Interviews
Sacred stacks
“Learning and faith are both vulnerable processes,” says librarian Sam Helmick, “because they’re both dedicated to the idea that you don’t have everything figured out.”
Intentional conflict
“Conflict is not sin,” says Priya Parker. “It’s heart; it’s relevance. People don’t fight about what they don’t care about.”
Global aid writ Lutheran
“We see hope in the small things,” says LWF World Service director Maria Immonen, “but also despair—because the solutions are right there, just out of our reach.”
Revisiting Everyday Apocalypse
“Art is integration,” says David Dark. “Empire is disintegration.”
A feast day for the whole church
“The Feast of Creation in Christ names our need to celebrate God’s saving work in creation,” says liturgical theologian Kimberly Belcher, “and to do so together.”
God’s whole body and ours
A multisensory, embodied approach to worship works well for many people with disabilities—and for everyone else, too.
From wellness to well-being
“One reason these wellness practices are popular is because they’re powerful and they remake us,” says religious ethicist Liz Bucar.
Provoked by hope
“All of my theology,“ says theologian Brandon Ambrosino, “every thought I have, proceeds from God raising the crucified Jesus.”
The Palestinian remnant in Bethlehem
“When your land is confiscated, you can’t do anything about it,” says mayor Maher Nicola Canawati. “People just leave. They lose hope.”
Showing up as clergy
“I wasn’t sure about the MDiv,” says Teresa Kim Pecinovsky, a chaplain and pastor in St. Paul, Minnesota. “But in Ferguson, I kept seeing clergy show up in support of protesters on the front lines.”
A procession against authoritarianism
“We honor people’s dignity,” says Todd Lippert, a lead organizer of the Palm Sunday Path. “That’s what we do; it’s who we are.”
Training faith leaders to work against suicide
“Suicide happens because of loss of hope and loss of social connection,” says Michelle Snyder of Soul Shop. “What if we became a church where no one loses hope and no one is alone?”
A musician meets Flannery O’Connor at the crossroads
“She made room for me to wrestle,” says North Carolina songwriter Colin Cutler, “room for doubt, for the idea that grace might move even when belief gets messy.”
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.”
Being devoted to being inspired
“We spend a lot of time identifying kids with talent and training them on technique,” says writer Carey Wallace. “But there’s virtually no rigorous thought on inspiration.”
Science is finally catching up with Teilhard de Chardin
Frank and Mary Frost, the filmmakers behind a recent PBS documentary about the Jesuit paleontologist, have long seen him as a true visionary.