Featured Articles
Resolute: Nadia, Protests, and Sovereignty Reconsidered
When sovereignty is used in church, it is typically code for a God who is distant, enigmatic, and unaccountable.
Featured Articles
Play: From Usefulness to Belovedness
To bear God’s image is not a description of capacity. It is a description of relationship. Human beings are made to reflect God’s character, to live before God’s face, to be addressed by God’s word. That calling does include action, but it does not depend on a neat list of achievements.
How Reading Matthew—And a Professor’s Smirk—Changed My Life
I spent a full semester during my doctoral program in a supervised study of the book of Matthew, and I can confirm from my experience
1948: The Christmas I Grew Into a Man
That conversation transformed my muddle into stark clarity. Belief was the key, and I was a believer. The next day, I sought out Dov Wartofsky
Our Attention Is All We Have
If industrial fracking sends pressurized liquid underground to loosen and harvest fossil fuels, “attentional fracking” does the same thing to our minds. Every algorithm trying
Todo Es Sanctus: Every Moment Holy
Total dependence on others for my daily care stripped away ego and any sense of agency. I was immobile, unable to have a shower or
Brooding Upon the Waters
The God of Grampa’s living room was dour—though, to be fair, the light that poured in through the picture window—that illuminated the whole scene—had a
“Candide” and the Car Wash
I suppose many attitudes surround people’s work. I can truly say that I enjoyed almost all the jobs I had. Even “humping” freight on the
Latest from the Blog
Daily blog by our regular bloggers & guest contributors.
Writing Lists to Find New Life
Judgments, I have discovered, are usually my own. Other people are usually kinder than my brain.
Stacking It Up
Last week on the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing’s blog, I reflected a bit on the onslaught of end of the year “best-of” book
Seeing it through no matter what
How do I hope for the best when, every day in the United States, the worst keeps happening? How do I look for softness and
Joyful, Groovy, Visionary, Fearless: A Few Words on Mavis Staples
“There are some people who just make me glad to be alive at the same time as them,” my wife, Hannah, said recently. “Mavis is
Checking the box or a through line in life?
I remember the reluctance to put Sunday clothes back on after a restful afternoon. I remember the promise of ice cream after the service. I
Reimagining Your Identity : Jen Hatmaker’s Awake
Any woman with the gift of teaching and preaching, a grasp of the Bible and ability to speak authoritatively, was a threat to the white
All the President’s Vices
What, from a classic Christian point of view, are Donald Trump’s compulsive vices?
A Resolution in One Word
I considered lots of words. I felt called to steer away from productivity, from the false illusion of self-control. What I might need is not
Reviews
Genesis Without Anachronism: Walton’s Case for a Contextual Reading of Genesis
John H. Walton’s New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis: Advances in the Origins Debate, written in collaboration with his son, J. Harvey Walton,
The Spiritual Practice of Reading
As I read, I kept thinking of magical reading moments in my life.
Alone: More Than a Weight-Loss Show
Alone provides an interesting and subtle contribution to a broad critique of the American dream.
Reconciliation Ecology: Reconsidering Restoration
The problem with restoration ecology is that, although populated with dedicated researchers and practitioners, it struggles to make its case in the broader North American
Growing Up In the Crevice
It felt like a betrayal of Christianity to have an “inkling that there could be more than one pathway to the Infinite.”
The Task of Forgiveness and Redemption
Confession is for humans. It’s a human practice to help us deal with
the shame. Confession’s not for God’s sake.
You Really Can
Ayers draws upon a vast knowledge of other great Christian thinkers; on art and music and literature, and what I can only imagine are a
Poetry
Preliminary
My sons are on a mission, wielding sticks and nixing iridescent bubbles …
Remorse Code
I used to want you to understand all of it: the dripping roof, stalagmites rising up like dandelions …
Dwell
In the future we will live in pods of reclaimed wood and very white bed-linens …
Passing the Peace
On good weeks it happens twice. Once on Sunday morning, sunlit sanctuary …
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 …
Podcasts
“Preliminary” by Steven Searcy
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviews Steven Searcy about his poem “Preliminary.” Steven is the author of Below
“Dwell” by Hannah Notess
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviews Hannah Faith Notess about her poem “Dwell.” Hannah is a poet
“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