Plough Quarterly No. 29 – Beyond Borders

Can
we move beyond borders that divide us without losing our identity?
 
Over
the past decade, the
yearning for rootedness, for being part of a story bigger than oneself, has
flared up as a cultural force to be reckoned with. There’s much to affirm in this
desire to belong to a people. That means pride in all that is admirable in the
nation to which we belong – and repentance for its historic sins.
 
A
focus on national identity, of
course, can lead to darker places. The new nationalists, who in Western
countries often appeal to the memory of a Christian past, applaud when
governments fortify borders to keep out people who are fleeing for their lives.
(Needless to say, such actions are contrary to the Christian faith.) Is our
yearning for roots doomed to lead to a heartless politics of exclusion? Does
maintaining group or national identity require borders guarded with lethal
violence?

 
The
answer isn’t artificial schemes for universal brotherhood, such as a universal language. Our differences
are what make a community human. Might the true ground for community lie deeper
even than shared nationality or language? After all, the biblical vision of
humankind’s ultimate future has “every tribe and language and people and
nation” coming together – beyond all borders but still as themselves.
 
In this issue:

- Santiago Ramos
describes a double homelessness immigrant children experience as outsiders in
both countries.
- Ashley Lucas
profiles a Black Panther imprisoned for life and looks at the impact on his
family.
- Simeon Wiehler
helps a museum repatriate a thousand human skulls collected by a colonialist.
- Yaniv Sagee
calls Zionism back to its founding vision of a shared society with
Palestinians.
- Stephanie
Saldaña finds the lost legendary chocolates of Damascus being crafted in Texas.
- Edwidge
Danticat says storytelling builds a home that no physical separation can take
away.
- Phographer River
Claure reimagines Saint-Exupéry’s Le
Petit Prince as an Aymara fairy tale.
- Ann Thomas tells
of liminal experiences while helping families choose a cemetery plot.
- Russell Moore
challenges the church to reclaim its integrity and staunch an exodus.
 
You’ll also find:

- Prize-winning poems
by Mhairi Owens, Susan de Sola, and Forester McClatchey
- A profile of Japanese
peacemaker Toyohiko Kagawa
- Reviews of
Fredrik deBoer’s The Cult of Smart,
Anna Neima’s The Utopians, and Amor
Towles’s The Lincoln Highway
- Insights on
following Jesus from E. Stanley Jones, Barbara Brown Taylor, Teresa of Ávila,
Oscar Romero, Martin Luther King Jr., Eberhard Arnold, Leonardo Boff, Meister
Eckhart, C. S. Lewis, Hermas, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer
 
Plough Quarterly features stories,
ideas, and culture
for people eager to put their faith into action. Each issue brings you in-depth
articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art to help you put Jesus’
message into practice and find common cause with others.