"Pietist," "pietistic": when we encounter these terms at all, they typically come dripping with condescension and scorn. This collection serves as a corrective. In addition to a cluster of pieces on "Continental German Pietism" (rightly the longest of the book's eight parts), there's a section on "Wesley the Pietist." And I was particularly glad, as a longtime member of the Evangelical Covenant Church, to see the essays on "Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Trans-Atlantic Scandinavian Pietism." The volume concludes with a lovely bit of Catholic bridge-building by Emilie Griffin.
The conception of Thomas Gardner's book is brilliant. He works his way attentively through the Gospel of John, with recourse to poems that engage directly with John's text or with its salient themes. Gardner's company of poets includes canonical figures and contemporaries as well. The result is a reading of John that will draw you "deeper and deeper into the claim that Jesus is life itself--that through his death his Father offers life to the world."
The title of Roz Chast's new book of cartoons may be slightly misleading. She gives us a list of "concerns," things that make her anxious. ("I am an anxious person," she tells us, from "a long line of anxious people.") So what we have here is a delightful miscellany of "phobias, fears, loathings." Some are expected (Elevators, Heights, Quicksand); others will perhaps come as a surprise (Balloons, Jell-O-1-2-3, Spontaneous Human Combustion). In all cases, A to Z, anxiety is transmuted into absurdity. No prescription required.
While we pray for peace, we need moral clarity about this war.
We’ve got little information on Jesus’ appearance and personality. But that’s the way God designed it.españolFrançais
Christian artists work at the intersection of music and climate change.
