My university (yes: by press time Calvin College will be a university) recently crafted an “educational framework.” Its purpose, as I understand it, is to “operationalize” our primary mission. Three of its four categories of goals—“faith,” “learning,” and...
Sowing for Trust
Anne Snyder
We are living through times that often feel like one long commentary on Joni Mitchell’s line “you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.” From quotidian encounters on the street to public sacraments, hospitality in the flesh to basic truth-telling from our leaders,...
Politics and Political Service
Oliver O'Donovan
The fabric of common speech that binds us together is vulnerable… What recourse do we have when we face a breakdown in political discussion, when everyone speaks to themselves and nobody listens?
From Revelation to Imagination
Anne Snyder
If June to December was a time to try to make sense of truths we were seeing, truths too long veiled beneath the hum of “normal,” 2021 will be a time for mapping a way forward.
Preparing for Death: Philosophy, Meet Theology
Heather C. Ohaneson
Theology and philosophy teach us that we prepare for dying by thinking about death, but we prepare for death by living well.
Illiberal Feminism
Leah Libresco Sargeant, Jennifer Frey, Susannah Black
“Free is not your right to choose, it’s answering what’s asked of you, to give the love you’ve found until it’s gone.”
In this event, co-sponsored by Breaking Ground and Sargeant’s newsletter Other Feminisms, Sargeant is joined by Susannah Black and Jennifer Frey to discuss what the politics of dependence looks like, and how our present culture asks women to reject their own nature.
Apocalypse, and After
Susannah Black
We’re nearly at the end of a year that has felt, sometimes, like the end of the world. And that calls for reflection: what has just happened, and what comes next? Our two pieces this week attempt an answer. Joel Heng Hartse offers a month-by-month retrospective of...
Sing, Choirs of Angels
Sr. Carino Hodder
“O, little town of Bethlehem,” said my devoutly Sikh taxi driver. “How still we see thee lie. Above thy deep and . . .” (I chimed in from the back seat, providing the elusive word) – “dreamless – thank you – sleep, the silent stars go by. Yet, in thy dark streets...
Wilderness Perspective
Patrick Pierson
In August 1945, just weeks before the official end of World War II, Winston Churchill stood on the floor of Parliament and declared, “The United States stand at this moment at the summit of the world.” In the coming decades, Churchill’s pronouncement proved...
All Aboard the Generation Ship
Leah Libresco Sargeant
“We’re still in a period of waiting, but, if catacombs aren’t quite the right image, neither is hibernation—we still have important work to do.
What I keep coming back to is the image of a generation ship…”
Leah Libresco Sargeant on how to help your community thrive on long-haul interplanetary journeys.