Reading a Liturgy of Confession: Liturgy as Forma Formans

The form worship takes reveals has certain assumptions about how people learn built into it. Reading liturgy from a formalist perspective, one that pays attention to form, reveals much about what those assumptions are.

Caleb Molstad | University of Minnesota Between Cities | Spring 2019

A Welcome Reformation: In Praise of Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life”

Through my journey, I have come to believe that the same empire of fear that drives millions of football players to unnecessarily run the risk of traumatic brain injury also drives innumerable religious devotees into a wall of shame.

Kenneth Lucas Dodd | Cal Poly Aletheia | Winter 2019

The Place of Belief in a Pluralistic World

A speaker was coming to UNC who had been an anti-protester at Charlottesville’s Unite The Right rally in August of last year, and my friend and I began a conversation about what ideologies should not be tolerated in society.

Brodie Heginbotham | UNC To the Well | Fall 2018

Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home by Pope Francis

The wide scope of topics that this document covers conveys the fact that we do not live in isolation; all of our actions subsequently influence others; environmentalism relates to the economy as much as it does to planting trees.

Anne Marie Crinnion | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2017

Who is God?

The Old Testament is a combination of books that predict, point to, and await the arrival of God in the flesh, and the New Testament is the documentation of God’s appearance and life on earth.

Armen Festekjian | | Fall 2017

Is Tolerance Enough?

As we look closer at the definition of “tolerance,” we begin to understand why it may be a rather imperfect word, inadequate to face the current climate.

Grace Liu | Vanderbilt Synesis | Spring 2018

Faith in a Crowded Space

Yet most important to Dante, beyond the universe’s organization and population, is the fact that he was connected to it, and that the whole thing was powered by love.

Tess Fitzsimmons | The Harvard Ichthus | Fall 2017

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

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

The Heart of Mental Health

This, then, is the crux of the conception of mental health suggested by the Christian worldview: being mentally well is more than reducing a negative display of symptoms.

Jake Casale | The Dartmouth Apologia | Spring 2017

Sanctuary and the Law

Sanctuary existed as a strong legal tradition from the reign of Theodosius and throughout the medieval period in canon and English common law.

Megan Stater | The Columbia Crown & Cross | Fall 2016

Postmodernism and the Paradox of Tolerance

Postmodernism conflates truth and personhood, and in doing so confines the person to a state of perpetual insecurity and vulnerability. It is this fear of violence that prevents modern persons from recognizing the inherent dignity of their peers.

Joshua Tseng-Tham | The Dartmouth Apologia | Spring 2017

The Year of Mercy: A Retrospective

Before the summer of 2016 began, I remember telling my spiritual director that I felt God wanted to teach me about mercy, especially with my favorite job: counseling a local summer camp for kids.

Michael Miskovski | The Columbia Crown & Cross | Spring 2017

Why States Fail: Lessons from Augustine

If we can ascertain our nature, we can begin to understand what makes societies perpetually problematic.

Jeffrey Poomkudy | The Dartmouth Apologia | Spring 2017

The Gospel in the First Century

What I found in my studies and hope to summarize in this article is that a deeper understanding of the first-century Jewish world in which Jesus lived makes for a much richer appreciation of the good news that he proclaimed.

Erik Johnson | MIT et Spiritus | Spring 2016

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

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

What is a “Christian” Social Ethics?

The communal nature of Jesus’ life and work must be considered when attempting to define the Christian character of a social ethic.

Daniel Bell | The Yale Logos | Winter 2012

Mustard Seed Faith

Confirmation bias is a psychological phenomenon which describes our tendency to seek out information that confirms our opinions and beliefs while avoiding information that contradicts what we believe. I take a lot more time on each page when I’m reading C.S. Lewis compared to Richard Dawkins.

Andy Morgosh | The Williams Telos | Spring 2012

Historicity & Holy War: Putting the Crusades in Context

When analyzing any historical event, and particularly one so fraught with misinterpretation and exaggeration, it is crucial to look at both its context and its causes. The Crusades did not spontaneously appear from a historical vacuum.

Blake Neff | The Dartmouth Apologia | Volume 6, Issue 1, Fall 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

Work and Worship

Once we realize the all-encompassing nature of God’s provision, there is no work that cannot be seen as a manifestation of God’s kindness to us, and therefore no work that should not spark our gratitude and joy.

Taylor Craig | MIT et Spiritus | Fall 2016

June 2019