United Despite Differences: The Case for Open Dialogue Across Denominations

Growing up, “Catholic” and “Christian” were always interchangeable terms. I knew that my family and I were Catholics, and I knew that we were Christians, so I assumed that they must surely mean the same thing. It wasn’t until I entered elementary school and heard my peers talking about going to “Sunday school” on the

Forgiveness in Our World

This year at the Center, we have been reimagining reconciliation as we prepare for our symposium in the spring. As we conversed about what reconciliation looks like in our lives, we found that forgiveness is a common theme that is commonly paired with this idea of restoration.   “I thought I had forgiven her a long

Unlearning, Relearning, and Redefining Reconciliation

Messiah’s theme this year is “reconciliation” and as such, it’s a topic that has come up several times over the course of the semester, whether it be during class discussions, lectures, or even just normal conversation amongst friends. However, the definition of the term tends to be a little murky, especially when it is being

Missions from a Humanities’ Perspective

We were dancing under the late afternoon sun. Sweaty and giggling, multiple little Haitian girls grabbed hold of me as we spun around, again and again. Afterward, we all dropped to the ground, exhausted but smiling up at the sun. Two of the girls crawled in my lap and promptly fell asleep. I held them

Notes on the Ancient Egyptian Art Wing (i.e. the Stolen Art Wing)

The other week, I was walking around the Brooklyn Museum with an artist friend of mine, she armed with her sketchbook and a pen, and I with a pencil and my notebook. We were both creating sketches and taking notes of the things we saw and admired.The entire first floor of the museum is currently

Memory, Monuments, and Lost Cause Ideology.

How do we use monuments to shape our memory of the past? As a history major, I have studied how different people use the past and shape its memory. One of the areas that I have focused on researching is the Lost Cause of the South ideology. Lost Cause ideology is the idea that became

Virtue

Virtue.  What is virtue?   I can tell you that virtue is the word I misspelled in my fifth-grade spelling bee, landing me a second-place finish. I’ll never forget how to spell it now.  Outside of elementary school spelling bees, the word gets tossed around in many circles. Recently, the idea of “virtue” often appears in

A Privilege. A Voice. A Vote.

When I turned 18 years old, there was one thing I looked forward to most that came with this milestone, and that was finally being able to vote in the future elections. I can clearly remember going with my father to the polls when I was eight years old and waking up full of excitement

The Show Must Go On: Arts in the Time of Pandemic

If you’ve ever been involved in theatre, you may have heard this phrase used. Whether you’re the high school actor making his first stage debut, the musician practicing to play in the pit, or the theatre parent that’s been recruited to help build sets, you know what this means. Essentially, the show will go on, regardless

Cracks in The Plaster: How Colson Whitehead’s ‘The Nickel Boys’ Reveals Societal Flaws

books have the power to make people better by revealing the truth, inspiring necessary questions, and offering ways to pitch in. This book is one of those rare gems that is able to do all three.