God’s love, he says, is seen here, in this suffering of Christ, in this bleeding wound, a suffering which remains in the midst of violence but is not consumed by it. With this contradiction, Phil Klay opens his premiere novel Missionaries, a work about the ways in which war is exported and propagated, and ultimately transfigures the world.
The most striking aspect of Sam Mendes’ new World War I movie, 1917, is the backgrounds. Rare as it is for the backgrounds to shine brighter than the actors and foregrounds in movies, Mendes has achieved it; I believe that was his goal.
Paul says that there is a war, and that it’s raging. It isn’t a war between Jews and Gentiles. It isn’t between us and them, or between right and wrong, or left and right. It is between law and grace. It is an internal war between I-can-do-it-on-my-own (independence) and come-to-me all-who-are-weary (dependence). It is between you-get-what-you-deserve and find-rest for-your-souls.
Syria is complicated. But American Christians shouldn’t use that complexity as an excuse for silence
Another presidential election year is upon us, and for the fourth election cycle in a row, American military intervention in the Middle East is a hot topic. By my count, every candidate running in both parties has pledged to destroy or defeat the Islamic State.
