I want to begin my introductory editorial comments with the expression of much gratitude to all my predecessors, especially the most immediate, Rev. Dr. Jin Hee Han whose calm yet compelling call to me to …
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by Albrecht Classen
Human destiny has often been determined by the need to leave the place one calls ‘home.’ In fact, growing up normally means just that: depart from the place of one’s childhood and move …
by Bob Blundell
When I first decided to write this piece, I was going to begin by illustrating how things have changed over time and how being advanced in years allows me to contrast the world …
by Larry Toney
Soul Support – Spiritual Encounters at Life’s End – Memoir of a Hospital Chaplain by Joan Paddock Maxwell, Resource Publications, Eugene, Oregon, 2017.
In the prologue of Joan Maxwell’s helpful book, Soul Support Spiritual …
by Neal D. Presa
The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race by Willie James Jennings. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010. 366 pages. $24.41
Willie James Jennings gives us a tour de force in …
by Darla Turlington
Biblical Migrations
Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man… —Genesis 3:22-23
These are the families of Noah’s sons, according …
Dear Friends,
The authors in this combined issue of summer and fall remind us that it is a good time to dream. I draw this conclusion not because they declare that the contemporary era is ridden …
by John Herbst
“Every dream represents a wish as fulfilled. Thanks to a relative relaxation of censorship in sleep, a dream expresses repressed desires whose satisfaction is forbidden during the waking state.”
—Sigmund Freud
Freud’s statement rings true …
by Deborah Jenkins
Three names in Christian history stand, above all, for the great emancipation of the oppressed. Chronologically they are: Moses, known as the Emancipator of Israel; Jesus Christ, Savior of the world; and Dr. …
by Clarence E. Wright
On August 28, 1963 at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered what would become his most famous speech. The speech would come to be known …
by Insook Lee
A long time ago, I served a medium-sized church as a seminarian. One day, the associate pastor’s wife came to see me. I knew that she and her husband had had conflicts with …
by Cleotha Robertson
The theophany in the dream of Jacob (Genesis 28:10-22) occurs against the backdrop of divine revelation in Genesis, and the Old Testament more generally. It reminds the reader that the phenomenon of dreams …
by Robert G. Umidi
In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. established his essential legacy at the “March on Washington”, delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech to a quarter of a million people (and many more …
Title: Fish on Fire
Artist: Piety Choi
Size: 40"x40"
Mixed Media on Wooden Panel
This painting is based on the story at the end of the gospel of John in which the risen Christ came to his disciples on the morning of his resurrection and broiled the fish for them. To the wooden panel I attached the actual pieces of burnt burlap fabric and used acryl paint to reproduce a scene of broiling. While the Johannine passage is commonly understood as the risen Christ telling the world that he has risen and has returned to provide hope as well as hope-filled nourishment, I remember that fire also has the cleansing power of the fire of the Holy Spirit. According to other gospel traditions, Peter had denied Jesus three times. Jesus’ feeding of his disciples with the fish by the sea of Tiberias, however, has no trace of condemnation. In this scene, Jesus said to Peter, “Do you love me?” Jesus then asked Peter to tend his sheep. Divine justice might call to mind fire as punishment, but I cherish the power of the Lord’s fire that cleanses our soul from the stains of sin. There I see the path to renewal and new life.
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