The world is always going to be dangerous, and people get badly banged up, but how can there be more meaning than helping one another stand up in a wind and stay warm?
The Soul Killing Problem of Bad Art, by Ashley Ariel
As artists and as theologians (for make no mistake, we are all living out some form of theology making us all theologians) we need to be less sure of being “right” and more secure in taking the risk to say, “I don’t know. Let’s explore this.”
Why I am Giving Up Prayer for Lent, by Margaret Feinberg
I’ve been thinking a lot about Lent this year and wondering how best to walk through the next seven weeks. I know people who are giving up Twitter, chocolate, and a long list of self-indulgent or addictive activities and foods. As I’ve reflected, I’ve decided to give up prayer for Lent.
What is Spiritual Formation? by Dallas Willard, PhD
We have multitudes of professing Christians who well may be ready to die, but obviously are not ready to live, and can hardly get along with themselves, much less with others.
Think Differently About Time, by Todd W. Hall, PhD
When significant events happen in you life, think about them in terms of kairos. How can you make the most of the opportunity? What can you do, learn, see, or experience with respect to this event?
Wendell Berry on Solitude and Why Pride and Despair are Two Great Enemies of Creative Work, by Maria Popova
“True solitude is found in the wild places, where one is without human obligation. One’s inner voices become audible… In consequence, one responds more clearly to other lives.” -Wendell Berry
Parker Palmer on How to Let Your Life Speak, by Maria Popova
What it takes to learn to listen to the timid wild animal that is the soul.
“Trying to live someone else’s life, or to live by an abstract norm, will invariably fail — and may even do great damage.” -Parker Palmer
Why has the Imagination been Sidelined in Literature? by Damien G. Walter
Einstein once famously proclaimed that “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” Yet we find ourselves at the position today where any non STEM subject has seen a de facto obliteration of its status and funding. That’s not a criticism of STEM subjects or their creative potential, but as Einstein was trying to tell us, those subjects are at their strongest when honed by a powerful imagination.
Jonathan Edwards in a New Light, by Pulitzer Prize Winner Marilynne Robinson
A Pulitzer prize-winning novelist writing of her intellectual debt to Jonathan Edwards in a major intellectual journal it is definitely worth a read:
“I have heard it said a thousand times that people seek out religion in order to escape complexity and uncertainty. I was moved and instructed precisely by the vast theater Edwards’s vision proposes for complexity and uncertainty…”-Marilynne Robinson
Art as a Mode of Knowing: Four Psychological Aspects, by Maria Popova
“Whoever reflects recognizes that there are empty and lonely spaces between one’s experiences.” -Jerome Bruner, On Knowing: Essays for the Left Hand
As For Me and My House (We Will Break Your Arms), by Ginger M
My initial neurotic thought was, “Is this a test to see if we really are a Christian family worthy of their house?”
The Great Scythe Hanging Over the Head of the Church, by Ashley Ariel
These doubts and desperate graspings have snowballed into a certain terrible urgency ready to sweep away an entire generation into nihilistic despair. Utterly convinced that this world, this church and this God simply cannot be moved to care.