Six Beautiful Truths About Dr. J.I. Packer

by Daniel Gilman
Globally famous, constantly published, and intensely shy, the Reverend Dr. J.I. Packer enriched the faith of millions throughout the world through his hundreds of published books, essays, and articles. Dr. Packer passed away on July 17, 2020 at the age of ninety-three, leaving a hole in the lives of everyone who knew him, heard him speak, or read his work.…

The Seven Works of Mercy: How two Dutch artworks—one Renaissance, one contemporary—can help us recover an ethic of neighborly care

by Victoria Emily Jones
In early modern Europe most of what passed for social welfare was organized and run by confraternities, or lay brotherhoods. An extension of the Church system, membership consisted of upper-class men and women who ran the city’s hospitals, hostels, orphanages, eldercare facilities, and shelters for prostitutes and widows. They also managed the distribution of food, medicine, alms, and dowries to the poor—all in the name of Christ.…

Reflections on the History and Legacy of Radix

When former Campus Crusade staff member Jack Sparks and an eclectic team of folks who called themselves, rather boldly, the “Christian World Liberation Front” considered how to best present the good news of Jesus on the campus of UC Berkeley in the late 1960s, one of the means they chose was a Christian adaptation of the street papers that had become part and parcel of student unrest across the country.…

EMILY’S VIRTUES

Before her fingers lost
their cunning—my mother-
in-law, last of a generation
of refugees from up north—
we’d shell peas…

ANGELS EVERYWHERE

Some days I notice angels everywhere,
light glancing through windows, flying
through the glass as if through air.…

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Book review: Hermann Hesse: Phoenix Arising. By Ron Dart

Hanging above the mantle in Ron Dart’s living room is a large oil painting of a sea-battered coastal landscape featuring an old lighthouse nestled amongst tall, wispy, and sun-browned grass on an otherwise barren landscape. The symbol of the lighthouse is telling for how the author of thirty-plus books, including The North American High Tory Tradition and Keepers of the Flame: Canadian Red Toryism, has been influenced by the countercultural icon, Hermann Hesse.…

Joe Henry Sings a Dark and Romantic Gospel in the Wake of a Cancer Prognosis

In the liner notes to his latest album, The Gospel According to Water, poetic songwriter and prestigious producer Joe Henry emphasized twice that “where a song comes from is not what a song is.” He’s at once saying that these thirteen raw, sinewy, and intimate poems—written in rapid inspiration last year and recorded in spare, demo-like takes after Henry was diagnosed with prostate cancer in November of 2018—are not autobiographical, but are “songs about finding light” in the midst of overcast circumstances.…