Secular Death
For those who are no longer Christian, might writing and reading difficult literature be a training ground for approaching the agonies of loss? By Amy Hollywood
Category: Summer/Autumn 2016
Rethinking the Sacred
For the authors in this issue, experiences of film, literature, and sound are often inseparable from religious experience. By Ingrid Norton
Two Poems by Saar Yachin
“Default” and “Disclosed” by Saar Yachin, translated from the Hebrew by Alexandra Zelman-Doring
Two Poems by León Felipe
“The Dead Come Back” and “Prayer” by León Felipe, translated from the Spanish by Walter Smelt
Connecting Word and Flesh
An interview with with Mayra Rivera on her book Poetics of the Flesh. By Eloise Blondiau
Church-State Confusion Persists
The Myth of American Religious Freedom, by David Sehat, reveals the long struggle in U.S. history over how to preserve or disentangle the religious and the secular. By David D. Hall
Nostalgia Awakens
Star Wars: The Force Awakens anticipates and addresses the concerns of a nostalgic audience. By Robert Hensley-King
Religious Rewriting, Sacred Storytelling
Mary Rakow’s This Is Why I Came is both satisfying and troubling to this Jewish reader. By Courtney Sender
Trump and the Pope: ‘I’ vs. ‘We’ Visions
The 2016 presidential race highlights a deep split in the American psyche between communitarian and individualistic impulses. By E. J. Dionne and Catherine Brekus
The Grace of the Lord Jesus be With All
A pilgrimage to the Gambia and a visitation by his ancestors led this African American minister to a greater appreciation of other religious traditions. By Brad R. Braxton
Bertha Mason Is Sacred
After feeling disillusioned by the injustices done to Jane Eyre’s madwoman in the attic, a reverant reader finds greater blessings on the other side of betrayal. By Vanessa Zoltan
Sci-fi as a Queer Genre
By revealing alternate worlds, science fiction can unsettle what we know to make room for what’s possible. By Taj M. Smith
On Habit
The habit of playing music for church turns out to be the most important healing practice during a difficult year. By Michelle C. Sanchez
From Silence to Light
A daughter’s spiritual awakening enables her to give words to the silent sufferings of her family. By Lina Feuerstein
Mourning the Unknowable
Knut Hamsun’s novel Hunger helps a young woman grapple with her memories of a mother who was in the world but not of it. By Meghan Guidry
Growing into Faith
How the organic, homespun nurturance of the author’s Jewish faith imbued in him a sense of awe. By Robert Israel
