God-talk and the Suffering of the Guilty

They have committed crimes most would see as purely evil and are responsible for the most severe moments of suffering in many people’s lives. Yet I hold that they, too, are sufferers.

Noah Black | Vanderbilt Synesis | Fall 2018

The Soul’s Hunger: Our Physical Appetites as More than Physical

Yet pursuing “food, cheer, and song” means something different. Valuing these means cherishing vulnerability, family, and community.

Zachary Lee | Cornell Claritas | Spring 2019

Against (Our Own) Heresies

[Heresy] starts with a narrow selective reading of scripture that is then over-emphasized and serves as a tangential point for one’s own desires.

Erik Johnson | MIT et Spiritus | Spring 2018

The Lovely Embrace of Pain

Another principle characteristic of Lucretius’ view is that it ultimately seeks painlessness. For this purpose, Lucretius urges isolation. However, there are two critical issues with this goal-orientation.

Jamie Har | Cornell Claritas | Fall 2017

Scientias Religionis

In this article I hope to shed some light on those areas in which behavioral biology actually has a lot to say about the religious experience.

Hailey Reneau | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2017

Friend of Sinners

Jesus was known to be a friend of sinners, and his life has encouraged me to do the same in my work within the criminal justice system–to befriend them, encourage them, and find them worthy of healing, rehabilitation, and forgiveness.

Brittany Krippner | CalPoly Aletheia | Spring 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 Peculiar Shape of Christian Identity

For Christians, personal identity is story-shaped (not abstract), derivative (not intrinsic), other-centered (not autonomous), and incomplete (not fully available to us in the here and now).

Teal McGarvey and Nick Nowalk | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2016

Leavening and Life after Swarthmore

It turns out that rootedness isn’t actually a function of how long you stay in one place. It has to do with how you live when you’re there.

Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon | Swarthmore Peripateo | Fall 2015

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

The Body of Christ: Notes from an Anatomist

However, if working with deceased bodies provides any insight, I can say this: understanding the water-sacks we inhabit falls far short of knowing the full complexity of personhood.

Aldis Petriceks | Stanford Vox Clara | Winter 2018

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

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

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

Boundary Lessons From Infants

What happens when I am securely attached to God? I have the freedom to explore, like the securely attached infants who used their mothers as a base from which they explored the room.

Lisa Ann Yu | UC Berkeley TAUG | Spring 2016

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

Black Families and Labor Markets in the Post-Reconstruction Era

Failure to take the Black family on their own terms and in their own contexts has led many cultural critics to assign blame Black culture for the high poverty and single-motherhood rates that seem to afflict the poor Black community.

Michael Chen | The Wheaton Pub | Fall 2016

A Restorative Response to Injustice

It is easy to look at a perpetrator and say that the problem lies uniquely in him or her. Yet I do not think Christians can do that.

Molly Richmond | The Harvard Ichthus | Spring 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

A Compass, A Bridge, and a Covenant

The Penn Christian journal is re-launching under the name Locust Walk, falling into step with the brick-paved path that takes students through three communal points – a compass, a bridge, and a covenant.

Esther Jou | UPenn Locust Walk | Spring 2016

The Primacy of Relationships

As a newly minted business professional and a Christian young adult, my spirit longed to find business mindsets congruent with the truths of the Gospel.

John Knox | UC Berkeley TAUG | Spring 2016

Committing Amidst Shopping

Let us not be too hasty to accept society’s definition of love as being uninhibiting.

Nicholas Chuan | The Brown & RISD Cornerstone | Fall 2015

What God Expects: The Paradox of the Standards of the Christian Community

Therefore, the standard to be Christian and to become part of the Christian community is to understand this paradox: we cannot achieve God’s standards.

Cindy Wu | The Cornell Claritas | Fall 2015

The Sin of Adam: Two Allegorical Accounts of the Fall

Recovering the literal sense of the Greek hamartia—translated in our Bibles as "sin"—we have "missed the mark."

Erin Kast | Swarthmore Peripateo | 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

Highlights from the Annual Retreat 2015

Over 95 students from 15 colleges attended to hear keynote speaker James K. A. Smith (Calvin College) discuss how magazines create communities that can change the culture.

Augustine Collective | Augustine Collective | January 2015

St. Olaf College: Lutheran Identity in an Age of Pluralism

According to its mission statement, St. Olaf encourages students “to be seekers of truth, leading lives of unselfish service to others; and it challenges them to be responsible and knowledgeable citizens of the world.”

Darrell Jodock | St. Olaf Avodah | Spring 2014

Christianity and Personality: Looking Past Myers-Briggs

The societal struggle to define the proper relationship between logical thought and passionate feeling within the human cognitive process is a recurring topic of discourse.

Jake Casale | The Dartmouth Apologia | Spring 2014

A Papal Perspective on Community

Pope Francis has made much news, in particular, because of his unique approach towards religious and non-religious communities around the world.

Tony Farias | Swarthmore Peripateo | Fall 2013

The Indispensable Image: Is the Church Really Necessary?

The question that haunts these chapters is: how will the nations come to know the one true God? Will it be through the futility of idols, or through the faithfulness of Israel?

Nick Nowalk | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2013

Religious but Not Spiritual

I don’t feel a spiritual energy, a spiritual connection, or a spiritual anything – especially when held in tension with the concrete, empirical, and measurable.

Michael Toy | Princeton Revisions | Fall 2013

Why Pray?

Why pray? Does God even hear you? If you’re a good person, why not just enjoy life and forget about archaic religious demands?

Margaret Eichner | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2012

Cynicism, the Gospel, and the Orange Bubble

Everyone has to be in some kind of bubble somewhere. The question that follows is where and how we decide to draw its parameters.

Alice Su | Princeton Revisions |

The Stranger: Christianity and the Immigrant Story

“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” This quote comes from the Gospels, which are based in the ministry of Jesus. When we stop and look at the story of Jesus, we see an understanding of what it means to be a stranger.

by Yared Portillo, with help from Helen Plotkin | Swarthmore Peripateo | Volume 1, Issue 1, Spring 2013

AC Featured in the Ivy League Christian Observer

Harvard Ichthus '14 staff Jihye Choi covers the 2013 Augustine Collective retreat, and discusses how the journals are fostering a national movement across colleges.

Jihye Choi | The Ivy League Christian Observer | Spring 2013

September 2019