We Are Worldless Without One Another: An Interview with Judith Butler
In this interview with Judith Butler, we consider her work in light of the recent events at Standing Rock and the 2016 presidential election.
Issue 27: Identity
“We the people . . .” So begins the familiar first line to the Preamble of the United States Constitution. But even in its initial context, in a document intended to be a manifesto of hope and freedom, the matter of who exactly was to be included in this “we” was unclear and contested. First-person pronouns (i.e., I and we) roll off the tongue–or onto parchment paper–with ease, but their common use often belies an underlying complexity. Who am I? Who are we? Who does my theology say that I am?
Identity is at the same time essential to life and yet also deeply contested, problematic, and enigmatic. The world may be becoming more one and, yet, it seems also to be becoming more different, fragmented, agonistic, and isolated. In this issue of The Other Journal, we will explore the valences of identity, both individual and communal, personal and public. We will take up the theme of identity in multiple ways, examining its interconnections with sexuality, pluralism and authenticity, the dissolution and reconstitution of borders, racial divisions, and, yes, even the 2016 presidential campaign.
Performativity and the Flesh: The Economy of the Icon in Lia Chavez’s Light Body
Julie M. Hamilton views the embodied art of Lia Chavez in the light of ancient spiritual practices.
Can’t Stop the Feelings: Anger and Identity in Mark 6:17–29
Angela Parker rethinks the idea of “angry black women” through her reading of the biblical character Herodias.
Cracks in Secularism: Thriving Churches in Vancouver
Jason Byassee finds religion reemerging in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Autobiographical Memory and the Art of Storytelling and Narrative Identity: A Poetics of the Self
Willow Mindich explores how memory affects our understanding of truth and the self.
Tit for Tat
In this poem by T. M. Lawson, a woman visits her mother in the hospital to say goodbye.
Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam: Thoughts on Depression, Race, and Theology
Peter Herman’s depression helps him nurture empathy and compassion with those who suffer most under a racist regime.
What’s So Holy about Matrimony? A Feminist Theological Reflection
Kimberly Humphrey ponders her husband’s name change and the difference marriage makes for discipleship.
Being Pretty
Katherine James contemplates the fleetingness of beauty as she faces cancer and aging.
We were all storm chasers there
Erin Steinke looks for “a hieroglyph in dust and root” while hunting the storm.
What Does Where You’re From Matter?
Zen Hess wants Christians to resist individualism and transience with a rooted theology of place.
At Least They Have a Target
Caitlin Causey accepts the curious comfort of a chain store as she seeks a place to call home.
handiwork
Tomi Oredein offers her take on some of the beautiful ways we are human.
Theology’s Identity in an Age of Global Crisis: An Interview with Carl Raschke
Carl Raschke discusses how critical theory might inform theology in an age of neoliberalism, political upheaval, nationalism, and the precariat class.
Portrait with Eyes Turned Aside
In this poem, D. S. Martin finds that a word is worth a thousand pictures.
Behind Blue Eyes: Consubstantiality and the Unthinkable
Russell Johnson examines what it means to be “of one body” with Timothy McVeigh and the implications this has for self-consciously white theology.
Strange, Like Pentecost: A Journey for the True Church
Erick Sierra reflects upon his journey across the diverse landscape of the Christian church in search for that place where God most fully dwells.
No Savior at All: Updike’s Black Jesus and the White Church
Lauren D. Sawyer addresses the appropriation of black Jesus through the work of James Cone and civil rights era fiction.
Sing More Like a Girl
Musician Sus Long on how she learned to stop watching men’s mouths.
Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Power of Lament
Zach Czaia examines Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me from the perspective of a Catholic high school English teacher.
Street Portraits: Anonymity as Identity in the Travel Photography of Mark Wyatt
Mark Wyatt has been photographing unfamous people wherever he goes since 1980.
Occupied Identity: The Aesthetics of Palestinian Suicide Bombing
In this essay, Derek Brown asks what beauty does in the context of occupied Palestine.
Liturgies of the Body: The Jump Shot and Spiritual Practice
This essay finds Howard Schaap pondering the liturgical significance of a well-crafted jump shot.
Kinopolitics and the Figure of the Migrant: An Interview with Thomas Nail
The Other Journal sits down with Thomas Nail to discuss his latest book, The Figure of the Migrant.
Better than Perfect
Janna Barber learns to accept the prickly bits and sweet scents of a mother/daughter relationship.
An Unnatural Order
The arrival of Syrian refugees to a small city on the Canadian prairies is an occasion for Ryan Dueck to reflect upon who we really think we are.
Identifying the Stranger: Lamento con Alas as a Means of Dignifying the Dead
Lamento con Alas is a short film that honors the dead along the Texas-Mexico border as it challenges Americans who seek to build walls.
Evangelicals and the End of Civic Religion
Alexandria Barbera reflects on the Republican politics that undergird evangelical faith and how this sets Trump up for success among conservative evangelicals.
Jesus and the Dispossessed
In light of the 2016 presidential campaign, Justin Randall Phillips analyzes the ways in which American evangelicalism is the product and reflection of racial division.
Escaping the Bully-God of American Evangelicalism: An Interview with Doug Frank
In this interview with The Other Journal, Doug Frank discusses moving away from abusive theology toward a way of life that embraces love and suffering.
Elena Ferrante’s Words Are Good Enough
Taylor Ross considers how the recent unmasking of Elena Ferrante reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of language and literature.
