Featured Articles
Learning How to Lament From Jesus
Still, when I compare Old and New Testament lamenting, I can’t shake the sense that the coming of Jesus changed the role of lament for God’s people. Were the laments fewer in quantity? Changed in terms of content? Of a different intensity? I’m not sure what it is, but I thought I’d try to articulate what I’m sensing.
Featured Articles
The Case for “Messed Up” Stories
There was a time in my career when the father of one of my students (in a different decade and a different state) requested a conference with me to advocate for the use of Christian biographies instead of fiction. His argument, although well-meaning, seemed designed to protect students instead of preparing them for life in a complicated world—and lacked any acknowledgement or awareness of the challenge of finding stories that students will actually read and engage with.
Your Leap of Change
All of us spend much of our lives constructing the protection we think we need to survive and thrive. These layers of defense work well
Fact Checking the Reformed Journal
But Jeff wasn’t asking for a dissertation-level, academic deep dive on any of these claims. He was just curious about the general consensus out there
For Those Who Fret About It
For much of my pastoral life, I’ve conversed in living rooms, at park benches, and in bars and cafés with people wondering about Christian faith,
How Reading Calvin’s Institutes Made Sense of a Glioblastoma
Calvin probably wouldn’t agree with my assessment of the evil tumor. For Calvin, the providence of God both sent the tumor and provided the surgeon,
My Last Letter to Zak
Earlier this summer, I wrote my last letter to a boyhood friend. He was executed 11 days after I mailed it. In his letter to
My Friendship with Walter Brueggemann
Walter was one who lived at his own crossroads of shame and grace, light and dark, brokenness and redemption. In Jungian terms, he befriended his
Latest from the Blog
Daily blog by our regular bloggers & guest contributors.
Down the Church Website Rabbit Hole
I feel strongly that it’s disingenuous for churches to make their beliefs hard to find. It comes across as preying on vulnerable people.
Can AI Create Life?
Tools, like Evo are important steps toward AI-designed drugs, gene therapy, and anti-bacterial treatments for use in agriculture and medicine.
And the walls came a tumblin’ down!
Scholars do not agree fully , but it is fair to say that the majority suggest that the Jericho story might have developed from local
We have no king, but…
Maybe you are concerned that Calvin’s emphasis on the spiritual kingship is going to leave this world dangerously neglected. Nonetheless, Calvin sees substantial implications for
Playing with Matches while Sleeping
What is the value of words? When truth is being silenced, words matter. When people in power punish those who make jokes or speak criticism,
God of the Disposable
God is the first one in the story who sees and names Hagar, as if to say, “Though others refuse to see you, Hagar, I
Worms. Love. Lies. Freedom.
In this story, I think hard about the thoughts and feelings of worms. I push it too far. More practically, I also try to help
Day One Rant
Faith & Formation This year, I’ve started adjunct-teaching a class at Palm Beach Atlantic University, here in West Palm Beach, called Christian Faith & Formation.
Reviews
Rooted: Sustenance for Transformation
I often avoid driving the road that passes by the land that once was my grandpa’s orchard. The apple trees are gone now, the old
They Saw a Game: Review of The Unbiased Self by Erin Devers
When I taught Social Psychology in the spring, I began the semester with a story about a football game between Dartmouth and Princeton in 1951.
A Sustaining Vision: The Soulwork of Justice
In an era when social justice movements often burn bright and fast, leaving exhausted activists in their wake, Wes Granberg-Michaelson offers something desperately needed: a
A Crisis of Imagination: Spiritual Formation and Development
The opening words of Lanta Davis’ Becoming by Beholding: The Power of the Imagination in Spiritual Formation led me to expect a much different kind
Where Science Meets the Soul: Exploring Integrating Psychology and Faith by Moes & Riek
Moes and Riek’s motivation to write Integrating Psychology and Faith stemmed from teaching the psychology and religion capstone course for their university’s psychology major. They
Searching for the Elusive
Socrates, who famously said that the unexamined life is not worth living, never met Doyle Shields, the main character in Thomas Lynch’s novel No Prisoners.
Bearing Witness to Scars
I was 21, unmarried, and pregnant the day I sat across from my pastor, asking for help. My voice was trembling, my future uncertain. He
Colonialism, Racism, and Empire
What if the Israeli-Palestinian war isn’t just a political dispute, but a colonial project with deep historical roots, and what if our understanding of Christian
Poetry
Be opened
to the absence of your own voice filling your inner silence …
A Famine of Words
It says right there in Amos chapter eight: “The time is surely coming,” syas the Lord …
After Denise Levertov’s Essays
My mind stops, one foot in the air …
Awake
An olive tree, aflame in my mind, awake in the wee hours …
On Absolution
I pass the big nursery on the way to see my father for the first time in a year …
Grafting Apple Shoots
Gashes in the green. Stumps and roots serve in …
Podcasts
“Be Opened” by Deb Baker
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Deb Baker about her poem “Be Opened.” Deb lives in New
“A Famine of Words” by Steven Peterson
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviewed Steven Peterson about his poem “A Famine of Words.” Steven is
“After Denise Levertov’s Essays” by Caroline J. Simon
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviews Caroline J. Simon, PhD, about her poem “After Denise Levertov’s Essays.”
“On Absolution” by Lila Tindall
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Lila Robinett Tindall about her poem “On Absolution.” Lila is
“Grafting Apple Shoots” by Betsy Howard
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Betsy Howard about her poem “Grafting Apple Shoots.” Betsy serves
“Winterscape with Hair Gel and Citrus” by Marci Rae Johnson
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Marci Rae Johnson about her poem “Winterscape with Hair Gel and