Featured Articles
A Personal Rememberance of Professor Fred Johnson
Fred gave his heart to everyone—his students in Holland and Muskegon, family, friends, voters. It’s hard to absorb the tragedy of someone who gave away his emotional heart and then lost his physical heart. His regalia was draped over the front seat at our most recent commencement, where Fred would sit after he marshaled the graduates to their seats. The loss is so great because the hole he left is so big. So much talent and energy gone without warning. And he still had gas in the tank. I remember his phrase: “Complete the mission.” Everyone who knew him believed that his mission was not complete, leaving us angry, empty, and struggling to understand this great loss. Thank God we had Fred as long as we did. We wanted more.
Featured Articles
Terrence Malick: Then and Soon
Readers of Job know these questions (38: 4, 7) compose part of God’s response (such as it is) to Job’s queries about his profuse personal loss–of family, respect, and fortune. Perhaps the only thing unique about Job’s circumstance is that this time, for Job, God bothers to respond at all, a courtesy that even the cross-nailed Jesus does not get in response to his question about forsakenness. In the films of Terrence Malick, these eternally vexing questions replay over and over in innumerable varieties of inexorable wrestle, struggles full of sound and fury, blood and death, and tears and groaning. Still, despite the woe, in Malick film after Malick film, beginning in 1998 with combat film The Thin Red Line, there emerges a sort of luminous splendor, wondrous and revelatory, a counter of sorts to an ever-lurking, predatory evil that randomly devours all, including, horribly, children.
Scripture Memorization: How to Hear The Voice of God
This is how God speaks—at least in my life. I don’t hear a voice thundering from the sky. It’s certainly not dramatic. It doesn’t even
Powerful Women in My Life: A Sharecropper’s Daughter, A Nanny, A Prophet/Priest, A Tribal Leader
What these women offered me was not correction from the outside but transformation from the inside. They offered invitation—an invitation to become someone I did
The revolutionary act of reading together: Why book clubs could save the world
Book clubs are gentle training grounds for something we desperately need: the experience of disagreeing with people we care about, and surviving it.
What is Reformed Theology, Anyway?
Editor’s Note: Following is an excerpt from chapter one, “A Reformed Theology Primer: Misconceptions and Realities,” from Generously Reformed: Theology Rooted Deep and Wide. Slow
What Christian Higher Education Offers That We (Still) Need
From our perspective as faculty at Christian liberal arts institutions, we see the work of Christian higher education as unique and essential. What should set
When the Faucet Runs Dry
Anger has had something of a reputation problem in Christian circles, especially for women. We tend to associate anger with sin. When I was younger,
Latest from the Blog
Daily blog by our regular bloggers & guest contributors.
Swaddling: A Novice’s Guide to Parenting on the Occasion of Her High School Graduation
I needed to learn how to be a dad to the life that was actually present instead of the life I was anticipating.
Julian’s Hazelnut
It feels captivating that the world might be cradled in the palm of a hand, not merely created by the love of God but sustained
The Subversive Social Trinity
The dominant Western social imaginary is individualistic. Hierarchical. Authoritarian. The doctrine of the Trinity is anything but.
Rage, Despair, and Hope
What do our professed values matter if we allow genocide to happen? Does any of our lofty rhetoric about freedom, democracy, and the value of
Nothing is Small about Our Talk
Church spaces are full of small talk. It’s often in narthexes and the backs of sanctuaries, during coffee hour or community meals, that our children
Cheese Rolling, Lacrosse, Ketchup, and the Need to Win
Hot takes grab attention not simply with decisiveness but divisiveness. We celebrate winners and give a dismissive backhand to those labeled as “losers.”
Still Carrying My Couch and the Cost of Grace
An injury left me immobile on the couch for a few months. Thankfully, I’m slowly walking now, but in some ways I’m still carrying the
I Still Believe in Beauty
To create is to insist that destruction will not have the final word.
Reviews
The Lord Keep You: A Story of Faith, Refuge, and Unexpected Family
When God blesses you, God prepares you for the journey. When God keeps you, God sustains you in that journey.
The Courage to Welcome
Welcome drops all boundaries around the sacred space of her home, while her neighbors create impenetrable barriers and include her in their condemnation of the
Generously Reformed
…even with is flaws and shortcomings, the Reformed tradition can be a fruitful pathway for growing deeper into maturity in Christ, for hearing the testimony
Love, Friendship, and Humor: Project Hail Mary (Film)
And most importantly, hope.
The rules don’t apply. We’re not a typical company. A Review of Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI
In early April, the artificial intelligence (AI) firm OpenAI announced that it had acquired the technology and business talk show “TBPN.” I had never heard
Friendship, Sacrifice, and…Astrophysics? Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary (Book)
…at the intersection of desperation and hope.
The Outer Edges of Prayer
He declares, “This isn’t / exactly a prayer. It’s more / the unbelieving yelp of prey grabbed suddenly by a wolf . . . .”
God of All Promises: A Poetic Pilgrimage
“I have found possible and useful, in my own practice, to pray back the Bible to God, who dwells therein.”
Poetry
Aeronaut
We’d become accustomed to the wonders that he worked–the wheel that drives the mill …
My Lord I Sit Beige and Bubble Wrapped
My Loud I sit beige and bubble-wrapped when all my friends forskae me for jobs …
In the Precincts of the Holy
The room, replete with what is about to happen, is full as well with coughing …
Imagining Iran, March 2026
We have no uncontaminated words for this
Podcasts
“Aeronaut” by Brian Phipps
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviews Brian G. Phipps about his poem “Aeronaut.” Brian is the author
“Broken Balm” by Alex Arthurs
In this week’s episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviews Alex Arthurs about his poem “Broken Balm.” Alex is husband
“My Lord I Sit Beige and Bubble Wrapped” by Alex Mouw
In this week’s episode of Reformed Journal Podcast, Rose Postma talks with Alex Mouw about his poem “My Lord Beige and Bubble Wrapped.” Alex is
“Sowing” by Marjorie Maddox
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, Rose Postma interviews Marjorie Maddox about her poem “Sowing.” Marjorie is Professor Emerita of English and Creative
“In The Precincts of the Holy” by Jerry Harp
In this week’s episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviews Jerry Harp about his poem “In The Precincts of the
“Contemplating the Redactions in the Newly Released Epstein Files” by Sara Kay Mooney
In this week’s episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma interviews Sara Kay Mooney about her poem “Contemplating the Redactions in