Kenosis: A Response to a Stratified, Self-Centered Society

We are finite beings, and the magnitude of human suffering at the hands of systemic oppression is enormous. Trying to change the world can be like trying to put out a forest fire with a squirt gun.

Lydia Anderson | CalPoly Aletheia | Spring 2018

Order, Disorder, Reorder

Why does work feel like work? Here is the end at the beginning: work is frustrating. It can be extremely satisfying to produce something, but it can be simultaneously excruciating – but what excellence and beauty can come from deep suffering. Early on in the semester, a man named Jeremy Begby spoke at Cornell.[1] He […]

Emani Pollard | Cornell Claritas | Spring 2017

The Numinous and the Natural: Christianity and Environmentalism

The Tragedy of the Commons shows us that the destruction of the environment is an issue regarding not only how people relate to one another, but also how we relate to nature.

Jeffrey Poomkudy | The Dartmouth Apologia | Fall 2017

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

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

More Than Money: Poverty As a Spiritual Problem

"And so poverty as a spiritual problem is what’s going on in the souls of the poor people, and the souls of the people who let poverty continue."

Olugbenga Joseph | The Brown & RISD Cornerstone | Spring 2016

The Vatican Billions

How can the Church justify sitting on piles of cash while people around the world are living in poverty? When Her own founder said, “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” (Mk 10:21)?

Justin Sanchez | The Harvard Ichthus | Spring 2016

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

Peace in Toil

The Christian worldview presents a framework for work that resolves many of the issues which arise from Stoicism and Materialism.

Samuel Ching | The Dartmouth Apologia | Spring 2016

The Problem of Christ as a Gift

Late 20th century philosopher Jacques Derrida calls into question the very possibility of gift-giving. The aporia of the gift, its dissipation upon coming into presence, presents a problem not only for philosophy, but also for Christianity.

Dan Ju | The Hopkins Dialectic | Spring 2017

Interview with Jim Nooney, a Christian CEO

"It takes confidence that the promises of the Bible are true because our American culture is constantly telling us to keep business and religion apart. But what I have found is that you can put them together."

Nicholas Chuan | The Brown & RISD Cornerstone | Fall 2016

Ending Global Poverty: An Interview with Economist Paul Niehaus ’04

"The early 2000s were an incredibly exciting time to study development economics because we were just starting to use experimental testing in a big way – like clinical trials in medicine, or A/B testing in tech."

Peter Hickman | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2016

Who Are the Middle Eastern Christians?

Westerners’ broad concern for Middle Eastern Christians was and is well intentioned, but poorly informed, in part due to apathy and in part due to the lack of resources on the subject.

Christian Šidák | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2016

Christianity, Social Revolutions, and the Way Forward

Marx’s beliefs about Christianity’s relationship to social change is contrary to what Christianity itself teaches about social change.

Josh Alexakos | The Dartmouth Apologia | Spring 2016

Blessed Are the Poor: Debunking the Protestant Work Ethic

Insofar as Christians began to treat wealth earned through hard work as a sign of salvation, they were departing from what had been historically believed and taught.

Roger Yu | The Vanderbilt Synesis | Spring 2016

To Give or Not To Give

Experiences like these have taught me the intricacies of giving. They made me wonder whether or not I should give to those in need.

Briani George | Swarthmore Peripateo | Spring 2015

Redeeming the Economy

Our economy is fallen, but so beautiful was God’s original plan that the clear fingerprint of His design is visible even today.

Ryan Mather | University of Minnesota Between Cities | 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

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

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

Where Power and Fear Collide

Christ challenges [the Chinese government's] traditional notion of power with a picture of power that is voluntarily self-limiting.

Jonathan Chen | UC Berkeley TAUG | Fall 2015

Wet Feet: Navigating the Intellectual and Practical

Long run solutions without short run help do nothing for the people who are actually suffering from systemic problems right now.

Nathan Scalise | Swarthmore Peripateo | Spring 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

Stop Freaking Out About Your Job

But your specific variety of work does not define you. And the more you think that it does or should, the more you dig yourself into a pit of anxiety and self-pity.

Nathan Otey | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 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

Scriptural Interpretation: A Second Look at the Blanchard v. Rice Debate

The years leading up to the Civil War saw abolitionists and supporters of the antislavery movement clashing with proslavery Americans over specific scriptural passages related to slavery.

Sara Holston | The Dartmouth Apologia | Spring 2015

The Relevancy of Quakerism

The guidance of the Quaker Testimonies (simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, service and stewardship) could not be more relevant to today’s oppressive, materialistic, and war-torn world.

Mary Chawaga | Claremont Ekklesia | 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

Where is God in History?

There remains one point about the narrative of history that is worth rejoicing over, and that is the power of larger, contextual narratives.

Henry Li | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2014

Finding Freedom in Constraint

Some non-Christians are often shocked at how incredibly limiting these principles seem, yet they fail to recognize how much we agree with them on this point.

Marcos Martinez | The Columbia Crown & Cross | Fall 2014

Confessions of an Economics Concentrator

I confess that I study economics, and that I sometimes think about becoming a Wall Street financier. I also confess that I am a Christian, and that I often think about becoming a pastor.

Peter Hickman | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2014

Screwtape on Prefrosh

Unseat the desire for truth in your patient and replace it with a desire for academic respect, and your job is half done.

Judith Huang | The Harvard Ichthus | Summer 2011 - Special issue for the incoming class of 2015

Radical Generosity: How Christians Fail

According to one set of statistics, Christians give at 2.5% of income per capita, less than the 3.3% of income per capita given during the Great Depression.

Peter Hickman | The Harvard Ichthus | 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

Jesus and Women: Rebelling against Misogyny

The gospels tell of Jesus' extraordinary conduct towards women, which takes on a radical nature when considered in the context of the oppressive environment for women in the Ancient Middle East.

CJ Curtis | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2013

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

Intelligence and Dogma: A Letter from a Sheep

One study found that, even when controlling for sex, race, education, earnings, and religion, more intelligent children are significantly more likely to grow up to be atheist seven years later.

Nathan Otey | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2013

A Nasty, Dreadful Thing

I realized far too late that I should have not only given him, my brother, the eighty dollars, but twenty dollars more than he asked for.

Henry Li | The Harvard Ichthus |

The Pain of Privilege

Because of this privilege, there are generally two ways Christians at Berkeley come to grips with this reality: the path characterized by guilt and the path characterized by obligation.

David Park | UC Berkeley TAUG | Fall 2013

God Contra Capital

In order to break the graven image of Capital, it will be necessary, as I will argue, to transform its institutions in accord with the will of the divine.

Kelly Maeshiro | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2013

On Money

We accept Paul’s claim that the love of money is the root of all evil, but we know that that verse does not entail us to shun money itself as an evil. Money, at the end of the day, is also part of His Creation, and all things were created for His glory.

Richard Lee and April Koh | The Yale Logos | Winter 2012

The Messy Theology of Justice

Love is not about the show and discipline of religious habits, but about the raw, arduous, and messy everyday work of justice.

Hana Lehmann | Swarthmore Peripateo | Spring 2013

Christianity and the Gaze

The problem for Christians is thus the problem of invisibility, which empire exacerbates, for in empire, that which is unsightly is exported from the collective imagination.

Kelly Maeshiro | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2012

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

Christianity and Capitalism: Counterparts of Freedom

Though Christianity has a moral framework and capitalism a utilitarian one, their mutual respect of individual choice and autonomy makes them reconcilable on a more fundamental level.

Mark Diplacido | The Yale Logos | Winter 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

An Interview with Professor Glenn Loury

Brown University economist Dr. Glenn Loury’s conversion opened his eyes to the reality and necessity of spiritual transformation and to the inadequacy of any purely secular attempt to model human moral behavior.

Philip Trammell | The Brown Cornerstone | Vol. II Issue I, Fall 2012

May 2018