July 11, 2013 / Creative Writing
A love poem.
In this issue of The Other Journal, our contributors address some of the hardships of finding our way in the transformative mystery that is prayer. They consider prayer in all its questions and practicalities. They carefully think through intercessory prayer and prayerful political theology and what it means to commune with God and one another. And they dance, laugh, and pray like fools.
The speaker in this poem examines her place between the “blessed and unblessed” and observes the gap between her actions of piety and the “attempt” at a life.
This body of work from photographer Kurt Simonson relates to his experiences living at the L’Abri communities and takes notice of themes such as stillness, presence, and community.
This reflection explores some aspects of the relationship between the priestly ministry of Jesus Christ and the mission of God in which the church participates.
An interview with California artist Dominique Ovalle on painting, beauty, murals, cockroaches in Palau, and a reality behind life as an artist.
Laura Brown strings together snippets of memory from the “ragtag communities” that have taught her how to stitch her own “book of common prayers.”
In “For Hannah,” Robert Vander Lugt tries to narrate the experience of watching a child cling to life in a hospital bed and encounters difficulty in the motions and effects of prayer, in how to tell such a story in the first place.
I prayed better when the children were small, when we spread out the crayons in …
This review examines Crystal Downing’s Changing Signs of Truth, which successfully applies semiotics, an often arcane and inaccessible academic discipline, to the practical theological task of understanding the relationship between Christian faith and culture.