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June 2015

June 17, 2015

Wanted: God—Dead or Alive?

If you practice a religion faithfully—faith-fully—, why do you do this? And why is it...

June 16, 2015

Before the Fall of Baseball

By Chad Thomas Johnston When I was a child, school did not rank high on...

June 12, 2015

Sunday Morning at Wegmans, Prince George’s County, Maryland

It is the Feast of Pentecost on the Eastern Orthodox calendar, the annual commemoration of...

June 10, 2015

The Eucharist: Eat, Eat!

By Shannon Huffman Polson We sit in the back pew at church with intention; there’s...

June 03, 2015

The Science and Sundayness of Play

This post was made possible through the support of a grant from The BioLogos Foundation’s...

June 02, 2015

The Beautiful Attitudes

By Dyana Herron I clearly remember the last day of being nine. I stood in...

May 2015

May 28, 2015

What Is a Christian?

According to recent survey by the Pew Research Center, the number of U.S. adults who...

May 27, 2015

What Cannot Be Fixed

I remember the time when "entropy" was all the rage. It must have been in...

May 26, 2015

Self-Hating Jew: A Love Story, Part 1

In response to “Never Again: Netanyahu’s Holocaust Cliché,” a recent post of mine on Good...

May 15, 2015

Go Ahead and Have the Damn Children!

I was working from home a few days ago, on a day when both of...

May 11, 2015

Finding God in Updike Country

It took me more than a year of living out here to realize I am...

April 2015

April 29, 2015

Sexist Assumptions and the Difficult, Dirty Work of Grace

My husband was deep into a bathroom remodeling project when he asked me to stop...

April 27, 2015

Jesus: Here, There, and Everywhere

Gertrude Stein once said of her hometown, Oakland, California, where she was raised after having...

April 24, 2015

The Soul of the Law

At the beginning of the old Norton Anthology of English Literature (4th Ed.) appeared this...

April 21, 2015

What Will Pass for Mercy

By Brian Volck “Do not say God is just. Justice has not been evident in...

April 09, 2015

Literacy Class: Learning the Language of Love

This past week, I taught my last English class for quite some time. Three years...

March 2015

March 11, 2015

“A Pair of Silk Stockings” and Other Frivolous Pleasures of Mothers

After a harrowing weekend of yelling at my children, I decided I needed to take...

March 02, 2015

Exercises for Lent

An evangelical mutt, I have only in the past few years discovered the allure of...

February 2015

February 25, 2015

I Belong to Jesus

Today we are happy to welcome back former Good Letters blogger Sara Zarr as a...

February 13, 2015

Monasticism In Lockdown America, Part 5: Holy Elders

With their white beards and deep lines in their faces, the older men stand out...

February 12, 2015

The Collision

All I saw of the deer at first was the eye: domed, amber and pellucid,...

January 2015

January 27, 2015

Kissing Sideways

“I want to write,” people often tell me, eager to talk about the myriad ways...

January 09, 2015

Wearing a Coat of Many Colors

Around eight years ago, I bought a coat. I hardly ever bought brand-new clothes, and...

December 2014

December 30, 2014

Barry Moser: I Knew I was Home, Part 2

Guest post by Barry Moser The following post, continued from yesterday, is adapted from a...

December 22, 2014

In Memoriam

If you live long enough in a place, people will start to die there, but...

December 19, 2014

Over the Rhine: Finding Our Tribe

Guest post by Linford Detweiler The following post is adapted from a talk given at...

December 16, 2014

The Regrettably Pretty Shoes: A St. Louis Story

Guest post by Linda Wendling I love St. Louis. I love Ferguson. My whole family...

December 10, 2014

Monasticism in Lockdown America, Part 3

Continued from yesterday. In the “burpees” the guys often showed me after they were home...

October 2014

October 13, 2014

The Iron Cross: An Observation from the Way of Saint James, Part 1

I didn’t know Julia well. The first time I saw her, she was sitting at...

July 2014

July 16, 2014

Made Whole Again: 25 Years of Image

To celebrate Image’s twenty-fifth anniversary we are posting a series of essays by people who...