The Big Picture Issue 11: Contents
Links to all the posts
From the Director: Politics
Craig G. Bartholomew
Craig gives an editorial overview of our magazine’s very controversial topic.
Resisting the Political Idol of Our Progressive Age
Bruce Riley Ashford
Ashford argues that the West has embraced a secularised humanitarian religion that threatens its foundations. In its place, he reasserts the sobering but hopeful alternative that Christianity offers us.
Bearing with One Another: Politics in an Age of Division and Difference
Ross Hendry
Ross Hendry from CARE outlines the Christian basis for a healthy pluralism and offers us direction to navigate our social differences constructively.
Spiritual Formation in the Year of the Election
Tom Kendall
In a bumper election year, with several important votes still to come, Tom explains why Christians should participate in such processes and some of the principles that should shape our behaviour and expectations.
The UK General Election: Encouragements and Challenges for Evangelicals
Ross Hendry
With the UK election already over, Ross takes us through some of the encouragements and challenges that emerged from the campaign.
Silence is Not an Option: A Letter to the Global Church about the Genocide in Gaza
PRN MENA
MENA-region Christians from the Peace and Reconciliation Network urge Christians around the world not to turn a blind eye to atrocities in Gaza.
It’s all about t̶h̶e̶ ̶E̶c̶o̶n̶o̶m̶y̶ Relationships
David Andrew
Relationships are essential to human flourishing, but most political discourse is blind to this fact. Paying attention to relationships provides an effective way of allowing Christian insights and concerns to be taken on board by secular policy-makers.
Nationalism: The Dominant World Religion
James W. Skillen
Co-founder of the Center for Public Justice James Skillen discusses the widespread tendency to blend Christianity with the false god of a civil-religious nationalism.
Jesus and World Plutocratic Government
Alan Storkey
Economist and author Alan Storkey explains the political history of the last century as the love of money and encourages Christians to greater loves than this.
Language Matters: Education in a Multilingual World
Pamela MacKenzie
This article shows the importance of using local languages in education in indigenous and minority communities where children are often forced (and failing) to learn in an unknown language.
Preaching the Bible for All its Worth: Zechariah
The Big Picture
Some keys to preaching Zechariah and a brief review of the must-read commentaries on the book.
The Fault in Our Ballots: The Search for a Meaningful Politics
Zane A. Richer
The American political system leaves Christians, essentially, with two unsatisfactory alternatives at the ballot box, and it’s necessary for Christians to take the hard steps necessary to organise our public witness and to forge better options.
Politics and the Shape of the Human Heart
John Inazu
John Inazu interviews Michael Wear, author of The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life.
The Opportunity Costs of Identity Politics: Addressing the Root Causes of the Black Underclass
Eric Parker
Eric Parker argues that the heated focus on race and racism in American politics takes attention away from the things that would truly make a difference to the circumstances of America’s poor.
Chris’s Column: “A Miscarriage of Justice”?
Chris Wright
Chris Wright argues that calling the Post Office Scandal a “miscarriage of justice” doesn’t take it nearly seriously enough.
Is the International Rules-Based Order Now Broken?
Michael Shipster
International law aims to protect weaker nations from the self-serving motives of the powerful. Such rules depend on the commitment of governments to honour them, and to do so when other nations break the rules, something that’s proven easier said than done when the rule-breakers are our allies.
Kohima Remembered
Michael Shipster
Michael remembers a significant battle for Kohima fought in the latter part of WWII, one in which his father took part.
Food in their Hands: How Policymakers Shape the Food Supply
Edgar V. Coll and Diana Salgado
Food insecurity and other social problems surrounding diet are solvable with the technologies we have, and applying these solutions to the problems is usually done through policymaking. However, policy is often driven by something other than the good of the people.
Craft: James Allcock
David Parish
Our recent TBP issues on the topic of craft resonated with one reader who has found fresh meaning in craft-making since his retirement.
An Extraordinarily Ordinary Life
Eileen Johnston
Eileen asks, Are you curious about people?
Embracing Vulnerability
Marcus Grohmann
We are often unaware of how connected our ideas and theologies are to our birth, circumstances, and language. The cure of our social divisions may be as simple as having a conversation.
Painting Ruth
Shelley Campbell
Campbell takes us through her process as she grappled with grief, art-making and the book of Ruth.
From the Mill: Reflecting on First Things First, Our First Annual Conference
Otto Bam
We look back at our annual conference, a highlight of 2024.
Justice for All: The (R)SPCA Turns 200
Craig G. Bartholomew
The SPCA celebrates its 200th anniversary this year with little fanfare and even less recognition of its founding within the UK evangelical justice movement that also campaigned for the end of slavery.
Book Club: The Buried Giant
Jordan Pickering
Kazuo Ishiguro’s masterful fiction confronts us with the problems of remembering and forgetting.
Fire over the World
George Hobson
George Hobson tells us a little about his vision for poetry, and shares one of his poems.