Arts & Culture
Entertainment in an Easter Egg Economy
From Taylor Swift to Stranger Things, pop culture fandom now includes sleuthing—for better or worse.
What we could not see as beautiful
When I told my reading group we’d be looking at one of Brian Staveley’s dark fantasy novels alongside Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theology, they balked.
A great library of witnesses
Watching from Bethlehem, feeling helpless as the death toll rose in Gaza, I applied to go far away and do research.
Luther Seminary’s death mask
The school’s replica mold of Martin Luther’s face reminds me that I’m readying the plaster for the tradition that bears his name.
Stranger Things at the hinge point of faith
If it seems impossible that these characters are gone, maybe it’s because in some sense, they aren’t.
The heaving, howling, rolling, jumping ecstasy of Ann Lee
I know “Shaker musical” sounds like a prompt at a bad improv class. But Mona Fastvold’s new film is wild and wondrous.
Portraits of silence
My week in a convent helped me see how our freedom is contaminated by noise. Silentium is a tribute to the nuns who welcomed me.
Bearing witness in three lines
Frustrated with the limits of journalism, former war correspondent Rick Black turned to haiku.
A book that tells a story beyond its pages
Jason Mott’s wildly inventive novel depicts two Black American writers, an ocean apart. It’s up to the reader to decide how they’re related.