Over the past couple years of my main Fall series have put Christian theology up to an external lens to better understand ourselves through the face of another: Integral thought in 2021, Indigenous spiritualities in 2022, and principles of permaculture in 2023. But when I look at the state of Christianity today, it seems to me that the only mirror we need right now is the Gospel itself. The things most self-proclaimed Christians care about — religiously, politically, and socially — seem to bear little resemblance to the concerns of the New Testament, and even less to the concerns of Jesus. And so in 2024 I went back to the basics of Christian teaching and explored Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, found in chapters 5 through 7 of The Gospel according to St. Matthew.
Matthew Root 