Lazy Cultural Engagement

October 8, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

Last week I wrote a little something for Christianity Today about “lazy cultural engagement”: In the reflection, Will McDavid wrote that “cultural engagement”—a term I, too, have come to dread—is a poor substitute for the sort of cultural isolation that evangelicals and other Christians embraced in the twentieth century, and have just begun to claw their way out of in the relatively recent past. But as McDavid points out, our “re-engagement” with culture has sometimes amounted to, well, talking about talking... Read more

Just Slap Something On It

October 7, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

The Paris Review blog has a wonderful, tiny little excerpt from Vincent Van Gogh’s letters about what to do when the blank canvas (or page or whatever) is staring back at you menacingly: Just slap something on it when you see a blank canvas staring at you with a sort of imbecility. You don’t know how paralyzing it is, that stare from a blank canvas that says to the painter you can’t do anything. The canvas has an idiotic stare, and mesmerizes some painters so that they turn into idiots... Read more

Vocational Liturgies

October 6, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

Over at The High Calling, James K.A. Smith explores what it might mean to develop rituals that help us better pursue God in our vocations: If we want to pursue God in our vocations, we need to immerse ourselves in rituals and rhythms and practices whereby the love of God seeps into our very character—is woven into, not just how we think, but who we are. This is one of the reasons why worship is not some escape from “the work week.”... Read more

Living My Family’s Legacy

October 3, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

At Good Letters, Caroline Langston writes about what we inherit from our fathers and their fathers: The sins of the fathers may indeed be visited upon the children, and upon the children’s children, until the third and the fourth generation, but there is more to inherit than that. My grandmother, Irene, whom I grew up calling “Big Mama” was born 1902 on Dunbarton Plantation (or was it Stonewall?) in Holmes County, Mississippi, the eldest of eight daughters of a not-rich cotton... Read more

Repairing the World

October 2, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

A lovely, deep essay from Steve Garber over at Art House America on repairing the world: But I also remembered one very snowy night in December some years ago with a houseful of friends there for his annual Sanacostia party when a group of guys with masks came in with guns in their hands and violence in their hearts. Hearing the worst words that anyone should ever hear, David’s and his friends’ lives were threatened, and their belongings were stolen. No... Read more

Christian Book about the Holocaust Banned from Charter School? Probably Not.

October 1, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

Last week, a news story made the rounds about a charter school system banning Corrie ten Boom’s classic memoir The Hiding Place from their libraries. It sounded like a prime example of persecution, even in a small way. But not so fast, says Alan Noble at Christ and Pop Culture – let’s get the story straight: The sad thing here is the abuse that this charter school is getting online because of this “report.” Commenters are trolling the school’s Facebook page, calling down damnation upon... Read more

A Tale of Two Political Dramas

September 30, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

Last week at Christianity Today, I wrote about political dramas (with special attention to Scandal and Madam Secretary), and what they teach us, and why it matters: It’s important to note the bent of our political shows, because not only do they say interesting things about our national psyche, but they shape that psyche. They shape how we approach our engagement with politics. They shape our future as a society governed by the people. And they shape it far more tellingly than any speech or... Read more

Learning to Love Your Job

September 29, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

Over at The High Calling today, Bob Smietana writes about learning to love your job, in a post apt for a Monday, and a couple who’s managed to wed their love of music-making with their passion for social justice and bringing women out of prostitiution: Then there’s the sheer joy of making music, whether it is during a jam session in the living room or during a gig.“Music has been something that has enriched our lives far beyond the idea that I... Read more

Anthology: the Power of Words

September 26, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

Over at The High Calling, Alia Joy has a lovely meditation on the power of words and stories: I can’t imagine living in a world where words couldn’t speak to me and rewrite my truth, and I suppose my dad couldn’t either. I don’t know what causes some souls to hunger and ache to know, but he surely did. He wanted to know, or maybe to be known. Don’t we all want that just a little bit? Don’t we all want... Read more

And Speaking of Friendship . . .

September 25, 2014 By Alissa Wilkinson

Particularly situations in which friends can be made, as David Brooks wrote about in yesterday’s post: Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, does something very interesting along these lines – though a recent battle between the retailer and a major publisher is souring the relationship: Every fall, Mr. Bezos, the founder of Amazon, hosts Campfire, a literary weekend in Santa Fe, N.M. Dozens of well-known novelists have attended, but they do not talk about the abundance of high-end clothing and other... Read more