Arts & Culture
Rockwell the activist
The US government is deploying Norman Rockwell’s paintings of idealized American life as propaganda. Those who are preserving his legacy are not happy.
I keep listening for the chorus
My partial hearing loss is teaching me about Advent waiting and finding my place in God’s song.
The heft of a pulpit Bible
As I pressed my sermon’s pages across the book’s valley, I couldn’t keep them from sliding into the groove.
Learning from people who can’t quit
Musicians never stop being musicians. I hope it’s the same for justice seekers.
Songs that call me home to Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny’s music and activism have reconnected me to roots I thought were severed beyond repair.
A day of mourning each November
I have been asked more than once to participate in civic Thanksgiving services. And more than once, I’ve declined.
Art that stretches us
I’ve been thinking about different ways visual art can challenge our perceptions and assumptions.
Shared songs with new meaning
My colleague’s Black church was taking a break from anti-racism work with White churches. So we decided to sing together.
Weeping with the prophets
Richard Rohr begs readers to journey from anger to sadness to compassionate love.
Aura et labora
In Robert Baird’s debut novel, a religion scholar’s young son starts emitting a holy glow that might or might not be real.
A musician meets Flannery O’Connor at the crossroads
“She made room for me to wrestle,” says North Carolina songwriter Colin Cutler, “room for doubt, for the idea that grace might move even when belief gets messy.”
The reverent, subversive Gilead
Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer–winning novel speaks unflinchingly of God, grace, sacred luminosity, and humility. This reads a lot differently now than it did 20 years ago.
The art of marital crisis
Splitsville and The Roses arrive at a time when the institution of marriage itself is on the rocks.