed news, hiding fugitives, obtaining money or needed documents, engaging in various forms of noncooperation with the occupying authorities or the quisling bureaucrats, wearing armbands, disrupting official communications—in terms of odds against the Nazi efficiency and power and violence and vindictiveness would seem to render their witness ridiculous. The risks for them of persecution, arrest, torture, confinement, death were so disproportionate to any concrete results that could practically be expected that most human beings would have despaired—and, one recalls, most did. Yet these persons persevered in their audacious, extemporaneous, fragile, puny foolish Resistance.
January 29, 2025 at 3:07 PM