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As a pandemic and racial reckoning exposed society’s faults, Christian thinkers were laying the groundwork for a better future.
A public health and economic crisis provoked by Covid-19. A social crisis cracked open by the filmed murder of George Floyd. A leadership crisis laid bare as the gravity of a global pandemic met a country suffocating in political polarization and idolatry.
In the spring of 2020, Comment magazine created a publishing project to tap the resources of a Christian humanist tradition to respond collaboratively and imaginatively to these crises. Plough soon joined in the venture. So did seventeen other institutions. The web commons that resulted – Breaking Ground – became a one-of-a-kind space to probe society’s assumptions, interrogate our own hearts, and imagine what a better future might require.
This volume, written in real time during a year that revealed the depths of our society’s fissures, provides a wealth of reflections and proposals on what should come after. It is an anthology of different lenses of faith seeking to understand how best we can serve the broader society and renew our civilization.
Contributors include Anne Snyder, Susannah Black, Mark Noll, N. T. Wright, Gracy Olmstead, Doug Sikkema, Patrick Pierson, Jennifer Frey, J. L. Wall, Michael Wear, Dante Stewart, Joe Nail, Benya Kraus, Patrick Tomassi, Amy Julia Becker, Jeffrey Bilbro, Marilynne Robinson, Cherie Harder, Joel Halldorf, Irena Dragas Jansen, Katherine Boyle, L. M. Sacasas, Jake Meador, Joshua Bombino, Chelsea Langston Bombino, Aryana Petrosky Roberts, Stuart McAlpine, Heather C. Ohaneson, Oliver O’Donovan, W. Bradford Littlejohn, Anthony M. Barr, Michael Lamb, Shadi Hamid, Samuel Kimbriel, Christine Emba, Brandon McGinley, John Clair, Kurt Armstrong, Peter Wehner, Jonathan Haidt, Dhananjay Jagannathan, Phil Christman, Gregory Thompson, Duke Kwon, Carlo Lancellotti, Tara Isabella Burton, Charles C. Camosy, Joseph M. Keegin, Luke Bretherton, Tobias Cremer, and Elayne Allen.
View Table of ContentsOne of the great things about Plough's books is they tend to be international, and that really helps here. You get a mix of perspectives on American culture in 2020, the history of evangelical culture and politics, from perspectives that go inside and outside of American evangelical culture. The result is refreshing and interesting even at the moments where you may disagree with the authors.
I liked the spiritually oriented ones, such as James Matthew Wilson's beautiful article about contemplation, and the art of poetry, in which he analyses three poems. I will certainly look up his books! Jennifer Frey's contribution in which she criticizes the hypocrisy of experts, and writes about the importance of trust was also extremely interesting.
“Breaking Ground” by Anne Snyder and Susannah Black is true to its name. Its founding vision is highly significant in these deeply disoriented times. Changes of immense scope and magnitude have created a spectrum of moral opportunity in every society, but there exists a dynamic ecosystem of thinkers with the wisdom to discern it and the humility to accept it, and doers with the courage and determination to do something about it productively. The Church with all her scars, made resilient by long-standing struggle, is called to lead in service, sacrifice and solidarity. Particularly insightful moral leadership is the urgent need of the hour, in these extremely distressing times. Although the pandemic is a layered crisis that unfolds in stages, it also provides opportunities for brand new beginnings from the ashes of the past.
