music

Jonathan Hiskes considers habits of numbness and rest and his love for Frac.

Jon Hiskes writes on the athletic failings and musical triumphs of the Chicago Cubs.

The artist cannot pass lightly over the disorder of the creation without being guilty of colossal self-deception and becoming utterly irrelevant to the needs of a broken and torn world. —Jeremy Begbie, Voicing Creation’s Praise A number of years ago, I attended a recital by the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. She began with Anton Webern’s Four […]

The blog Faith and Theology asks, “What is the opposite of faith?” Let’s start with the Protestant no-no: works. We are justified, put right with God not by works but by faith, faith alone – sola fide – isn’t that, as Luther put it, the doctrine by which the church stands or falls? And wouldn’t […]

The poet Libby Swope Wiersema writes on grief and healing.

I’ll keep it short and sweet – going to a David Bazan house show is a sublime experience. My wife and I went to one in Bellingham, WA a few years back (right after “Curse Your Branches” came out) and it was incredible; we had seen him perform before with Pedro the Lion in clubs, […]

Following up on Monday’s opening review of Bruce Ellis Benson’s Liturgy as a Way of Life by Ed Phillips, Bruce offers his response below. —————- First, I want to thank Ed Phillips for such a thoughtful response to my book. It’s always a pleasure to respond to reviewers who have interacted with one’s work at […]

In this meditation on two contemporary outsider musicians, Nathaniel Rogers considers the power dynamics of listening and what we might learn about the beauties and pitfalls of cliché.

Laura Brown strings together snippets of memory from the “ragtag communities” that have taught her how to stitch her own “book of common prayers.”