November 1933, Hesse, Germany. The Bruderhof, a community of about 125 men, women, and children recently established on a farm in the Rhön Mountains, had just learned of a new mandate from the National Socialist government: all citizens must vote in a referendum to...
The Holy Trinity, Race, and a Time of Crisis
Ken Herfst
Our societies are in the middle of a crisis. The pandemic is asking us to think about what it means to be human living in community—not only with other people but also with the rest of creation, including animals—especially if it’s true that the virus originated from...
Pick the Right Politics
Peter Mommsen
For those afflicted, it has all the compulsiveness of a guilty habit: repeatedly scanning news headlines; experiencing mood swings based on the latest polling data; responding to scandals, epidemics, or Wall Street gyrations by first wondering how it will affect the...
Ten Theses on Digitally Mediated Worship
Micah Latimer-Dennis
In the era of Zoom church, we know how technology can help bring us together. What are its hidden dangers—and opportunities—as we find ourselves worshiping from the other side of a screen?
Race, Relationships, and Repentance
Dwan Dandridge, Chris Lambert
Bridge-building and breaking down barriers can sound innocuous enough, even praiseworthy, but what’s the underside of the embroidered tapestry? Dwan Dandridge and Chris Lambert have been doing this work in Detroit for some years now, and aren’t afraid of the mess.
To Prevent Our Falling into Greater Disasters
Phil Christman
At one point in Adrienne Kennedy’s superb short play He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box, we hear a quotation that, in another context, might seem tailor-made for the tumult of this year. Here it is: “We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us...
Diversity and the Common Good
Natasha Sistrunk Robinson
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 NLT “I don’t see colour.” I cringe every...
On Peacemaking
Robin Shaw
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Matthew 5:9) In 1994, over eight hundred thousand people were slaughtered in Rwanda. Members of the Tutsi tribe, together with those who sympathized with them, were brutally killed by members of the...
The Generosity of Art in a Troubled Time
Ilana Reimer
When the news cycle’s juggernaut of information and argument and opinion threatens to flatten us, we can turn to art to experience a slower, more humane, more complex world.
Inhabiting the Places of Promise
Michael Laffin
Discussions of Martin Luther’s writings on society, ethics, and politics in the English-speaking world tend to focus on his teaching concerning the two kingdoms, which divides authority into temporal and spiritual realms. Often overlooked is the larger theological...