A Conversation with Artist Natalie Settles, Part 1

Last updated on: May 12, 2016 at 1:52 pm By Guest Contributor

By Natalie Settles This post was made possible through the support of a grant from The BioLogos Foundation’s Evolution and Christian Faith program. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of BioLogos. Artist Natalie Settles, featured in the most recent issue of Image, “Evolution and the Imago Dei” , has long been fascinated by the biological sciences. She makes drawings and installation art that mix highly detailed botanical and zoological imagery with highly stylized... Read more

Beauty, Christian Love, and Gay Marriage

Last updated on: July 14, 2015 at 9:27 am By Morgan Meis

Justice Anthony Kennedy, in the recent Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, wrote the following concluding paragraph: No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they... Read more

Airbnb and the Art of Hospitality

Last updated on: May 12, 2016 at 1:52 pm By Sara Zarr

As I write this, my husband and I are on our twentieth day away from home as we travel through parts of Europe and England on holiday. It’s a celebration trip for us—as of this August, we have been married twenty-five years. Though at one point we envisioned six or eight weeks abroad, neither of us has ever been outside of North America before so we kept the scope of the trip manageable and will be headed home in another... Read more

My Evolving Identity

Last updated on: May 12, 2016 at 1:53 pm By Peggy Rosenthal

I’ve just read a thirty-page article called “Whitman Music: The Problem of Adaptation.” A critical analysis of musical settings of Whitman’s poetry, the article was published in the 1965 issue of Books at Brown, a journal devoted to materials in the Special Collections of Brown University’s library. The author is Peggy Z. Rosenthal. I turn to the contributors list at the back of the journal to learn more about this author. I see that her article is “based on... Read more

Art on Fire: The Life and Work of Melissa Weinman, Part 2

Last updated on: July 9, 2015 at 2:51 pm By Guest Contributor

By Richard Cole Continued from yesterday. When Weinman completed her fellowship in Europe, she came back to the U.S., where she began a new life that included marriage, the birth of two daughters, and a new chapter in her pilgrim faith. “I think I’m a Christian, but I don’t know how to do it.” This was how she approached an Episcopal priest in her neighborhood, looking for spiritual direction. Although he was on the point of retirement, he agreed to... Read more

Art on Fire: The Life and Work of Melissa Weinman, Part 1

Last updated on: July 13, 2015 at 11:42 am By Guest Contributor

By: Richard Cole In a recent painting by Melissa Weinman, a small, white rose floats over darkness. The rose is in full blossom, almost blown, and crowned by a pale fire rising from its petals like mist. The effect is arresting, almost hallucinatory, but this is not an image that is merely unusual—a pretty flower on fire. Instead, the painting holds us in abeyance. We enjoy both what we can see and what escapes us. We have the sense that... Read more

Morning Prayer and The New York Times

Last updated on: July 13, 2015 at 11:43 am By Richard Chess

Summer morning routine: a cup of Awake tea, the Opinion page of The New York Times. What am I looking for to get my day going? Information to spark the brain? A needle to inject righteous indignation into my sleepy heart? The flag is coming down. You know which one. I read columnist Nicholas Kristof’s “Tearing Down the Confederate Flag Is Just a Start.” “America’s greatest shame in 2015 is not a piece of cloth. It’s that a black boy... Read more

The Bearable Weightiness of Being

Last updated on: July 2, 2015 at 12:13 pm By Guest Contributor

By Amy Peterson I was restless this spring, edging manic. I think my kids noticed. One Thursday I checked them out of school for an impromptu road trip. “Isn’t this fun?” I asked. If this were a novel I’d say my eyes were glittering, but this is not fiction: I have no idea how wild-eyed I was. “I just think it’s a little weird to leave school for no reason,” my six-year-old said. It wasn’t for no reason. The responsibilities... Read more

Dancing for My Life, Part 2

Last updated on: July 2, 2015 at 1:07 pm By Tony Woodlief

Continued from yesterday. Traditional dance is, by modern standards, inherently misogynistic. The man leads, in most basic arrangements, by stepping forward. The woman must step back to make room for him. In some dances, the couple maintains a squared frame with their arms, so the woman can sense when the man is going to turn her, or shift direction. In others, like swing, they hold hands, and he alternately sends her away and tugs her back again, or pulls her... Read more

Dancing for My Life, Part 1

Last updated on: July 13, 2015 at 11:46 am By Tony Woodlief

“ONE two three, LONG short short—don’t step on her!” Gulya is my dance instructor. She’s from Azerbaijan, she’s five feet tall, and I’m afraid of her. Gulya, too, is afraid. She fears I will stomp my wife’s toes. I’m wearing boots, because we are a month away from a wedding on a California ranch, where real cowboys will be dancing real cowboy dances. Faced with this prospect, I realized several weeks ago that my choices are: 1) Ask my beautiful... Read more