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** The death of a prophet
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I had a plan for this email, and it involved Pride Month and our delightful June cover story. But then last week Hebrew Bible scholar Walter Brueggemann died. Brueggemann’s words—particularly his writings on the Psalms and his masterpiece The Prophetic Imagination—have had a profound effect on my faith and work. His sorting of the Psalter into poems of orientation, disorientation, and new orientation helped frame how I understand my spiritual journey; his distinction between priestly and prophetic functions helped clarify my ministry. We have a brief but poignant tribute to Brueggemann ([link removed]) from Jason G. Edwards.
I still have the June cover story for you: “Notes on (Christian) camp,” by Brandon Ambrosino. This campy homage to a 1964 essay by Susan Sontag explores the overlap of Christian faith and camp ([link removed]) , a sensibility often associated with gay culture. “The cross of Christ,” Ambrosino says, “is as campy as it gets.” I’m also excited to share with you a piece from a new ex-vangelical friend of mine, Lauren Cibene, who describes a deconstruction of her politics ([link removed]) that mirrors her parting of ways with evangelical faith.
Plus even more great content. In our video of the week, I chat with columnist Phil Christman about (real and imagined) persecution ([link removed]) of Christians in the US. Scroll down for our editors’ excoriation of the current Congress ([link removed]) , a new poem about turning 50 ([link removed]) , and more.
Jon Mathieu
Email me (mailto:
[email protected]?subject=A%20scholar%20who%20has%20helped%20me&body=Jon%2C%20) : Which scholar has had a profound influence on your faith or work?
Click to schedule ([link removed]) a Friday lunch chat with Jon
Click to find Jon ([link removed]) on (X/Twitter alternative) Bluesky
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** Walter Brueggemann’s gift of disruption ([link removed])
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“Brueggemann didn’t give us easy answers. He gave us tension. He gave us poetry. He gave us language when our own ran dry.”
by Jason G. Edwards
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** Notes on (Christian) camp ([link removed])
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“A campier way of writing the creeds would be to say not that Jesus and God share the same divinity, but that they share the same quotation marks. But no one consulted me.”
by Brandon Ambrosino
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** I’m a deconstructing American ([link removed])
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“The versions of America and Jesus that my community—and, as it turns out, a significant portion of the country—wanted no longer made any moral or spiritual sense to me.”
by Lauren Cibene
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** In the Lectionary for June 15 (Trinity C) ([link removed])
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Wisdom is frisky and frolicking. She reminds us that God created our impulse to learn and to grow.
by Martha Spong
Trinity C archives ([link removed])
Get even more lectionary resources with Sunday’s Coming Premium, an email newsletter from the editors of the Christian Century. Learn more ([link removed]) .
** VIDEO: Real and imagined persecution of Christians in the US ([link removed])
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Columnist Phil Christman chats with Jon about what persecution does and doesn’t look like in the US.
** Worse than doing nothing ([link removed])
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“There is one area where this Congress has really put in the work. House leaders whipped votes to squeeze through a budget proposal that takes billions from the poor, gives billions to the rich, and adds trillions to the national debt.”
from the CC editors
** Half a Century ([link removed])
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When I lived alone on the north coast,
I was slender as a glass of skim milk
and wore my house dress by the sea. …
poem by Karen An-Hwei Lee
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