Features
Imagination and hope
Olga Grushin is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, The Dream Life of Sukhanov and The Line. Both grapple with the legacy of the Soviet Union and the depths of human character. Raised in Moscow, Grushin was the first Soviet citizen to graduate from a U.S. university after the cold war. She now lives in Washington, D.C.
The Head and the Heart
Sacramental sex: Divine love and human intimacy
Hollywood Town Hall & Tomorrow the Green Grass, by the Jayhawks
Prayer as crucible
Low Country Blues, by Gregg Allman
Suffering through Lent: Illness and God’s promises
Waiting to wed: Young adults on sex and marriage
Say Goodbye, by Liz Janes
Muslims and Copts together: Egypt’s interfaith revolution
Blue Valentine
Marriage is a juicy topic for filmmakers, but few movies get made about happy ones. More common is the dissection of a once-happy union that is coming apart at the seams. The reasons for its demise usually involve such dramatic standbys as infidelity, illness or death, though a few directors with a more pronounced tragic vision have upped the ante by zeroing in on festering hatred (think John Cassavetes) or gut-wrenching psychological cruelty (a specialty of Ingmar Bergman).
Antifogmatic, by Punch Brothers
Voices
M. Craig Barnes
A delayed meeting
The Bible's exhortation to care for the neighbor isn't necessarily a
metaphor. We really do have a responsibility to the people who live near
our church.
Philip Jenkins
Mexico’s crisis of faith
Many Mexican Christians behave heroically, working for peace and meeting social needs where government has
all but abdicated power. But the drug crisis has also exposed some weaknesses in the church.
Books
Waiting for Selinsky
Olga Grushin offers her characters the dignity of their dreams. She is not impatient with their restless searching, and she does not dictate an outcome.