Knowledge Hidden in Plain Sight By Jeff Bowersox Debates over rights, citizenship, and belonging in Germany (as elsewhere in Europe) often revolve around competing notions of history, different bodies of knowledge about the past and how it relates to the present. There is a popular vision of German history understood Read more
Junco Politics By Richard Bohannon I came upon my first dark-eyed juncos on an early Spring afternoon in 2012, new binoculars and a tiny book of Minnesota birds in my back pocket. A small flock had sheltered within a patch of evergreen bushes, one of only four species I saw Read more
Vax Skepticism and Healthy Skepticism By Michael Scaturro German media this week have been puzzling over the story of a vaccine skeptic who refused a jab and then signed a legal document to prevent doctors from treating him should he be stricken with Covid. The 77-year-old man, Hellmut Urban of Read more
Religion and Catastrophe By Mayra Rivera Talk of catastrophe has become ubiquitous in recent years. A global pandemic has harmed individuals, devastated communities, and upended established ways of life. But even as organizations around the world rush to address the Covid-19 crisis, climate catastrophes are raging. There are hurricanes of Read more
Planetary Goodness, Beauty, and Truth By Whitney A. Bauman In many ways the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were marked by a slow slide in western modern thought from transcendent ideals to immanent, relational realities. The universal truths, transcendent ideals of beauty, and moral ideals of ultimate good and evil began Read more
Out of the Depths: Denialism, Nihilism, and the Possibility of Ecological Civilization By Catherine Keller At this moment in this prematurely aging new year, with Omicron omnipresent, I do not want to discuss the virus. You already know it reveals environmental imbalance, social injustice, global interdependence. Instead, I want to Read more
Knowing What Is True? Between Science and Belief By Dion Forster After a somewhat “rebellious” childhood, I began to feel a strong sense of calling to the priesthood as I approached the end of high school. However, my parents were less convinced of my calling, partly because they were not Read more
My Schedule is Full: Boundaries on the Bountiful By Anna Mercedes I first thought my life was entirely too full to write this blog! Then I decided on second thought to write about that initial instinct—because it is significant. It reflects a new spiritual strategy that I’m practicing for social Read more
Conformation and Transformation: Two Ways of Thinking about the World By John Thatamanil Two warring impulses operate in the world’s religious and wisdom traditions—within as well as across them. Echoes of these impulses can be felt also in secular traditions, but here, I focus largely on religious expressions. One impulse Read more
On COP26 and the Need for Parareligion By Justine M. Bakker Earlier this November, thousands of people—country leaders and activists, climate experts and NGOs—traveled to Glasgow for COP26, the 26th annual UN global Climate Summit. As world leaders were debating inside and negotiating an agreement that many criticized as, to Read more