Featured Articles
Homecoming – Chapter One of “Rooted”
The kids were silent. Eerily silent. Quite possibly more silent than four kids aged five through ten confined to car seats have ever been in the history of road trips. They are respecting my grief, I told myself. More likely they were terrified and traumatized by the length and loudness of my wailing. They had never seen me broken down like this. They are going to need therapy, I told myself.
Featured Articles
The New Meaning of Being Busy — Through the Lens of Scripture
The 21st century has transformed busyness into a deeply subjective experience. You can feel busy even when you aren’t physically overburdened. This new busyness is fueled by cognitive overload, emotional anxiety, and the relentless demands of digital connectivity.
How to Follow the Benedictine Rule
Despite its name, the Rule of St. Benedict is not actually a collection of rules. It is the constitutional document for Benedictine monasteries. It
Wandering in a Cosmic Wilderness Part 2: Glimmerings of God
The Reformed belief in the complementarity of the books of revelation offers a third way. It invites believers to open their hearts and search for
Wandering in a Cosmic Wilderness Part 1: On My Own, Slip Slidin’ Away
I look up and see heavens so vast and mysterious that I feel lost, wandering in a cosmic wilderness. The infinite immensity of space threatens
I Don’t Want to Be a Jerk
I preached on LGBTQ issues four times in forty years, once in each church I served. I tried to model how to talk about these
The Cost of Christian Cultural Warfare
Christian nationalist and culture-war ideologies offer what may sound like an appealing pathway forward. The call to “take back our country” and win the culture
How Ignoring Our Bodies is Harming Our Souls
My body is me. Any attempt to ignore and suppress this body-soul oneness is to cause harm, for it is to live in opposition to
Latest from the Blog
Daily blog by our regular bloggers & guest contributors.
High Speed Makes His Confession
We lived outside Cincinnati, Ohio when I was a kid and my great-grandfather, Howard Sumner Munroe (he always claimed his initials “H. S.” stood for
Worship: Our School of Protest
It’s not just the words that we sing, it’s the very fact that this is how we choose to engage our faith and our world–in
Dieting, Domesticity, & Devotion: Conservative Religion & Politics and the Shrinking of Women
The aim of rhetoric of traditional ideas of gender and femininity, framed as if it’s caring for women’s overall well-being, is to control them..
The Wizard of Garden Grove
Schuller’s land of Oz turned out to be Orange County, California, and there he did not find but built his Emerald City.
When Do Girls Fall Behind?
The gap cannot be explained by boys being inherently better at math than girls. Numerous studies show that males and females perform similarly in math
I’ve Never Done It Before, But
I wonder about this precious time together. I suspect that we could be doing something more.
Can We Ever Really Say “The Bible is Clear”?
What if what we read in those pages is a reflection of how humanity understood God, the world, and life at specific times and specific
Thunderstruck by America’s Sweethearts
The show is supposedly pushing against a larger cultural narrative of cheerleaders as merely sexualized females.
Reviews
Take a Backseat, DNA!
Most of us are familiar with the “DNA as the blueprint of life” idea—that DNA contains all the information necessary to build an organism, whether
Green Street in Black and White
Green Street in Black and White shows us the history of who we have been as Christians, what we have said, how we have thought,
Worldview Theory, Whiteness, and the Future of Evangelical Faith
The problem with worldviewing, as Cook sees it, is the way it blinds us to the concrete reality of lived experience; our own and those
Sinners: Vampires, Blood & the Conquest of Death
We may now be enjoying a golden age of Black American writers and directors using the horror movie to put all that heritage to use
The Wise Leader
In this book, Uli Chi gives us a glimpse of what makes a person a wise leader and draws from his own experiences as a
Small Things Like These
This is not a happy story, per se, but a good one. A story that reminds me that those quiet murmurings of our hearts, what
The Sabbath Way: Making Room in Your Life for Rest, Connection, and Delight
Travis West has written the book on Sabbath that we need right now. And by “we” I mean all of us–the busy, the tired, the
Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling
Anyone looking at Neri Alvarado Borges’ tattoo knows there must be deep meaning behind it. Shaped like a loop of ribbon, it features a rainbow
Poetry
Grafting Apple Shoots
Gashes in the green. Stumps and roots serve in …
Winterscape with Hair Gel and Citrus
Each day you wak to the same gray sky, snow covering the gass like scarves the women wear …
Annunciation
After Fred broke up with me,I returned to graduate schooland immersed myself in six classes,an overload, trying to heal. One sunny autumn day,I sat alone
The jar the woman left beside the well
the large jar lays beside the well of the city’s forefather …
Malchus
There are at least two Machuses in heaven. Malchus according to LUke has at least two ears but no name …
Michigan Spring
First leaves of trout lily among the roots of a bare beech tree …
Podcasts
“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
“Annunication” by Janet Heller
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the Poetry Edition, Rose Postma talks with Janet Ruth Heller about her poem “Annunication.” Heller is the
“The Jar Left at the Well” by Sarah Watkins
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Sarah Watkins about her poem “The Jar the Woman Left
“Malchus” by Joshua Patch
In this episode of the Reformed Journal Podcast, the poetry edition, Rose Postma talks with Joshua Patch about his poem “Malchus.” Patch is a teacher
“Michigan Spring” by Paul J. Willis
In this episode of the poetry edition of the Reformed Journal Podcast, Rose Postma interviews Paul J. Willis about his poem “Michigan Spring.” Paul is