Plough Quarterly No. 14 - Re-Formation: The Church We Need Now, Kim Jin S., Williams Rowan, Arnold Eberhard

This years five-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation comes just as Christianity is undergoing what may prove to be its biggest recalibration since the fourth century. Christendom, the system in which Christianity shaped Western laws and society as the majority religion, has been shaky since the Enlightenment. Now its in its death throes, felled by secularization, consumerism, and the sexual revolution. For better or worse, Christians must learn to be a minority. Theres no better time than now to recall Karl Barths dictum: the church must always be reformed. What is the re-formed church we need now?

In this issue, George Weigel and Eberhard Arnold call the church to turn back to its sources and to seek renewal in the example of the first Christians, for whom Christianity was not just a Sunday religion or a private affair. It meant belonging to the fellowship of disciples, whose way of life was countercultural to that of the surrounding pagan society, as Rowan Williams points out. Today, Christians of all traditions are realizing that we are again called, in the words of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, to form a creative minority. Pastors Jin Kim and Claudio Oliver explore how to practice communal Christianity in different contexts, and Andreas Knapp and Cecile Massie document the vibrancy of the persecuted church in Syria and Turkey. Editor Peter Mommsen explores the legacy and triumph of the Radical Reformation.

Also in this issue:

• Reviews of Ben Sasses The Vanishing American Adult, Alan Kreiders The Patient Ferment of the Early Church, Tobias Joness A Place of Refuge, and Andrzej Franaszeks Milosz
• Poetry by Mary M. Brown
• Insights from early church leaders Ignatius, Hermas, and Polycarp
• An excerpt from Renegade, Ploughs graphic novel on Martin Luthers life
• Art and photography by Daniel Bonnell, Jason Landsel, Randall M. Hasson, Rachel Wright, Arthur Brouthers, Andrea Grosso Ciponte, Olivia Clifton-Bligh, Malcolm Coils, Cecile Massie, Jader Gneiting, and Dean Mitchell