Plough Quarterly No. 38 - Repair: UK Edition
English
By (author): Adam Nicholson Benjamin Crosby Hannah Rose Thomas Kurt Armstrong Leah Libresco Sergeant Makoto Fujimura Narine Abgaryan Norman Wirzba Rowan Williams Stephanie Saldaña
Our writers celebrate the work of repair of objects, relationships, communities, and landscapes and reckon with its limits.
Consumers campaign for a right to repair in protest of products wasteful planned obsolescence. Repair cafés spring up, in which old-timers teach greenhorns to mend clothes and appliances. But much more than our possession stand in need of repair. For some, the Jewish phrase tikkun olam to repair the world may have become little more than a secular social justice mandate, not unlike the Christian cliché God has no hands but ours. Yet while we wait on God to repair the cosmos, there are indeed countless ways one can participate in this work, whether one is a mother, a handyman, a farmer, an artist, an teacher, or a pastor. The work may not be glamorous, but it calls forth our creativity and holds its own rewards.
On this theme:
- A handyman settles for humble work and doesnt wish more for his children.
- A mother mends her daughters clothes into extravagant works of arts.
- A pastor in a declining denomination asks where to start repairing the church.
- A farmer says a restored landscape will be more than it was before.
- Yazidi, Rohingya, and Uyghur survivors of sexual violence find ways to reclaim their dignity.
- Painter Makoto Fujimura says artists dont fight culture wars, they make culture.
- Prisoners and staff say prisons dont rehabilitate, but education in prison just might.
- A schoolteacher says education requires family, school, and community.
- A church that prays in the language of Jesus, scattered by war, lives on in new places.
Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.
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