Dreams Deferred: Hearing the Harlem Renaissance

[I have watched in horror over the past couple weeks at the continued violence against the black community. In the interest of amplifying black voices, over the next week I'll be promoting black theology past and present, with hopefully as little commentary from me as possible.  May we all hear what the Holy Spirit is … Continue reading Dreams Deferred: Hearing the Harlem Renaissance

Songs of Lamentation and Longing: Hearing Black Spirituals

[I have watched in horror over the past couple weeks at the continued violence against the black community in the United States and in Canada. In the interest of amplifying black voices, over the next week I'll be promoting black theology past and present, with as little commentary from me as possible. May we all … Continue reading Songs of Lamentation and Longing: Hearing Black Spirituals

Contagion

On a morning when I awoke to find that my country was on the verge of closing its final international border to unnecessary travel, I couldn't help but find the opening words of the Psalm portion a little jarring: "He strengthens the bars of your gates." (Ps 147.13). Indeed. Never in living memory have we … Continue reading Contagion

A Time for Every Matter under Heaven

Because we are meaning-making creatures, it is no surprise that many cultures across the world and throughout history have extended this to finding symbolic meaning in numbers. Even in Western North American culture that doesn't have a historical numerological system of its own, we have a strong predilection for multiples of ten, and call the … Continue reading A Time for Every Matter under Heaven