Suffering, Wholeness, and the Human Condition

I enjoyed talking with her, though I felt strange whenever the conversation moved toward my life goals, as if we were entering a realm, a country - the future - which only one of us would ever witness.

Aldis Petriceks | Stanford Vox Clara | Spring 2019

Hope

If good and evil intrinsically oppose each other, how can they coexist in the presence of an omnipotent and omniscient God?

Noelle Michael | Vanderbilt Synesis | Fall 2018

The Caring Approach

In showing compassion, sympathy and empathy through His miracles, Jesus also revolutionized the way we approach the sick by demonstrating how powerful these qualities are.

Tori Ranero | The Vanderbilt Synesis | Fall 2016

On Marilynne Robinson’s Lila

In Marilynne Robinson's Lila, we are meant to see ourselves writ large: pitiful and scared, and not quite sure where we stand with God, or how we found ourselves here, in this house, tending to the garden, living this sort of life.

Kate Massinger | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2016

The Price of Glory

At one point in [Martin Scorsese's film] Silence the Inquisitor sneers at one of the captured priests, “the price for your glory is their suffering!"

Richard Ibekwe | MIT et Spiritus | Spring 2017

The Heart of Man is Not Compound of Lies: Redemptive Sacrifice Found in Fictional Literature

Joseph Campbell, a 20th-century scholar of mythology and religion, wrote that myths indicate the universal search for meaning, as well as reflect the journey of each individual.

Lydia Anderson | CalPoly Aletheia | Fall 2016

The Christian Faith

One way God manifests His nature in us is through our rationality.

Irving Nestor | The Hopkins Dialectic | Spring 2016

Genetically Modified Crops and a Christian Worldview

Modern food production has come a long way since the times recorded in Genesis, but the issues farmers face today are the same.

Megan Stevens | University of Minnesota Between Cities | Spring 2016

The Problem of Evil: An Ichthus Roundtable

In addition to our own thoughts, we provide links to a wide variety of pieces on the problem of evil by professional philosophers.

The Harvard Ichthus Staff | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2015

Abortion and Social Justice

The greatest burden for the woman, more than an unplanned pregnancy, is the burden of living but knowing that she felt her circumstances forced her to terminate a human life within her.

Allen Huang | UC Berkeley TAUG | Spring 2015

Metaphysical Rebellion from Cain to Camus

Perhaps more than any other twentieth-century thinker, Albert Camus submitted a daunting challenge to the position of humanity in the cosmos.

Philip Jeffery | The Columbia Crown & Cross | Spring 2015

The Aestheticism of the Christian “Death”

So the hope of this essay is this: that both secular and Christian audiences find commonality in the comfort of beauty for ashes.

Henry Li | The Harvard Ichthus | Spring 2015

Review of Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal

"A seemingly happy life may be empty. A seemingly difficult life may be devoted to a great cause."

Chenchen Li | The Dartmouth Apologia | Spring 2015

How a Brown Student Grew in His Faith While Living Homeless

Living in the shelter for a year gave Kevin Simmons a passion for giving back and serving others.

Elizabeth Jean-Marie | The Brown & RISD Cornerstone | Spring 2015

Experiencing Christ Across Cultures

I quickly became familiar with how starkly the cultures of England and Ghana differ from one another, almost as much as the perceptions of Jesus and the way people practice their faith do.

Johanan Sowah | The Columbia Crown & Cross | Spring 2015

The Art of Reconciliation

When faced with the daunting task of comforting a friend who was contemplating suicide, I felt utterly helpless in trying to prevent her actions, while she felt utterly hopeless in trying to control her emotions.

Jess Tong | The Dartmouth Apologia | 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

Eggshells

What is home? My parents immigrated to the States from South Korea, I was born and raised in California, I go to university in Rhode Island, and I am now studying abroad in Dublin, Ireland.

Clare Kim | The Brown & RISD Cornerstone | 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

Affliction Furthers the Flight in Me

Inspired by the story of the resurrection, 17th century English poet George Herbert wrote his short poem “Easter Wings.” The poem beautifully recreates the restorative power of Christ’s resurrection.

Chih McDermott | The Williams Telos | Fall 2013

Finding Oneself Beyond the Empirical Fence

But wouldn’t everybody act more or less the same if there were no religion and instead most of the same rules were held on a purely secular basis?

Nicholas Zahorodny | Swarthmore Peripateo | Fall 2013

The Blood of the Martyrs

Perpetua’s account [of martyrdom] is especially remarkable, because it is one of the few authentic voices of women from the Roman Empire.

Margaret Eichner | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2013

The Friend Who Went

I am still in my own healing process, although it has been a little over five and a half years since my cousin’s death.

Raquel Rodriguez | The Williams Telos | Fall 2013

Reading Marilynne Robinson: Liberation through Tradition

Is it bizarre that a contemporary creative writer would inspire a college student to start reading John Calvin? Absolutely. That’s the magnificence of Marilynne Robinson.

Danielle Charette | Swarthmore Peripateo | Fall 2013

String Theory, the Multiverse, and God

It might seem that God and string theory, like Harry and Voldemort, cannot live while the other survives.

Tom Rudelius | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2013

Love Pain

Retaliation is only fair. It is widely accepted that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It is only natural. But nothing about the Gospel is natural.

Joshua Joo | UC Berkeley TAUG | Fall 2013

Love Your Enemies: A Radical Call to Christian Pacifism

“But!” you cry – I can almost hear it now – what about saving society from criminals, and children from murderers, and Europe from Hitler, and America from the Terrorists? In sum, what about all the innocent people whom we have a duty to protect from the evildoers?

Nathan Otey | The Harvard Ichthus | Spring 2013

Jesus: The End of Personal Autonomy and Identity?

Indeed, it appears that at its best, Christianity has severely restrictive, and often arbitrary, rules that limit one’s ability to do as one wants.

Matthew Johnson | The Yale Logos |

Abundant Life, Abundant Love, and the Empty Tomb

At the empty tomb, I want to ask the same two questions as at the Cross - why is it necessary, and why is it possible?

Nathan Scalise | Swarthmore Peripateo | Fall 2013

A Religious Animal?

How to understand the story of the Fall while accepting that death, too, was there from the beginning of life on earth?

Stephen Mackereth | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2013

Salvific Suffering and the Dark Night of the Soul

We have begun to “anaesthetize our existence,” writes biblical scholar Luke Timothy Johnson. Our public discourse often assumes that the most difficult lives are simply not worth living.

Robert Smith | The Dartmouth Apologia | Spring 2013

Remember November

While researching for this article, I ventured into internet forums to read what others who have considered suicide have written about their suicidal feelings, and found my sentiments echoed. Many say that if just one person cared it would make them go on living, or that they have been hurt by those whom they love.

Linda Kang | UPenn Common Subjects | Spring 2013

Becoming Oneself: C.S. Lewis’ Allegory of the Afterlife

Accepting dignity rather than attempting to create it requires faith, for we must trust that what God has designed us to be is greater than anything we could mold ourselves into.

Macy Ferguson | The Dartmouth Apologia | Spring 2013

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 |

Language and Its Uses: The Difficulty in Communicating with a Heavenly God

Scripture is littered with evidence that our voices — our interaction with God through language — have divine importance and implication.

Gabriel Brotzman | The Brown & RISD Cornerstone | Spring 2013 Volume II Issue II

Eternity

I am afraid of death. I don’t mean in the buried-six-feet-under sense. Rather, I am afraid of dying by way of the American dream: to wake up some day in a life so comfortable that I have forgotten my dreams.

Shirley Li | The Williams Telos | Issue 9, Spring 2013

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

If we wouldn’t tell our neighbors to constantly compare their lives to everyone else’s and feel inadequate by doing so, why do we ourselves do that?

Christina Keller | Swarthmore Peripateo | Volume 1, Issue 1

Why Is There Winter In Narnia?

Why is there winter? And second, what needs to happen for the life-giving thaw of spring to return? In other words, what is the origin of what is wrong with the world, and what is the solution to it?

Nick Nowalk | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2012, Volume 8, Number 3.

Eliot’s Early Poetry and the Search for a Saving Faith

In the three years of reverberations from “The Waste Land,” Eliot still struggled with the same problem, as well as the same solution. He was dissatisfied with despair but simply could not find a better response.

Will Hogan | The Dartmouth Apologia | Fall 2012

Whom Are We Friends with and Why?

As the ancient philosophers recognized the ease with which we can settle for less from our relationships, the current cultural context challenges us, diverts us from what it means to have a true friend and be one.

Hannah Jung | The Dartmouth Apologia | Fall 2012, Volume 7, Issue 1

Linguistics and the Bible

Analyzing the Bible as an inspired piece of literature without taking into account the scientific constraints of human language is misguided.

Christopher Hopper | The Harvard Ichthus | Volume 7, Number 4, Winter 2011

Christians, Pagans, and the Good Life

In contrast to the three most influential worldviews of the Roman world— Gnosticism, Stoicism, Neoplatonism—Christianity proclaimed that our earthly realm and needs were of tremendous importance to both our humanity and God.

Suiwen Liang | The Dartmouth Apologia | Volume 6, Issue 2 - Spring 2012

Depression, Despair, and Hope at Harvard

Harvard’s Editor-in-Chief Reflects on Depression, Despair, and Hope

During my four years at Harvard, I contemplated committing suicide no less than three times. It wasn’t until I almost failed a class during my senior year that I realized that I struggle with depression.

Jordan Monge | The Harvard Ichthus Fish Tank |

Sacramental Complications: Sufjan Stevens’ “Casimir Pulaski Day”

Sufjan Stevens is adored by the indie music movement, which is often antiestablishment and anti-religious, yet his music honestly handles the grittiness of lived faith. “Casimir Pulaski Day” is the firsthand narration of the death of a loved one within a Christian community.

Tristan Macdonald | 5 College Slant | Volume 1, Issue 1, Spring 2012

The Incarnation

Christianity doesn’t preach a distant God who turned a blind eye to mankind, but rather tells of a God who became a man himself. God didn’t simply send a message; He became the messenger. We recall this momentous occasion – the divine incarnation – each year at Christmas.

Jordan Monge | The Harvard Ichthus | Volume 7, Number 4, Winter 2011

The Marriage of Justice and Mercy

Christianity has seeming contradictions like a dog has fleas. This one consistently arises: how can a God of justice be, at the same time, a God of mercy? George MacDonald brings this contradiction to a point: “Those who say justice means the punishing of sin, and mercy the not punishing of sin, and attribute both to God, would make a schism in the very idea of God.”

Andrew Kim | Brown Cornerstone | Volume 1, Issue 1, Spring 2012

He Is Risen: A Defense of the Historicity of the Resurrection

The resurrection is the foundation of the Christian faith; its occurrence either demonstrably proves Christianity as true or its falsity disproves the faith. Here I outline an argument for the physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ – an argument similar to, albeit slightly more thorough and well-studied – than the one which persuaded me to become a Christian approximately two years ago.

Jordan Monge | The Harvard Ichthus | Volume 7, Number 2, Spring 2011

Surprised: Wordsworth on the Coexistence of Joy and Sorrow

William Wordsworth wrote this sonnet two years after the sudden death of his four-year-old daughter, Catherine, but in it he grieves as though not a day has gone by. When he cries out in misery, “How could I forget thee?” it is both rhetorical – indicative of how deeply he loved her – and guilt-stricken, having in fact let her slip from his mind.

Inez Tan | The Williams Telos | Issue 4, Fall 2010

June 2019