Hildegard’s living stones
The 12th-century polymath’s worldview exposes the limits of our supposedly enlightened one.
The philosophers vs. the mystics?
Jamie Smith’s talents are rare and his insights clear. But his rejection of either/or thinking is so stark that it creates a false binary of its own.
The social failure behind assisted suicide
Why are people in pain? Why are their illnesses incurable? Neither advocates nor opponents of PAS tend to ask these questions.
Spectator violence is a form of moral injury
Something critical has broken in the American psyche: Misanthropy has taken root.
When ableism and racism intertwine
Black autistic pastor and disability scholar Lamar Hardwick shows how ideas around race and disability can cost people their lives.
The inverse wisdom of a second-century martyr
“Perpetua was a grandstander,” says Sarah Ruden. “She saw martyrdom—and that means testimony—as a personal glorification.”
The Kirk assassination and the scandal of enemy love
The kind of love Jesus taught may not be popular. But the alternative has already shown its rotten fruit.
Things unseen (Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16)
There is much more to Hebrews 11 than a definition of faith and a litany of Bible stories.
Practicing gratitude in hard times (Psalm 107)
Sometimes celebratory texts like Psalm 107 are as difficult as the binding of Isaac.
August 3, Ordinary 18C (Colossians 3:1-11)
Putting on the clothing of the new self is a metaphor of extravagance.
A poetic search for belief
Amy Newman’s new collection is less a theodicy and more an apology, a defense of life in the face of imperfection.
Hope as an act of love
Theologian Norman Wirzba’s account of hope is compelling precisely because it is so grounded in harsh reality.
Re-enchanting reading
Craig Tichelkamp asks whether our best hope for restoring a culture of reading might lie centuries in the past.