Sometimes events coincide in such a way that it feels like somehow it was meant to be. I enjoy even very small examples of that, like the one I have for you today. Last week in my faith community, one of our leaders cited ideas from both Mary Daly and Phylis Trible. The next day here at work, we finished edits on a tribute for Trible, who died last month—a tribute that mentions Daly’s influence on her thinking.
Our other new articles may not feature in my personal coincidence stories, but they are pretty fascinating in their own right. Two new pieces provide firsthand accounts of protests at the ICE facility outside Chicago: an essay from pastor Michael Woolf (who, after writing this piece, was shot in the leg by an ICE officer) about the implicit—or explicit—theology of ICE, and a video chat with writer Tom Montgomery Fate, who describes for me the religious history and bent of these protests.
“Trible’s work energized many, often younger, scholars in biblical studies—along with countless Christian preachers who found her interpretations both accessible and preachable.”
“‘What will be God’s,’ asks Tertullian, ‘if all things are Caesar’s?’ It’s a challenging question at a time when the state is asking us to acquiesce to a secret, unaccountable police force.”
“We often liken the pervasive oversight of our surveillance state to the all-seeing eye of God. But our responses to these two limitless gazes are vastly different.”
“Museums and public spaces are great settings for art displays that can spark new perspectives, alter viewpoints, and force a confrontation with issues we may otherwise ignore or be unaware of.”
