Below are links to the published content of Faith & Flourishing: A Journal of Karam Fellowship.

“Why We’re Here: Theology for the Life of the World,” the vision essay for F&F published by the Founding Editorial Board, is accessible without a paid membership.

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Volume 3 (2024)

Introduction: “After the Dobbs Decision: A Special Issue of F&F,” by Scott Rae and Matthew Eppinette

This special issue of Faith & Flourishing explores the changing landscape of the abortion issue in the U.S. in the aftermath of the reversal of Roe. Our contributors recognize the seismic shift that the Dobbs decision created and address some of the new realities that all sides in the debate, particularly men and women of Christian faith, must come to grips with. These articles and essays address different aspects of the post-Dobbs abortion discussion: the role of the church, the state of the law going forward, changes in the philosophical debate over the personhood of the unborn, and medical issues, including medical education and the new prevalence of non-surgical abortions. The personal and pastoral side is also addressed, including the phenomenon of perinatal hospice, and powerful personal accounts of the impact of abortion on men and those who were almost aborted.

Essay: “‘A Blot on the Honor of Your Savior’: The Church and the Unborn Today,” by Greg Forster

In some churches, the teaching ministry has been distorted by ideologized culture-war polemic; in others, by a timidity that refuses to touch social controversies. In almost all churches, the teaching ministry has neglected to hold up the humble, unglamorous work of actually providing help to women and children in distress. In the post-Dobbs cultural environment, giving that work a central place in the teaching of the church will be crucial to faithful ministry. Getting the relationship between the church and culture right is not a secondary issue to be attended to after we have gotten the gospel right, it is a constitutive element in getting the gospel right.

Article: “Physician Conscience vs. Patient Sovereignty,” by D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.

Abstract: The road to discernment and decision-making on ob-gyn issues in a post-Dobbs environment is littered with structural and linguistic landmines. As the medical community has increasingly formulated such decision-making as a set of transactions between autonomous patients and service-providing physicians, older covenantal wisdom has been scrapped and holistic human flourishing challenged. Any treatment of this fraught area of medical care must attend carefully to the layers of context affecting legislation and medical praxis surrounding abortion today. This article lays out changes in the education and professional profiles of abortion-providers, faculty pushback against legal and institutional restrictions impacting abortion access, the rise of chemical abortions and related issues in patient care and regulation, and pro-abortion influences in the U.S. legal and educational systems and WHO and related global organizations. The article then puts a microscope on changes in language around abortion, with special attention to the new dominance of the “provider of services model,” which caters to the autonomous patient, thereby limiting physicians’ ability to act according to practical wisdom in a covenantal manner. The article concludes by suggesting that faculty, physicians, and patients alike need to give time and attention to understanding the new post-Dobbs reality and assessing their respective roles.

Essay: “Ana’s Story,” Ana S. Iltis

Ana Iltis shares the story of how, on two separate occasions during the same pregnancy, she was intensely pressured by her own physicians to kill her unborn child. Ana’s story invites us to consider much larger questions that go far beyond just the issue of abortion, such as the “culture of control” that extends even to the expectation that we will control the timing of death, and the “culture of perfection” that extends even to macabre “quality control” over the birth of human beings.

Article: “Not Just Abortion: The Sweeping Impact of Dobbs,” by Denise Burke

Abstract: Responding to legal problems with Roe and abundant evidence against abortion industry claims that abortion is necessary for women to succeed in American society, the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org. rectified the law not only on life-related matters but also on other core issues. Dobbs provides opportunities for legislators to protect the lives of unborn children and the health of pregnant women, to limit various abortion procedures that are in themselves particularly egregious, and to uphold the integrity of the practice of medicine. Legislation and litigation at both the state and federal levels since the Dobbs decision demonstrate not a turning back of the clock to the decades preceding Roe, but rather a complex new context for pro-life action. Within this new environment, a vision for pro-life legislation must include holistic care for women and children.

Article: “Population Control, Chemical Abortion and the Post-Dobbs Landscape,” by Donna Harrison, M.D.

Abstract: The post-Dobbs reality is about much more than legislation. Two pieces of historical context make this vivid: First, the well-funded, government-approved “population control” movement in America that set the table for Roe. Then the relentless push for abortion accessibility that led to a rushed and questionable government approval of the drug mifepristone. Heedless of the real hazards to women, this drug has now catapulted us into the age of the do-it-yourself abortion. A chemical solution to a social problem is now often procured on the internet and mailed to women’s doors, with predictable effects on women’s reproductive health as care surrounding abortion has plummeted. In the new reality, sex traffickers are using the drug to protect their profits. And women are dying from untreated problems related to self-administered chemical abortions. While abortion is supposed, by its advocates, to empower women, studies show that this is far from true. What can the church do to help women in this new abortion reality?

Article: “The Question of the Metaphysical Status of the Human Fetus and Abortion,” by Mihretu Guta

Abstract: This essay makes a case for the metaphysical status of the human fetus. Defenders of the pro-life position affirm, and defenders of the pro-choice position deny, that life begins at conception. The latter also claim that even if life begins at conception, a woman’s bodily autonomy should come first over protecting the fetus’s life. Given the continued disagreements on the metaphysical status of the human fetus, a way forward must (1) avoid being distracted by several less central issues and (2) address the personhood problem as it relates to the fetus. A conception-grounded theory of fetal personhood holds promise, though it faces some objections. The proposal is made that conception plays a decisive metaphysical role in the personhood status of the fetus. The origin problem as it relates to the fetus, remains in play.

Essay: “Abortion: Men Are Hurting, Too,” Victoria Robinson

Victoria Robinson testifies to the ways in which abortion hurts men as well as women. Robinson runs Reassemble, an organization that specializes in “after-abortion trauma recovery.” Reassemble has increasingly found opportunities to help men recover alongside women from the trauma of shame, grief and anger after abortion. Her essay adds an often-missing dimension to the abortion conversation – one that neither the Left nor Right can make much political hay out of – that helps us locate abortion within the traditional Christian understanding that moral wrongs against some of us harm all of us as the human family.

Article: “Perinatal Hospice – Compassionate Care of Families Facing an Adverse Prenatal Diagnosis,” by Byron Calhoun

Abstract: Perinatal hospice—that is, care for the mother, baby, and other family members before, during, and after birth in cases of an adverse or lethal prenatal diagnosis—has been developed relatively recently as new fetal diagnostic tools have been implemented, increasing the number of such diagnoses. These hospice measures now fill a significant gap in care in such situations. Previously providers tended to avoid such care for a number of problematic and ill-founded reasons and were also inclined to lean toward the termination of the pregnancy. But now well-defined, team-based care options are available for mothers and families who choose to carry and deliver in these cases, providing demonstrable improvements in psychological outcomes for mothers over termination.

Essay: “‘Mom, Thank You for Choosing Life,'” Sarah Zagorski Jones

Sarah Zagorski Jones shares a powerful personal testimony as a woman who survived an abortion. When the baby – Zagorski Jones – came out alive, the abortionist attempted to bully her mother into leaving her to “die on the table” because she supposedly “will be a mental vegetable incapable of living a normal life.” But her mother mustered the courage to insist that the baby receive medical care, and she survived and has thrived. Zagorski Jones writes that “fear” is “abortion’s common denominator.” People seek abortion, and tolerate or even demand the legal permissibility of abortion, due to a wide variety of fears. Often, the things we fear do come to pass—some children do, in fact, have extraordinary physical and mental challenges. Sometimes the father does abandon the mother and child. Etc. The question is whether we will follow our fears or follow our consciences.

Essay: “Adoption and Honor, in the New Testament and Today,” Marc Wooten

Marc Wooten explores how the theme of adoption in the New Testament is related both to the cultural practice of adoption and to its theological use picturing a critical element of our redemption. Wooten considers how both cultural “adoption” and theological “adoption” are related to honor and dishonor; God reaches out to those whose cultural standing is marginalized or tentative and gives them a secure and unquestionable belonging in the kingdom of God. This rich reflection on a neglected aspect of our salvation is fruitful for all Christians to deepen our appreciation of how and why we are saved, and also has more specific applications to the cultural practice of adoption. This essay complements the content of our 2024 special issue on the church after the Dobbs decision, but is published as a standalone essay.

Volume 2 (2023)

Digital Edition of the full 2023 issue, including all items below and additional material

Conversation: “Ukraine: What Should Our Churches Do?“, by Thomas Bremer, Heather J. Coleman, Nicholas Denysenko, Heinrich Derksen, Caryl Emerson, and Mark Saucy & Eric Oldenburg

Our shock at the war in Ukraine fills us with an urgent desire to mobilize a Christlike response from the church, but also a weighty awareness of the difficulty and potential pitfalls in that undertaking. F&F is honored to yield the floor to distinguished scholars with deep knowledge of that part of the world for this Conversation feature.

Article: “Making a Place for Place: Strengths and Gaps at a Major Christian-Led Company,” by John Terrill

Abstract: This paper examines the role of place and placemaking as a means of shaping and sustaining organizational culture and identity via a case study of ServiceMaster. Throughout the twentieth century, several placemaking initiatives stand out: the metaphorical use of “shingles on a roof” to describe leadership practices, the intentional design of corporate headquarters, the prominent statue of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet, the company’s “wall of service” honoring employees, the lobby emblazoned with the company’s four objectives, an autobiographical “Reality” painting displayed at headquarters, and other habituating celebrations that served to unite the franchise network and strengthen the company’s shared mission. Reinforced by deliberate placemaking activities, ServiceMaster built a strong culture that thrived for decades. Their groundbreaking work can serve as a model for other Christian business leaders. However, the eschatological vision of the company’s leaders was limited to the redemption of human beings. A broader eschatological imagination would also view the company’s outputs – clean, restored and well-maintained hospitals and homes – as the subject, not just the means, of its work.

Essay: “Corporate Support for Workplace ‘Spirituality’ Is an Opportunity We Should Take, But Take Wisely,” by James Bruyn

Recent research suggests non-religious businesses can be much more open than we might expect to their employees’ bringing their faith – often conceptualized as “spirituality” – into the workplace. This is an opportunity the kingdom of God should not be slow in recognizing and responding to. At the same time, secularized understandings of “spirituality” can exert a deformative influence on Christian faith if we embrace them uncritically.

Article: “Before Constantine: Natural Law and Christian Politics in Justin Martyr,” by Hunter Hindsman

Abstract: With America having entered a post-Christendom state, Christians might feel pressure to restore their sense of belonging through Christian nationalism. David VanDrunen has rejected Christian nationalism in favor of a strictly provisional political theology, built upon a Noahic basis for natural law, that excludes the application of at least some distinctively Christian commitments to political life. However, VanDrunen’s political theology could be adjusted along the lines of the natural law concepts in the writings of pre-Christendom apologist Justin Martyr. Justin condemned impulses in his own day that are common in modern-day Christian nationalism, and his political theology did uphold the provisionality of politics, as VanDrunen’s approach does. But Justin’s politics also maintain a distinctively Christian character based on the flourishing reality of life in the kingdom. Although Justin’s context is quite different from our own, his political theology contributes to the current conversations in the field of politics and ethics by providing a helpful framework for understanding how political communities relate to Christ’s kingdom and for guiding Christians in the pursuit of justice.

Conversation: “Theological Schools and the Church Abuse Crisis,” by Ian George Barron, Ingrid Faro, Elaine A. Heath, Stephen A. Kent, Chris Rush & Jeanette Vought

As shocking rates of abuse continue to be uncovered in our churches, it is time for theological schools to consider a systemic response. We asked scholars who have studied abuse in the context of the church how our schools can contribute. We hope this exchange helps to spur much-needed reflection and reform in the theological academy.

Article: “Punishment and Shalom: A Restorative-Justice Reading of Revelation,” by Craig Long

Abstract: This paper affirms a role for punishment in systems of justice by examining God’s use of punishment and vindication in Revelation. Punishment is portrayed in Revelation as a response to an offense that provides the opportunity for restoration, through recognition of the breach caused by the offense. Three aspects of Revelation point toward this conclusion. First, the use of ἐκδίκησις and cognates points to a vindication of the victims of oppression and martyrdom in Revelation. Second, individuals in the storyline of Revelation routinely praise YHWH or call for praise of YHWH because of his punishment of the oppressors and vindication of the saints. The pattern of this punishment highlights the path of restoration. Third, the storyline of Revelation anticipates a restoration of shalom in a new heaven and new earth that are without injustice. After sketching possible applications to criminal justice, construing punishment as a properly Christological foundation for restoration and the possibility of restoration between victim and offender, the paper concludes with two test cases representing potential criticisms drawn from current discussions of restorative justice. These test cases highlight the importance of Christocentrism and divine-human restoration in this article’s proposal, and identify connections between the pattern of restoration through punishment and questions of sentencing, the goals of punitive punishment, and societal influences upon criminal behavior.

Article: “Theodicy in Babylon: Why Does God Allow Economic Imperialism?”, by Tim Anderson

Abstract: Why does God allow economic imperialism? Why does God allow powerful forces to propagate great injustice, suffering and oppression? Scripture highlights the trustworthiness of God’s sovereign justice, wisdom and grace by juxtaposing it against Babylon’s arrogant, greedy, cruel and bloodthirsty imperialism, which led to the devastation of entire economies. These themes are developed in II Kings 24-25 and Jeremiah 52, where Babylon subjugates and destroys Jerusalem; in Habakkuk 2:4-20, where the prophet complains and the LORD responds; and in Revelation 17-18, where God finally annihilates the Great Whore of Babylon. This article examines why God allows economic imperialism, by describing scripture’s perspective on the evil of injustice and divine solutions.

Essay: “Is It Even Possible for Business Schools to Train People to Transform Business?“, by Kenman Wong

Written by one of the most prominent and respected voices in Christian business education, and originally published as part of an invited series at Christian Scholar’s Review, this essay provides a penetrating critique of the present model of Christian business schools. Do they prepare students to transform business? Is such a thing even possible?

Conversation: “Is Hostility to Capitalism a Hindrance for Christian Business Students?,” by Bruce Baker, Kenneth J. Barnes, Daniel M. Bell, Jr., Rachel Ferguson, D. Stephen Long, Steven McMullen, Glenn Moots, Brent Waters & Kenman Wong

Kenman Wong claims that hostility to capitalism has become so extreme that it’s a hindrance in motivating students to be a constructive influence in the business world. We asked a distinguished panel of scholars with diverse economic views to weigh in. Their reflections are stimulating and offer thoughtful ways forward out of the logjam of ideological polarization.

Article: “Richard Baxter’s Misogyny and the Protestant Dilemma of Clerical Marriage,” by Seth D. Osborne

Abstract: Negative views of women are one of the most deeply entrenched challenges bequeathed to today’s church by its historical forebears, and an understanding of the historical development of misogyny in theological discourse is critical to the present task of cultivating theology for human flourishing. The Gregorian Reforms of the 11th century were western Christendom’s first concerted effort to impose clerical celibacy uniformly on its secular clergy, and one well-documented consequence of the campaign was a growing body of polemical literature demonizing women as sexual temptresses, asserting that intercourse threatened the purity of the priest and his sacramental function. Scholars have not adequately examined whether this link between negative portrayals of women and support for clerical celibacy continued among Protestants after the Reformation. A negative evaluation of women formed a key part of the argument for clerical celibacy in the influential writings of English Protestant Richard Baxter (1615-1691), though Baxter’s reasons differed from those of the Gregorian reformers. For Baxter, clerical wives could hinder pastoral ministry because women usually exhibited qualities opposite to those required of a pastor. He wrote that clergymen need to be sober-minded, frugal, bold in the face of persecution and spiritually minded, yet women tend to be passionate, childish, wasteful, scornful of self-sacrifice and obsessive over worldly things. While other English Protestants were more supportive of clerical marriage, their rhetoric also spoke of women negatively. Thus, Baxter’s example sheds light on a key dilemma for English Protestant promotion of clerical marriage: How could clerical wives be helpers to their husbands’ ministry if women, by their nature, were typically unfit for such roles? This historical analysis sheds light on perennial questions of human flourishing for the church, including our view not only of womanhood but of celibacy and marriage, and of pastoral ministry.

A Window and a Mirror: “Christ and the Human Condition at Sundance 2023,” by Claude Alexander, Darrell Bock and Craig Detweiler

From babies raised in AI-driven artificial wombs to a London father forced to care for the child he abandoned, movies are an essential embodiment of cultural discourse about what it means to be human. By understanding and responding well to contemporary film, Christians can deepen their own reflection on the human condition, and make constructive contributions to their cultures.

Volume 1 (2022)

Digital Edition of the full 2022 issue, including all items below and additional material

Essay: “Why We’re Here: Theology for the Life of the World,” by the F&F Founding Editorial Board

The vision of Faith & Flourishing, as expressed by our Founding Editorial Board.

Article: “Simply Flourishing,” by Brent Waters

Abstract: Although there is disagreement over what the good life entails, there is a consensus that people can and should strive to flourish. What is problematic, however, is that human flourishing is often described in vague or grandiose terms, involving mastery of skills and techniques enabling people to exert greater control over their lives, and satiating their most cherished desires. These approaches can end up conceptualizing the pursuit of flourishing in terms that can be characterized as the “cult of the extraordinary self.” People, however, do not flourish by becoming extraordinary. To the contrary, they flourish by routinely tending to their own and their neighbors’ ordinary needs. Human flourishing occurs in communicative associations that embody love and bear witness to love as the world’s origin and end; most such associations are more ordinary than extraordinary. The ordinariness of human flourishing portrayed prominently in the works of Iris Murdoch.

Conversation: “Why Is the Flourishing of the World an Important Subject for Scholarly Inquiry?,” by Chris Armstrong, Darrell L. Bock, W. David Buschart, Denise Daniels, Greg Forster and Abson Prédestin Joseph

Six members of our Founding Editorial Board contributed their thoughts on why it’s important for theological scholars to study the flourishing of creation. 

Essay: “Grace, Money and Social Relationships – Theological Economics in Kathryn Tanner,” by Ryan Darr

Tanner tells the Christian story in an idiosyncratic way that produces both problems and important insights. It is not clear that all goods should be distributed by the same principle as her Economy of Grace supposes. But her Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism opens up a more promising line of critique.

Conversation: “How Can Scholars Be ‘In’ a Polarized World and Not ‘Of’ It?,” by Matthew Lee Anderson, Vincent Bacote, Kristen Deede Johnson, Matthew Kaemingk, Kathleen Mulhern, Karen Swallow Prior, Andrew Walker, John D. Wilsey

We approached scholars who had a track record of Christlike discourse on public issues, from a variety of different political leanings and asked them: “How can scholars treat topics of public concern in a way that maintains charity and hospitality, when our cultural environment predisposes so many to read whatever we write on such topics in a way that divides?” 

Article: “All Vocations Are Equal, and Some Are More Equal than Others: Integrating “Christ the Transformer of Culture” with “Christ above Culture,” by Michael Wittmer

Abstract: A comprehensive view of vocation requires combining the holistic vision of Niebuhr’s preferred category, “Christ the Transformer of Culture,” with the dualism of another Niebuhrian category, “Christ above Culture.” The former’s emphasis on the creation-fall-redemption narrative explains why all vocations are equal, while the latter’s emphasis on the grace-nature distinction explains why some vocations are more equal than others. That our vocations are simultaneously equal and hierarchical can be understood by applying the grace-nature distinction both to a vocation’s external, objective facts and to its internal heart motivations. The paper concludes that while some vocations are more directly related than others to the supernatural realm, the egalitarian heart of our vocation matters much more than its hierarchical height, and the disparity in height can be mediated and mitigated by Abraham Kuyper’s distinction between the church as institution and the church as organism.

Essay: “An Emerging Consensus on Virtue Ethics in Christian Living and Sanctification,” by Klaus Issler

Recent interest in virtue ethics has crossed an important threshold. A movement that was, within living memory, an outsider perspective in evangelical theology and even a bill of indictment against the reigning theological regime has become generally accepted as an integral component – though not the whole – of the task of Christian ethics. And increasing attention to virtue ethics in theology and biblical studies more broadly point to new horizons for our appreciation of character formation in the Christian life.

Conversation: “A Window and a Mirror: Christ and the Human Condition at Sundance 2022,” by Claude Alexander, Darrell Bock and John Priddy

From a woman in the NBA to the war in Ukraine, movies are an essential embodiment of cultural discourse about what it means to be human. By understanding and responding well to contemporary film, Christians can deepen their own reflection on the human condition, and make constructive contributions to their cultures.