First Person
Disguise: Essays by readers
We gave our readers a one-word writing prompt: “Disguise.”
Threshold: Essays by readers
We gave our readers a one-word writing prompt: “threshold.”
John Boswell’s faith lit up a generation
My brother’s work paved the way for many LGBTQ Christians.
I went to the first McDonald’s in Russia for the bathroom
As the Soviet Union crumbled, the West sent French fries.
The wonderful ordinariness of congregational life
Sometimes it’s boring. Sometimes it’s thrilling. Sometimes it makes me cry.
This is my blood, donated for you
When my arm is stretched out and blood is trickling out of me, I find myself thinking of Jesus.
Bleeding in the pulpit
The Sunday I decided to tell the truth about my miscarriage.
Iona was once the beating heart of Celtic Christianity
The only thing it lacked was a desert—so the monks imagined one.
The Didache’s ancient wisdom on baptism lands differently in a megadrought
Faith and water conservation in the desert
After my son died, I went looking for God in the desert
If anything had an honest answer, it would be the canyon’s cool indifference and heartbreaking beauty.
The Dominican friars whose library is transforming Islamic studies
How a rare books collection in Cairo expanded into a center for scholarship and interfaith conversation
How playwright Tetsuro Shigematsu has transformed my homiletics classes
His advice: be yourself, be underprepared, be weird.
Preparing for winter, preparing for God
The Spirit’s presence often feels like winter’s dry wind.