On the way to church each week I pass the Great American Neighborhood. It’s one of at least five developments in my area living under that registered trademark. The development company says it builds “places as special as the people who live in them.” It’s a fascinating notion, customizing a place to folks who are not yet there, and one so pretentious that only late capitalism could have dreamed it up. We want everything—even the cornfield to which we have not yet moved—to speak our name.
The voice of God in Malamud O Connor Updike and Morrison
Peter C. Brown’s project is urgent and personal.
Diana Butler Bass’s love letter to Jesus
Freeing Jesus is not the kind of book we expect from someone with a PhD.
The beautiful faith of Rachel Held Evans
Like all of her work, her posthumous book is warm, wise, and intimate.
Monique W Morris s advocacy for Black girls and educational equity
“When I was in the sixth grade I got into a fight at school,” begins the TED talk that Monique Morris delivered in November 2018. On its face, this statement isn’t extraordinary; lots of children get into fights during their preteen years. But Morris is Black, so the stakes of her fight were high. Black girls are seven times more likely than White girls to be suspended from school.
Elegies for Jacki
Poet Peter Cooley logs the year following his wife’s death with courage and brutal honesty.
Hartmut Rosa says we’re running faster just to stay in place
The German sociologist’s theory of “resonance” offers an alternative: deceleration.
Rubem Alves builds altars of word and song
The bold visions of the grandfather of liberation theology
Understanding the biblical Herods
Bruce Chilton moves Herod the Great and Herod Antipas from backdrop to center stage.
Dant Stewart s letter to America
Shoutin’ in the Fire is a testimony to Black liberation and love.