Featured Articles
This Wasn’t Supposed to Happen
I remember vividly the day my death-denying illusions were shattered—it happened when I was a senior in high school. A friend had driven home from school during the noon hour break to take medication, which he did every day. As he was turning his VW Beetle into the school parking lot on the way back, he passed out, lost control of the car, and smashed into a fire plug. His head hit the steering wheel which knocked him unconscious. He died four hours later.
Featured Articles
Wonder and World-Mending: The Relevance of Denise Levertov to Our Present Darkness
“O Taste and See” was written two decades before Levertov would explicitly identify as a Christian, yet she already intuited that focusing on this world is not in tension with focusing on the Lord. How else can we taste the Lord’s goodness if we refuse to eat when hungry, savoring as we chew? How will we see that the Lord is good if we do not attend to all that creation provides us?
Learning How to Lament From Jesus
Still, when I compare Old and New Testament lamenting, I can’t shake the sense that the coming of Jesus changed the role of lament for
The Case for “Messed Up” Stories
There was a time in my career when the father of one of my students (in a different decade and a different state) requested a
Your Leap of Change
All of us spend much of our lives constructing the protection we think we need to survive and thrive. These layers of defense work well
Fact Checking the Reformed Journal
But Jeff wasn’t asking for a dissertation-level, academic deep dive on any of these claims. He was just curious about the general consensus out there
For Those Who Fret About It
For much of my pastoral life, I’ve conversed in living rooms, at park benches, and in bars and cafés with people wondering about Christian faith,
How Reading Calvin’s Institutes Made Sense of a Glioblastoma
Calvin probably wouldn’t agree with my assessment of the evil tumor. For Calvin, the providence of God both sent the tumor and provided the surgeon,
Latest from the Blog
Daily blog by our regular bloggers & guest contributors.
How much do we have to love our neighbor?
“The whole human race, without exception, are to be embraced with one feel of charity.”
My Granddaughter and Me in a Swimming Pool
“Grandma, you know I love math and numbers. I like proofs and formulas and statistics. That does not fit with faith. It isn’t necessary and
In Defense of Trick or Treating
Kids come to us, asking us for good things. And when we give it to them, we remember how it feels to give good things
Two Creatures, in Brief Encounter
I was right on top of her, taking down the platform feeder, when I finally noticed the tiny chickadee struggling frantically. She was caught in
The Amazing Healing Power of Tomatoes (and Liturgy)
I was taking the energy that was once obsessed over my own slop of anger, burnout, and shame and instead, now putting it into my
Welcome to Gladstone, Michigan
I lived here for three winters, in a fish-camp cabin which sounds more romantic than it should. A humble tiny drafty old house near the
Oddities, Opinions, and Observations
Some used to wonder if Arminians would be in heaven. Now we have to wonder about other species!
Courage: Calvin on Church and State
If Christianity truly offers a vision of the good life, to what extent should the civil government seek to enforce that good life?
Reviews
When the Church Wounds
I started reading When the Church Harms God’s People over six months ago. Typically, it takes me two or three weeks to read a book
Rooted: Sustenance for Transformation
I often avoid driving the road that passes by the land that once was my grandpa’s orchard. The apple trees are gone now, the old
They Saw a Game: Review of The Unbiased Self by Erin Devers
When I taught Social Psychology in the spring, I began the semester with a story about a football game between Dartmouth and Princeton in 1951.
A Sustaining Vision: The Soulwork of Justice
In an era when social justice movements often burn bright and fast, leaving exhausted activists in their wake, Wes Granberg-Michaelson offers something desperately needed: a
A Crisis of Imagination: Spiritual Formation and Development
The opening words of Lanta Davis’ Becoming by Beholding: The Power of the Imagination in Spiritual Formation led me to expect a much different kind
Where Science Meets the Soul: Exploring Integrating Psychology and Faith by Moes & Riek
Moes and Riek’s motivation to write Integrating Psychology and Faith stemmed from teaching the psychology and religion capstone course for their university’s psychology major. They
Searching for the Elusive
Socrates, who famously said that the unexamined life is not worth living, never met Doyle Shields, the main character in Thomas Lynch’s novel No Prisoners.
Bearing Witness to Scars
I was 21, unmarried, and pregnant the day I sat across from my pastor, asking for help. My voice was trembling, my future uncertain. He
Poetry
Bearing Witness
ICE arrested someone on my block. Walking my dog, I saw the witness first …
Be opened
to the absence of your own voice filling your inner silence …
A Famine of Words
It says right there in Amos chapter eight: “The time is surely coming,” syas the Lord …
After Denise Levertov’s Essays
My mind stops, one foot in the air …
Awake
An olive tree, aflame in my mind, awake in the wee hours …
On Absolution
I pass the big nursery on the way to see my father for the first time in a year …
Podcasts
“Be Opened” by Deb Baker
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Deb Baker about her poem “Be Opened.” Deb lives in New
“A Famine of Words” by Steven Peterson
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviewed Steven Peterson about his poem “A Famine of Words.” Steven is
“After Denise Levertov’s Essays” by Caroline J. Simon
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviews Caroline J. Simon, PhD, about her poem “After Denise Levertov’s Essays.”
“On Absolution” by Lila Tindall
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Lila Robinett Tindall about her poem “On Absolution.” Lila is
“Grafting Apple Shoots” by Betsy Howard
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Betsy Howard about her poem “Grafting Apple Shoots.” Betsy serves
“Winterscape with Hair Gel and Citrus” by Marci Rae Johnson
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Marci Rae Johnson about her poem “Winterscape with Hair Gel and