Trapped within his own private reality, the vigilante can no longer be sure whether he is acting to vindicate the corrupted order of public justice or merely to achieve some private catharsis.
Seeing Clearly & Deeply
What Is Political Authority?
Susannah Black
You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilisation from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn. John Buchan, The Power-House What is government for? What is...
Citizens Aren’t Just Born. They’re Formed
Kevin den Dulk
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,...
Be Re-enchanted
Jessica Schurz
Christmastide is a time of re-enchanting. The frankly supernatural aspects of Christianity can’t be swept too far under the rug, this time of year. The season comes laden with glimpses of the heavenly realm intersecting with earth; the light casting away the works of darkness.
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.
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.
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...
Discerning Sorrows
Anne Snyder
For a country notorious for its easy smile and sunny promises, 2020 has come with a punch or three. Among other things, it has been a year for grief: sorrow at lost life and dreams deferred, sorrow amid a troubling set of unresolved injustices. But when grief gets...