Rethinking the Study of African Indigenous Traditions
To avoid the continuous misassessment of their resilience, African indigenous religions should be studied on their own terms. By Jacob K. Olupona
Featured
The Decapitated Priest and the Cook Turned Peacebuilder
In an excerpt from “Gods, Guns, and Girls: Gender, Agency and Spirituality in a Congolese Rebel Movement,” the author questions assumptions about Mai-Mai indigenous practices. By Georgette Mulunda Ledgister
When Brokenness Opens the Door to Healing
As a college chaplain adapts Yoga and Vedanta teachings to the everyday circumstances his students face, he discovers his own theology of grace. By Vineet Chander
Campus Chaplains Hold the Center When Things Fall Apart
In ordinary and extraordinary moments, college chaplains serve as ethical guides and exegetes of lived experience. By Celene Ibrahim, Elizabeth H. Aeschlimann, and Nancy Fuchs Kreimer
Sacred Stories Inspire Public Responsibility
An initiative exploring the role religion plays in the lives of resettled refugees deepens the author’s understanding of engaged chaplaincy. By Matthew Weiner
Dialogue
On Chanting and Consciousness
Memories of her Jain grandmother’s chanting lead the author to reflect on “how deliriously inside out moments can be.” By Diane Mehta
Citizens of Two Realms
During her year as a monk, a millennial discovers reverential awe in the midst of chaos. By Eloise Skinner
Creating a World Beyond Lethal Force
Reducing our reliance on the military and police to keep us safe starts with having revolutionary conversations. By Sarah Nahar
Policing: War Institution or Public Service?
Police Brutality and the #EndSARS Movement in Nigeria
Investing in a World That Is Not Yet
After the Death of Chabad’s Messiah
Why do Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson’s followers in Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidism continue to believe in his messianic identity more than 26 years after his demise? By Joseph Newfield
In Review
Books
Freedom Doesn’t Happen in a Day
Four voices celebrate the publication of Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us about Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Freedom. Buddhism offers practical tools to work through intergenerational trauma. By Cheryl A. Giles
Books
Sacred, Ancestral Cries for Freedom
Black and Buddhist: The Eightfold Path finds resonance in the Black church. By Melissa Wood Bartholomew
Books
A Full-Bodied Dharma
Black and Buddhist: Contributors to this volume take refuge in embodied practice and in vibrant community. By Judith Simmer-Brown
Books
The Deliciousness of Truth
Black and Buddhist: In the face of white supremacy, Buddhism reteaches us how to relate to truth and to one another. By Pamela Ayo Yetunde
Books
‘Literature is Common Ground’: On Reading Virginia Woolf
A Q&A with Stephanie Paulsell on her latest book, Religion Around Virginia Woolf. By Sarah Fleming
Syllabus
Black Women, Black Church, and Self-Narratives
A selected reading list of classic and contemporary memoir and autobiography from Nyasha Junior’s course.
Shelf Life
Housekeeping’s Contemplative Approach to Longing
Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping explores the human response to the transient. By C. E. Morgan
Poetry
The Child’s Other
By Tolu Oloruntoba
Two Poems
Maximalism
Lazarus, In Icons
By Jane Zwart
Perspective
Slow Transformations, Small Windows of Light
The authors here challenge us to think more carefully about what responsible and responsive care looks like, and one clear through line in this issue is that “right mind” and “right relationship” go hand in hand; you cannot have one without
the other. By Wendy McDowell
