Editorial: Thinking and Living Faith

Thinking and living faith: that’s what articles in this Autumn 2010 issue of DreamSeeker Magazine often address. Anil Solanki blazes the trail with an engaging and even witty yet thought-provoking exploration of Jesus’ versus the Devil’s methods for handling Bible texts. Dan Hertzler complements Solanki’s focus with reviews of books on the teachings of Jesus. 

Then Mark Wenger moves us toward practical ways of implementing scriptural values through habits of recreation, routine rituals, relationship, and religion. Denny Weaver ponders lessons from World Cup soccer. 

Next two writers place lived faith in a global context. Amid challenges and joys in Nigeria, Brenda Hartman-Souder shares learnings from making chutney. Lisa Gallagher Landes tells us how watermelons and a loaf of bread symbolize friendship among strangers in Turkmenistan. Renee Gehman flips the angle of vision, exploring the U.S. lives of Bangladeshi expatriates. Greiser’s review is not explicitly about faith but does catalyze continued reflection on how people build family and community in any number of different circumstances.

My own column is an effort to bridge the gap I too often experience between extraordinary works of God and our daily living—and to seek more regularly to see the holy glowing even in what may often seem mundane. In their own ways the poets too, as gifted poets so often do, show us what happens when we allow daily and holy to jostle each other. 

Then in her inimitable style, as she tells of Maximus who has not so much a split personality as a split body and poses unusual challenges for his pastor, Noel King helps us not be too sober about matters of faith and life.  —Michael A. King