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In a culture that prizes keeping one's options open, making
commitments offers something more valuable. The consumerism and
instant gratification of "liquid modernity" feed a general
reluctance to make commitments, a refusal to be pinned down for the
long term. Consider the decline of three forms of commitment that
involve giving up options: marriage, military service, and monastic
life. Yet increasing numbers of people question whether
unprecedented freedom might be leading to less flourishing, not
more. They are dissatisfied with an atomized way of life that
offers endless choices of goods, services, and experiences but
undermines ties of solidarity and mutuality. They yearn for more
heroic virtues, more sacrificial commitments, more comprehensive
visions of the individual and common good. It turns out that the
American Founders were right: the Creator did endow us with an
unalienable right of liberty. But he has endowed us with something
else as well, a gift that is equally unalienable: desire for
unreserved commitment of all we have and are. Our liberty is given
us so that we in turn can freely dedicate ourselves to something
greater. Ultimately, to take a leap of commitment, even without
knowing where one will land, is the way to a happiness worth
everything. On this theme: - Lydia S. Dugdale asks what happened to
the Hippocratic Oath in modern medicine. - Caitrin Keiper looks at
competing vows in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. - Kelsey Osgood, an
Orthodox Jew, asks why lifestyle discipline is admired in sports
but not religion. - Wendell Berry says being on the side of love
does not allow one to have enemies. - Phil Christman spoofs the New
York Times Vows column. - Andreas Knapp tells why he chose poverty.
- Norann Voll recounts the places a vow of obedience took her. -
Carino Hodder says chastity is for everyone, not just nuns. - Dori
Moody revisits her grandparents' broken but faithful marriage. -
Randall Gauger, a Bruderhof pastor, finds that lifelong vows make
faithfulness possible. - King-Ho Leung looks at vows, oaths,
promises, and covenants in the Bible. Also in the issue: - A young
Black pastor reads Clarence Jordan today. - Activists discuss the
pro-life movement after Roe and Dobbs. - Children learn from King
Arthur, Robin Hood, and the occasional cowboy. - Original poetry by
Ned Balbo - Reviews of Montgomery and Bikle's What Your Food Ate,
Mohsin Hamid's The Last White Man, and Bonnie Kristian's
Untrustworthy - A profile of Sadhu Sundar Singh Plough Quarterly
features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply
their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth
articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.
A Westerner's travels among the persecuted and displaced Christian
remnant in Iraq and Syria teach him much about faith under fire.
Gold Medal Winner, 2018 IPPY Book of the Year Award Silver Medal
Winner, 2018 Benjamin Franklin Award Finalist, 2018 ECPA Christian
Book Award Inside Syria and Iraq, and even along the refugee trail,
they're a religious minority persecuted for their Christian faith.
Outside the Middle East, they're suspect because of their
nationality. A small remnant of Christians is on the run from the
Islamic State. If they are wiped out, or scattered to the corners
of the earth, the language that Jesus spoke may be lost forever -
along with the witness of a church that has modeled Jesus' way of
nonviolence and enemy-love for two millennia. The kidnapping,
enslavement, torture, and murder of Christians by the Islamic
State, or ISIS, have been detailed by journalists, as have the
jihadists' deliberate efforts to destroy the cultural heritage of a
region that is the cradle of Christianity. But some stories run
deep, and without a better understanding of the religious and
historical roots of the present conflict, history will keep
repeating itself century after century. Andreas Knapp, a priest who
works with refugees in Germany, travelled to camps for displaced
people in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq to collect stories of
survivors - and to seek answers to troubling questions about the
link between religion and violence. He found Christians who today
still speak Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language of Jesus.
The uprooted remnant of ancient churches, they doggedly continue to
practice their faith despite the odds. Their devastating eyewitness
reports make it clear why millions are fleeing the Middle East.
Yet, remarkably, though these last Christians hold little hope of
ever returning to their homes, they also harbor no thirst for
revenge. Could it be that they - along with the Christians of the
West, whose interest will determine their fate - hold the key to
breaking the cycle of violence in the region? Includes sixteen
pages of color photographs.
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