Reflecting on the complexity of her own religious experience and the complex nature of Jesus, who “turns everything upside down—all our normal expectations,” and who is so unlike us in so many ways, Marilyn Sewell contends that we are all too comfortable with limited responses to the Jesus we profess to follow. We fund soup kitchens, but rarely ask uncomfortable questions about structures that sustain poverty. As a “Christian” nation, we are all too comfortable with war. While religious in many ways, we fail too often to recognize the uncomfortable truth that Jesus often associated with the unreligious: with prostitutes and the tax-collector traitors of the nation. As the essay reiterates, what is ultimately lost is the point that Jesus’ radical message focused on others, not on ourselves.
Getting Along in the 21st Century: Building Beloved Community
Through reflections on her own experiences as a social advocate and radio-talk-show host, Rice explores what personal integrity in “getting along” might look like. Taking us beyond merely getting through life and putting up with one another, the essay explores the real-life contours of accepting one another’s differences, agreeing to disagree, and respecting each other’s right to be wrong. Rice argues for both the livability and urgency of the Christian calling to not be hostile toward opponents, but to be counter-cultural, through humility, sacrifice, and understanding.
Venturing out of the Comfort Zone
Dundas offers a personal narrative of how writing a feature on evangelicals took him, as a writer for an alternative newspaper, out of his own comfort zone and into an important insight. The narrative becomes emblematic of the social challenges we face in America: we exist in a diverse society full of segmented pods of special interest, with a perpetual invitation to cocoon ourselves with others who share our values, interests, and tastes. This, Dundas remarks, is okay—as long as we remember there are other worlds out there, just as valid and rich as our own. Every one of us should make periodic efforts to learn a little bit about people who are not like us. Dundas winsomely reveals how researching the story helped him recognize the limits of his own preconceptions through an experience of diversity.
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Mutuality and Particularity: Contours of Authentic Dialogue
How can the Christian community engage in authentic dialogue with other traditions in search of the mutuality so necessary for civil society and yet remain true to the particular truth claims of the Christian faith? This paper attempts an answer to this question by setting forth a Trinitarian model of authentic dialogue, one that pursues mutuality while preserving the particularity of the Christian truth claims. It is even argued that the Christian community is called and enabled to pursue such mutuality because of the particularity of the Trinitarian faith. The essay concludes with insights regarding the nature of dialogue. Dialogue assists those from diverse traditions persuade one another to go more deeply into their respective traditions in view of what they can learn from one another in search of sources that will advance further a compassionate form of shared existence.
All Wounds are Our Own
The essay argues that no matter how great the wall that divides or separates, there really is no “other” place. The connectedness of “me” and “you,” “self” and “other,” “near” and “far”—the deeper sense that we are all of one community, one body, as it were, whether we are aware of it or not, and whether or not we accept it. Carlson contends that greater appreciation of our interconnection can help moderate the divisions and rancor occurring in even the most homogeneous groups—for every injustice or injury hurts all in some way.