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?
Community
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.
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.
The End of the World, One Year In: Notes from (Off) Campus
Joel Heng Hartse
“There is more I want to say into those blank screens, but I feel so lost as I watch them watch me, one small, brightly animated square among the black. In this moment I hardly know who I am without them. They are the black holes, but I am the one floating untethered in space.”
Joel Heng Hartse offers a professor’s perspective on the pandemic.
Go Into Your Room, Close the Door, and Engage the World
Kristen Deede Johnson
Last Friday night, my seven-year-old son and I were on our way to say his bedtime prayers when we heard loud voices and saw police lights outside his bedroom. I looked out the window, and immediately an image was seared on my brain. An image of a person I will likely...
Dependence
Leah Libresco Sargeant
No man or woman is an island, and no one should aspire to be one, either. That, at the core, is the claim of illiberalism, post-liberalism, or any of the other names given to the movement that pushes back against individualism as an ideal. The liberalism of Locke,...
Crisis Philanthropy: Challenges and Opportunities
David Weekley, Robin Bruce
Anne Snyder: What is the mission of the David Weekley Family Foundation? David Weekley: Our mission revolves around helping the most vulnerable grow and transform into the full human being that they have the capacity to become. Robin Bruce: Yes, we are really...
The Skill of Hospitality
L.M. Sacasas
In this reflection on the thought of Ivan Illich, L.M. Sacasas writes that there can be no substitute for the work of rediscovering our common humanity in the practice of hospitality, which, insofar as it flowers into friendship, will be the starting point of politics.
Become America
Eric Liu, Michael Gerson
Michael Gerson: Eric, I really enjoyed your timely and important book. One of the most remarkable things about it is its form. I want to start off by asking: Why wrap civic engagement in the form of religion? Eric Liu: First of all, I’m so grateful we’re having this...
Solidarity Means Giving Yourself
Sister Dominic Mary Heath
“I am feeling confused right now about what I want to give my neighbor.” A letter from a friend captured the feelings of many Americans this spring. This was back when “the Head Cheetah” – the only name I’ve heard her use for President Donald Trump that could also be...