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A Peek into the Mind of Marilynne Robinson

The Givenness of Things, by Marilynne Robinson THE GIVENNESS OF THINGS: ESSAYS MARILYNNE ROBINSON FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX, 2015. $26 286 PAGES Marilynne Robinson, best known for her four novels, Housekeeping, Gilead, Home and Lila, is a prolific essayist. The Givenness of Things represents her most recent compilation of essays. A self-described theist, Robinson identifies as a Protestant and makes no apologies for assigning priority to the Christian faith. The 17 pieces in the Givenness of Things derive from talks…
September 1, 2016
Essays

The Maoist Moment in American Conservatism

As of this writing Donald Trump is the presumptive United States presidential nominee for the Republican Party. While it is unclear why Trump has enough popularity to be the nominee (no doubt social scientists and historians will be working on this for a while) the dominant narrative is something along the lines of angry voters tired of “business as usual” politics which do not seem to be paying off for them. So they want to “burn it all down.” What…
September 1, 2016
Poetry

Complaints from Medieval Scribes

a found poem  Imagine sitting for hours at a slant desk, copying on rough parchment with a sharpened quill, day after lonely day. Of course you’d be tempted to write in the margins: “That’s a hard page and a weary work to read it.” “New parchment, bad ink; I say nothing more.” “The ink is thin.” “I am very cold.” “Saint Patrick of Armagh, deliver me from writing.” “Thank God it will soon be dark.” “Oh, my hand.” “Now that…
Barbara Crooker
September 1, 2016
Poetry

God of Dust

Early afternoon in late December: Clouds covering the face of the sun Parted and let light flood the living room, A current picking up carpet fibers and dog hair, Offering them up on tiny thermals, An ordinary sacrifice From time to eternity. One small dust particle dances, Pirouettes, waltzes, sighs, And descends, drifting back Into the blue and white carpet. This – that is what you tell them. This is why I believe. Pierce Taylor Hibbs has written for Westminster…
June 30, 2016
Reviews

Dissecting a Suburban Exodus

Shades of White Flight SHADES OF WHITE FLIGHT: EVANGELICAL CONGREGATIONS AND URBAN DEPARTURE MARK MULDER RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2015 $28.95 181 PAGES In May 2015, I sat in an intense council meeting that would decide the fate of my church, Roosevelt Park Christian Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan. The council resolved, and the church agreed, to give ourselves three months to achieve specific benchmarks so that we might discern if the church should continue on or not. We did not…
June 30, 2016
Poetry

Like Water

“Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered …” – 2 Samuel 14:14 In a hospital room of white linen and metal gates he lay as a bowl tilted, emptied of half of himself. (Life absorbs as by a cloth.) We watched his eyes intently then; we had no container to put him in. Weeks later he died in a living room, the vessel emptied, a mirror on the cold wooden floor. It has long since evaporated and…
June 30, 2016
As We See It

‘Reading As If for Life’: My Debt to Frederick Buechner

In Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, David uses the evocative phrase “reading as if for life” to describe his comfort in certain books during a tragic childhood. When I left graduate school after my dissertation proposal was rejected, that is what I did: I read as if for life. At the time, I was a student at the University of Cambridge, and I had invested a year’s worth of research into the project. The rejection was demoralizing, and it meant I…
June 30, 2016
Essays

Do Not Be Afraid

I had no idea why tears so abruptly filled my eyes. I was crying before I understood why I might be crying. But the sense that the reaction meant something was as real to me as the tears. I was seated alone in a packed crowd at Duke University’s stunning neo-Gothic chapel, listening intently as Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan conducted his St. Luke Passion for choir and orchestra. The core text of the piece is taken word for word…
June 30, 2016
Reviews

God as the ‘Principal Clerk’ of the Market

Stories Economists Tell STORIES ECONOMISTS TELL: STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY AND ECONOMICS JOHN P. TIEMSTRA WIPF AND STOCK $18 191 PAGES In his essay describing the good merchant, Thomas Fuller says, “For God is the principal clerk of the market.” That is, there are three people involved in every commercial transaction. His definition reflects the ethos of an earlier world view, one pervaded by Christian thought patterns. Much has changed, especially because of the Enlightenment, but has Fuller’s formula changed? Even…
June 30, 2016