Pursuing Unity in Diversity

Instead of ignoring the reality of our physical differences and the history of oppression and racism caused by these differences, my hope is that awareness of our common misperceptions about race can be the first step in recognizing and understanding what racism itself is and how we can combat it.

Grace Liu | The Vanderbilt Synesis | Fall 2018

Why Politics?

Have we limited the church’s full support of Christians in “secular” fields, diminishing their calling as ambassadors in “secular” spheres of society?

Isabella Chow | UC Berkeley TAUG | Spring 2018

The Ones Who Walk Away: Social Justice, Shame, and the Church

Le Guin’s story, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," won the 1974 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, with many readers interpreting it as an allegory about societal injustices that are seen but remain unaddressed.

Miles Woodhull | | Spring 2018

On Faith and Docility

The docile spirit is embodied in St. Anselm’s motto, fides quaerens intellectum—faith seeking understanding.

Greg Brown | Swarthmore Peripateo | Fall 2015

Searching for the Ear of God

I myself reckoned with the reality I faced: I also thought prayer was sort of stupid. It certainly felt stupid, primarily for two reasons.

Jesse Rines | The Hopkins Dialectic | Spring 2017

Standing United: A Rhetoric Major’s Reflection

Although nothing is necessarily wrong with standing against something that is wrong, the implications of the word “against” reiterates the divided and polarizing environment we are looking to transcend.

Victoria Lai | UC Berkeley TAUG | Fall 2017

The Power of the Gospel: Experiences of Christian Slaves in the Antebellum South

The “invisible institution” - as historians have referred to slave religion for years – was able to foster organization in the slave community through enslaved spiritual leaders and the secret religious meetings they held.

Luke Julian | Vanderbilt Synesis | Fall 2017

Interview with N. T. Wright: The Reality of the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church

"If you believe that the evidence for the resurrection to be compelling, why do you think so many people nonetheless reject it?"

The Dartmouth Apologia Staff | The Dartmouth Apologia | Fall 2016

War and Peace in Christian Tradition

What are some wise insights and necessary points of reflection that we, Christian or not, should take heed of when confronted with violence, war and the question of justice?

Erik Johnson | MIT et Spiritus | Fall 2016

Reforming Insignificance in the Church

I realize that this type of culture does not predominate all Christian churches, but I do have to acknowledge that these types of communities exist, and I’ve been a victim of them.

Diana Lutfi | UC Berkeley TAUG | Spring 2016

Lending and Borrowing: A Christian Perspective

This paper will delve further into what the Bible has to say about lending and borrowing, how its interpretation has changed over time, and how it can work in today’s society.

Roy Walker | Swarthmore Peripateo | Spring 2016

The Strongest Argument Against Christianity

I think that the strongest argument against Christianity can be made by comparing modern Christians with the Bible.

James Frederick | UC Berkeley TAUG | Spring 2016

Is the Church Inherently Conservative?

I am not trying to decide once and for all if the church falls on the conservative side of the American political spectrum.

David Paiva | The Harvard Ichthus | Spring 2016

Self, Society, and the Trinitarian Posture

The Christian understanding of human nature instead presents a picture that merges collectivism and individualism into one coherent whole.

Amanda Wang | The Dartmouth Apologia | Fall 2016

The Hidden Life of Liturgical Chant in Rachmaninoff’s Music

Rachmaninoff, always inspired by the elder Tchaikovsky, also decided to try his hand at liturgical music, but unlike most of his contemporaries, he found something very affecting about it, and after studying chant in depth, he composed a significant amount for the Church.

Ben Costello | The Hopkins Dialectic | Fall 2016

An Interview with Professor John Inazu

"Well, I think of pluralism in two ways: one is a descriptive fact about the world: we have deep and irresolvable differences between us, and so the question is, what do we do with them?"

Washington University in St. Louis Kairos Staff | Washington University in St. Louis Kairos | Fall 2017

God Loves Hip-Hop

Hip-hop will never be a “perfect” platform for God’s message because humans will never be “perfect” vessels for God’s message, yet many of its musicians recognize their God-given blessings and brokenness and are excited to project them into the musical world.

Abigail Rogers-Berner | The Hopkins Dialectic | Spring 2017

Politics: Where Do We Go From Here?

At its root, politics is not even really about addressing the latest national controversy or advancing a particular agenda, but about bringing us together as citizens to do what we can’t do on our own.

Sam Elder | MIT et Spiritus | Fall 2016

Do Ethnic Communities Have a Place in Christianity?

When I was exposed to different faith traditions and practices in college, I found myself doubting aspects of my home church that I had previously been so fond of.

Amos Jeng | The Hopkins Dialectic | Spring 2017

Demythologizing Protestant Christianity’s Relationship with Nazi Germany

It is important to realize that the racial anti-Semitism which characterized Nazi Germany was not an invention of the National Socialists, but rather a radicalization of many social and religious factors which predated Hitler’s rise to power.

Rebecca Ito | The Wheaton Pub | Fall 2016

Understanding God Through Modern Rap: Coloring Book

In this series we want to show that the increased tendency of modern rappers to reference Christian themes in their lyrics represents a desire to use the shared experience of African American Christianity as a vehicle to speak about contemporary life.

Damilare Aboaba, Gaired Jordan, and Emani Pollard | Cornell Claritas | Fall 2016

An Interview with Prof. Anand Gnanadesikan

"Dealing with uncertain environmental problems, where we only see part of the system, has helped me appreciate what we do in a faith sense."

Gabrielle Moss | The Johns Hopkins Dialectic | Fall 2016

Revisiting the Life of Martin Luther King Jr.: Perspectives for Today’s Challenges

Dr. King recognized that the question of racism and civil rights was tearing America apart, and he knew that only love as illustrated by the gospel could provide a viable solution.

Andrew Shuffer | The Dartmouth Apologia | Spring 2016

Approaching a Christocentric View of Wealth

To the casual onlooker skeptical of the Catholic Church’s wealth, the concern is not how beautiful their churches are, but the cost at which they were built.

Joshua Tseng-Tham | The Dartmouth Apologia | Fall 2015

An Interview with Tim Nelson: Christianity and Social Justice

"The pattern of the world is to segregate, to separate, to dominate, for people to try to get as much as they can for themselves."

Karl Johnson | The Hopkins Dialectic | Spring 2016

Hope in the Midst of Hurt: A Critique of Between the World and Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates has been labeled this generation’s flagbearer for social justice and chief warrior against anti-Black racism.

Noah Black | The Vanderbilt Synesis | Spring 2016

For the Good of All Creation: A Christian Ecological Ethic

Ecological crisis, whether as dramatic as some predict or not, means we must reconsider the beliefs implicit in a system that exploits humans, creatures, and natural resources.

Nicole Newell | St. Olaf Avodah | Spring 2015

Medieval and Modern Meet: Advent

As a Christian scholar, I read the medieval texts that are my primary area of study with a curious double vision.

Kathryn Mogk | University of Minnesota Between Cities | Spring 2016

Faith and Learning

Does Christianity pose a challenge to intellectual inquiry?

Trevor Davis | The Dartmouth Apologia | Fall 2015

An Interview With Professor Susan Ashbrook Harvey

"Simply out of interest, I took Ancient Greek my freshman year. It transformed my life!"

Justin Sohn | The Brown & RISD Cornerstone | Fall 2015

Wealth in the Church

Does a capitalist society create paradigms that are contrary to Christ’s message? Interview with Yale history and religion professor Carlos Eire.

The Yale Logos | The Yale Logos | Fall 2015

Forgiving the Unforgivable

Before his killing spree began, he had spent an hour with them at their weekly Bible study, in the basement of Emmanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Jeremy Candelas | The Cornell Claritas | Fall 2015

All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Evangelicalism

Sometime in the mid-1990s, sickened by what I perceived as the shallowness of evangelical culture in suburban Wheaton, Illinois, I launched into the post-hippie, proto-hipster nightlife of Chicago.

Matthew Milliner | Wheaton Pub | Spring 2015

Tu, Vous, and the Gospel

In a city where it is smart to have high walls and strong front gates, it left an impression to be welcomed in so quickly and so warmly by a community that did not know me.

Andrew Zulker | The Dartmouth Apologia | Spring 2015

Social Justice and the Eucharistic Life

Although the Church was not the source of the injustices in their community, they believed those who were wasteful or did not give freely exacerbated the suffering of others.

Monica Mikhail | UC Berkeley TAUG | Spring 2015

How Does God View Ethnicity?

Since the concept of ethnicity is of human construction, I do wonder: does God see ethnicity?

Elizabeth Jean-Marie | The Brown & RISD Cornerstone | Fall 2014

Revisiting the Puritans: Recreation, Community, and the Christian Mind

One of the most significant things that [the Puritans] have left behind, I believe, is the emphasis on a liberal arts education.

Nathaniel Schmucker | The Dartmouth Apologia | Fall 2014

Why Do I Need to Confess My Sins to a Priest?

One of the questions that many people often ask Catholics is, “Who do you need to confess your sins to a priest to receive forgiveness?"

Fr. Mark Murphy | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2014

Ethnicity and Incommensurability

Let’s address the elephant in the room: Asian Americans hold a disproportionate share of power and influence in the Christian community.

Daniel Tan | The Claremont Ekklesia | Fall 2014

The Gift of Confession

The desire to confess may seem counter-intuitive. Obviously the seeker-sensitive movement assumed this was the last thing non-Christians wanted to do.

James K. A. Smith | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2014

Tweeting Indulgences

We stand as careful guardians of church practice, not as nostalgic Luddites, when we say that issuing a plenary indulgence to those who follow an event over social media deserves a cautious examination.

Michael Toy | Princeton Revisions | Fall 2013

Mercy of the Womb

In the English translation of the Bible, a quick search indicates that the word “mercy” appears approximately 261 times, absent in only 16 of the 66 books.

Erin Kast | Swarthmore Peripateo | Spring 2014

Debunking Galileo’s Science v. Faith Controversy

Despite the end result of unresolved dispute, both the Church and Galileo approached every stage of the conflict with an understanding that both science and faith contained indisputable truths.

Macy Ferguson | The Dartmouth Apologia | Spring 2014

The Visible and Invisible Church

The invisible church is a term for all believers in Jesus Christ. ... A visible church is a human organization that supports Christians in their varied expressions of belief, trust, in Christ.

Steven Lee | St. Olaf Avodah | Spring 2014

The Cosmic Import of Marriage

The Bible is bookended by weddings.

Markus Boesl | The Yale Logos | Fall 2013

Responding to a Mother’s Schizophrenia

My mother is schizophrenic. During her moments of irrationality, I am tempted to curse God for inflicting her with such an illness.

Anonymous | Princeton Revisions | Spring 2009

La Iglesia de San Pedro

The Church of San Pedro in Ávila is at the edge of a small plaza and grabbed my attention by its simplicity.

Nancy Yeon-Joo Kim | Swarthmore Peripateo | Spring 2014

Following Christ Home

I tearfully explained my dilemma to my youth pastor over the phone. He listened, then said, “I think you should go home.”

Kathryn Wu | Swarthmore Peripateo | Spring 2014

Subsidiarity, Solidarity, and Social Teaching: A Catholic Perspective on Political Economy

In a statement echoed by President Obama, Francis laments the condition of a socioeconomic order in which “it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points.”

Nicholas Zahorodny | Swarthmore Peripateo | Spring 2014

Costly Consolation: Freud’s Illusion and Bonhoefferian Grace

Sigmund Freud once wrote that the idea of religion is “born from man’s need to make his helplessness tolerable.”

Paul Escher | St. Olaf Avodah | Spring 2014

December 2018