love
In the Hebrew Bible, love is complex
Song-Mi Suzie Park shows that ahav is dense, powerful, political, and divine.
The great and strange John Donne
Katherine Rundell’s biography offers something new: she matches the poet’s energy with her own.
Critical race theory can help us serve others
Why would we refuse that help?
Love’s knowledge
We learn the most from those with whom we have a strong emotional bond.
An inheritance of love (John 13:31-35)
People sometimes regress to childlike behavior in stressful situations.
A new translation of “The Dark Night of the Soul” thrills with adventure
In St. John of the Cross’s poetry, the dark night is also a night of profound, even ecstatic beauty.
by Amy Frykholm
Episode 12: Pastor and activist Jacqui Lewis, author of Fierce Love
A conversation with pastor and activist Jacqui Lewis about love and pain, self-love, White nationalism, breaking boundaries, and more
Where is my love to go?
Imagine God asking that question. You’ll get an insight into God’s heart.
by Samuel Wells
Adopted and loved
One of the greatest mysteries of faith is that God loves us as is.
Sacred impulse, poetic form
For Sofia Starnes, poetry is the language of faith.
Learning what happiness is (and isn’t) from my daughter with Down syndrome
Penny embodies the kind of love that holds onto hope amid suffering, redemption amid pain, and forgiveness amid hurt.
What wondrous poems are these
James Crews's poetry is at once ecstatic, skeptical, and hopeful.
by Anya Silver
The ghosts and the not-yet-dead
Jesmyn Ward’s novel is a descent into hell on earth. I couldn't put it down.
by David Crowe
Poetry and transience
National Poetry Month is over, but there's plenty of good poetry to get us through the next 11 months.
God is. . . Black?
Love is always vulnerable and yet will never be trumped.
A novel at the edge of faith
It’s rare to encounter a female protagonist in theological fiction.
by Amy Frykholm
Hate crime
We are endlessly being misdirected in search of the crude “hate crime.” After centuries of racial oppression and violence, our society eventually became uncomfortable with the overtness of the racism of the past. Slavery is taken for granted as a horrific thing, something that couldn’t be assumed a few generations ago. For mainstream America, to be accused of being racist is to have been labeled something despicable. Few would willingly accept this charge upon themselves, defending themselves adamantly against such accusations. However, even worse than the racist label for those within the dominant culture, is for a person to be accused of a hate crime. Hate crimes have been created to isolate the most heinous of offenses that have been committed because of prejudice.
Kingdom-sized desire
We're all perpetually longing for love. Fortunate are those who realize early that another human being can't meet this unrequitable need. Even more fortunate are men and women of prayer who realize that peace comes by embracing the longing itself.