From the Editor

The Artificial Pancreas Peter Mommsen How can we live well with technology?

Essays

From Scrolls to Scrolling in Synagogue J. L. Wall The way we read scripture has changed. Or has it? Computers Can’t Do Math David Schaengold The human mind is a marvel that no machine has matched. The Tech of Prison Parenting Robert Lee Williams Even a little technology can make a big difference. Will There Be an AI Apocalypse? Peter Berkman Marshall McLuhan and Romano Guardini say it’s already here. Taming Tech in Community Andrew Zimmerman How the Bruderhof community tries to be intentional about personal technology. Tech Cities of the Bible Alastair Roberts Our struggle with technology starts in Genesis. Give Me a Place Brian Miller An East Tennessee farmer praises a simple piece of technology. ChatGPT Goes to Church Arlie Coles Should large language models write sermons and prayers? Toward a Gift Economy Simon Oliver Some goods and services have value beyond their market price.

Reading

Masters of Our Tools E. F. Schumacher, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Jean-Pierre Dupuy and Hannah Arendt Four writers reflect on the purpose and power of technology.

Poetry

Poem: “Blackberry Hush in Memory Lane” Jennifer Fair Stewart Read the poem that won Plough’s 2024 Rhina Espaillat Poetry Award. Poem: “A Lindisfarne Cross” Michael Manning It begins with what is broken, cast off, abandoned... Poem “Fingered Forgiveness” Laura R. Eckman The poet tells a story of forgiveness. God’s Grandeur: A Poetry Comic Gerard Manley Hopkins and Julian Peters A comic artist illustrates Gerard Manly Hopkin’s classic poem.

Editors’ Picks

Birding Can Change You Ragan Sutterfield In Birding to Change the World, Trish O’Kane describes how birding changed her life following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Disability in The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store Sara Nović As a deaf reader, I was drawn toward the portrayals of disability in James McBride’s blockbuster novel, though, as in life, the results are an uneven weave. In Praise of Excess Alan Koppschall In All Things Are Too Small, Becca Rothfeld makes the case for a more infinite view of the world and rejects the smallness and minimalism of the current age.

Family and Friends

Loving the University John Inazu At Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, an uncommon community is growing. Locals Know Best Janna Moats Inspired by the Psalms, Loom International supports local organizations in the developing world. A Word of Appreciation Peter Mommsen We farewell our poetry editor A. M. Juster.

Lives

Gerhard Lohfink: Champion of Community Timothy J. Keiderling We don’t follow Jesus alone.

Community Snapshot

When a Bruderhof Is Born Maureen Swinger What’s it like to be a young person in a young community?

Forum

Readers Respond Readers respond to Plough’s Spring 2024 issue, The Riddle of Nature.

Portfolio

A Church in Ukraine Spreads Hope in Wartime Sasha Riabyi and Danny Burrows A Christian community cares for its children and neighbors.

Report

Send Us Your Surplus Matthew Loftus South Sudan’s kids thank you for that shipment of hip-joint ball bearings.

Forerunners

Peter Waldo, the First Protestant? Coretta Thomson Several centuries before Luther, a reformer and his band of itinerant preachers rattled the church.

Covering the Cover

Covering the Cover: The Good of Tech Rosalind Stevenson This issue's cover shows humans who are interacting with technology, rather than being enslaved by it.