Fall 2024 | Cover Photo and Introductory Note

What would a healthier spiritual politics look like? How do we resist feelings of mutual suspicion and nonstop polarization—inflamed by algorithms and conflict entrepreneurs, depleting human solidary and nervous systems? In such conditions, “a listening heart” (from 1 Kings 3) isn’t very fashionable. It never was. These Reflections writers nevertheless summon a spirit akin to that heartfelt plea. They describe the grace of face-to-face encounters with supposed enemies or unearth lessons from the nation’s agonized moral history. Through their faith many find liberation from all brutal status quos, whether old or new. “Let us,” writes Andrea Barton Reeves ’26 M.A.R., “be courageous enough to assert our vision of peace over discord, of faith over fear.”

Cover image by Jean-Luc Benazet/Unsplash