Sections
thumbnail_image How do we cope with dislocation? Is where we live important? And what does it mean to find our home in Christ?
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ISSUE: Volume 29, Number 1, Winter 2017

The Pilgrim Life: Exploring a Theology of Place

Scripture is full of stories about place. It starts with Adam and Eve sent out of Eden in humiliation; it ends with a displaced prophet on Patmos, John, caught up in a vision of the ultimate homecoming. Throughout, the arc of the story is bound up in our relationship to home. How do we embrace our identity as sojourners (Hebrews 11) alongside the calling to bless our towns, cities, and neighbourhoods (Jeremiah 29)? How do we cope with dislocation? Is where we live important? And what does it mean to find our home in Christ? These are some of the questions we explore in this issue.

Illustration by Brian Liu

Issue Contents

Leading Ideas

Migration and the Migrant God

Charles Ringma depicts God as migrant, and the incarnation as the paradigmatic experience of migration: "We need God in the tabernacle, not the temple. We need a God in the midst of our ambiguity, pain, lament, confusion, and questioning." more

Profile

A Tree Can’t Live in Space

Jo Swinney recounts how she came to realize that she had come to neglect the here and now in her conception of home: "Rather than panic about my sense of profound homelessness, I found a way to spiritualize the nomadic life I assumed I would continue to lead." more

Arts & Theology

Pilar Mehlis: I Belong Here...

"I do live that fish out of water feeling." Bolivian-born, Canadian-raised artist Pilar Mehlis addresses identity, migration, faith, and the origins of her creation: the "Antrofish." more

Arts & Theology

Art and the Other in the Holy Land

How is identity shaped by the land? How is this relationship expressed in art? What about when the land in question is the Holy Land? Corey Janz explores his research on Palestinian and Israeli art in this interview. more

Field Notes

Laura D. Werezak

"My prayers slowly shifted over two years from 'Lord, give us a home' to the simpler, humbler 'Lord, be our home.'" Laura Werezak shares what she learned from moving with her family back into her parents' place. more

Field Notes

Lean Sing Ding

"The God I worship is sovereign and is constantly inviting me to participate in his work of redemption not just in times of peace and joy but also in times of dislocation." Lean Sing Ding shares the joys and struggles of a cultural transition from and back into Singaporean work culture. more

Thought to Action

Confronting the Vancouver Housing Crisis

Kurtis Peters argues that when it comes to systemic injustice in the Vanouver housing industry, charity and subsidization are not enough to fulfill the biblical vision for housing. more

Thought to Action

Dis/Located: Wisdom and Story from the Regent Faculty

In every stage of the process of relocating, there is great potential to experience particular aspects of God. In light of this reality, this series of interviews features Regent faculty offering stories and advice on how to see God in whatever happens to be your current experience of home. more

Books & Media

Keeping Faith in Fundraising

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Books & Media

The Reluctant Leader

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