Debra Rienstra

I realize we’re planning way ahead here, but if you happen to be in charge of an Easter Vigil service next spring, you should definitely order a big beeswax candle for the occasion. Why? Because in the ancient liturgical prayer…

In honor of the official beginning of summer, I shall relate some maritime history of the Great Lakes. I knew almost nothing about maritime history until last summer, when my husband and I visited the Sleeping Bear Point Coast Guard…

Good news, bad news. The good news is that tomorrow is Pentecost, so we get to sing Spirit-centric songs and think about exciting things like rushing wind, tongues of flame, and sudden outbreaks of multilingualism. The bad news is that…

In This World of Wonders: Memoir of a Life in LearningNicholas WolterstorffEerdmans, 2019318 pages When vistas open up in life, extraordinary people awaken to them. Widening vistas and intellectual awakenings characterize philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff’s new memoir, in which he recounts…

When Mount Saint Helens erupted in May of 1980, it lost 1,300 feet of elevation and gained a new mile-wide crater. The debris avalanche and ashfall from the volcanic blast devastated the mountain and its surroundings, crushing, burning, killing, and…

While I am normally happy to flop on the sofa and watch mindless TV on Friday nights, last night I pulled myself together and attended the 21st annual Paul B. Henry Lecture, sponsored by the Henry Institute for the Study…

Dear Luke, Thank you for sending me your manuscript. I’ll try to respond honestly, as you requested. Those lyrical opening chapters: fantastic. Beautifully paced, full of poetry. Along with Zechariah and Mary and Simeon, I was dazzled by angels visitant…

English has always been a hungry language: it readily devours words from other languages and from inventive word-crafters, assimilating new words into its own rich, varied vocabulary. English never seems to lose its appetite for new morsels, borrowed or fresh.…

“Does ‘image of God’ make us lazy?” I jotted this in my notebook earlier this week, between phrases like “hinge point in history” and “geophysical tipping point.” I was listening to a lecture by Kathleen Dean Moore, a moral philosopher,…

Next time you encounter a college senior, you will inevitably be tempted to ask, “So what’s your major?” and “So what are you going to do with that?” Before you utter those words, please stop. Be gentle. Think of something…