Featured

Abstract art with black and white brushstrokes and touches of yellow and thin intersecting lines.
God’s Purpose in Your Pain
What good could suffering possibly serve? A pastor reflects on what he has learned from losing a son to suicide.
Rick Warren
Essay
Scrabble tiles spell 'Letters from a vanishing friend' beside a cup of coffee and a book on wood table.
Letters from a Vanishing Friend
What’s it like to succumb to Alzheimer’s? A woman with dementia befriended me, her teenage neighbor.
Lisabeth Button
Essay
Person holding up dried roots outdoors with group of people blurred in the background.
The Dust on All the Faces
In south Madagascar, farming families battle to survive a lethal drought caused by climate change.
Navid Kermani
Report
Detail of two men struggling with a rope, one looking intently while the other's bare legs are tied.
Two Thousand Years of Christian Strangeness
A podcasting scholar sums up the history of pain in two artworks and the lives of three illustrious women.
Tom Holland
Interview
Abstract painting of a serious man’s face with flowing hair in blue and orange brush strokes.
Felix Manz: The Making of a Young Radical
In a city astir with dangerous new ideas, the son of a priest becomes a leader of a nonviolent revolution.
Jason Landsel
Comic

From the Editor

A person walks alone on a wet path beside fields under a cloudy sky near rustic buildings.
In Search of Solace
A pastor who lost a son to cancer probes the problem of pain.
Randall Gauger
Editorial

Insights

Close-up of a textured pencil or charcoal sketch of a person's face focusing on eyes and nose.
Saving Friends: What I’ve Learned from Insufferable Patients
A difficult patient teaches her doctor a better approach to medicine.
Brewer Eberly
Essay
Man with glasses wearing a jacket sitting with hands clasped, facing forward against a plain background.
Chinese Christians’ Costly Allegiance
A house church pastor imprisoned in China calls Christians to face repression boldly.
Wang Yi
Essay
Carved stone cross with intricate animal and mythical figure designs on a dark background.
The Speaking Tree
In an Anglo-Saxon poem, a tree becomes the meeting place of horror and joy.
Eleanor Parker
Essay
Abstract painting with a central red vertical stripe, purple and blue background, and white wavy lines.
The Way of the Passion
Five readings from across the centuries illuminate the meaning of suffering in Christian discipleship.
Reading
Ink drawing of two raised hands with detailed fingers and veins on a beige background.
The Communion of Empty Hands
The beloved Uruguayan author portrays an Easter service behind bars.
Eduardo Galeano
Reading
Artistic illustration of two gray fish facing opposite directions inside a decorated circular frame.
Baptism Means Leaving Home to Find It
How do you make an inherited tradition your own? A young Hutterite reckons with the legacy of his forebears.
Julian Waldner
Essay
Two vintage photos: one with six people on a red tractor wagon, one with an elderly man and woman in black and white.
On Planting Sugar Maples
How do you pass on a legacy, and how do you receive one?
David Johnson
Lives

Web Exclusives

Painting of a bearded man lying down surrounded by rocky cliffs and a dark bird holding an orange sphere.
The Mind in Pain
When depression takes hold, why does even God seem to fall silent?
James Mumford
Foggy forest path covered with fallen leaves and tall bare trees on either side.
The Unutterable Silence of God
After my father died, I thought I’d escaped the pain through nihilism. In that emptiness, God found me.
Esther Maria Magnis
Building facade with a cross sculpture and a 2022 Passion Play banner advertising dates in German.
Oberammergau’s Broken Vow
The world’s most famous Passion play is powerful theater. There’s a hole at its heart.
Joy Marie Clarkson

Arts & Letters

Painting of a rocky shoreline at sunset with sun reflecting on water and dark hills in the background.
Poem: “Zeal”
Oh, to imagine I’m shielding You, when You’re / secure as a chant in a red hymnal, / hope of our eyes. …
Sofia M. Starnes
Poetry
Snowy landscape with a winding dirt road and sparse trees under an overcast sky.
Poem: “Winter”
Boris Dralyuk translates a poem by the Russian poet Julia Nemirovskaya: “Here it is, my dearest winter, / dearer than the fall or spring…”
Julia Nemirovskaya
Boris Dralyuk
Poetry
Book cover of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver with intricate black illustrations on a cream background.
Editors’ Picks: Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver’s novel reimagines a Dickens classic in 1990s Appalachia.
Chris Zimmerman
Editors’ Pick
Book cover for How to Inhabit Time by James K. A. Smith with circular images and green plant background.
Editors’ Picks: How to Inhabit Time
In part personal memoir, in part philosophical reflection, James K. A. Smith’s How to Inhabit Time is a compelling read.
Joy Marie Clarkson
Editors’ Pick
Book cover with black text reading Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave and Seán O'Hagan.
Editors’ Picks: Faith, Hope and Carnage
Nick Cave’s and Seán O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage is a record of an unabashed longing for God.
Elizabeth Oldfield
Editors’ Pick