the YALE LOGOS
an undergraduate journal of Christian thought.
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Heaven Is a Place on Earth?
December 31, 2021 | By Sharla Moody BK ‘22
The science fiction of the first half of the twentieth century appears much more optimistic than what we see today. This optimistic sci-fi can perhaps be best exemplified by Hanna-Barbera’s 1962-1963 cartoon The Jetsons, which imagines what life might be like in the year 2062. The Jetsons drive a flying car, live in an ultra modern city built in Earth’s atmosphere, and exist as a happy nuclear family.
How (Not) To Renew a City
December 31, 2021 | by Amelia Dilworth BR’23
The Pruitt-Igoe housing projects sink into the ground one broken window at a time, sections of buildings falling in waves like rows of wounded soldiers faltering to their knees before collapsing in the rubble. Smoke rises from the ground, the same color as the crumbling gray walls. Apartments lay in the rubble ripped open like carcasses. Half-exploded buildings kneel in the remains of their brothers, awaiting destruction.
This is St. Louis, Missouri. America is bombing its own city.
Batter My Heart
December 31, 2021 | Shi Wen Yeo MC ‘23
The famous English poet John Donne is said to have been so afraid of and obsessed about death that he, on multiple occasions, rehearsed his death by lying still in his hearse and having someone paint the dead likeness of him. Indeed, he was a poet of the English Renaissance, characterised by his polemic attitudes—in his youth, he wrote many famous erotic love poems yet moved to somber sermons in adulthood, and he even converted from the “salvation through works” Catholicism to “faith and works” Anglicanism to become an important preacher in the Church of England. Ostensibly, he was a troubled figure, full of personal vacillations and characterised by contradictions—not unlike many Christians today.
How Could Immortality Be Good?
December 31, 2021 | By Shayley Martin DC ‘22
In books and movies, immortality is generally a bad thing. We watch characters strive for it only to discover that life goes sour if prolonged. Even aside from practical issues like overpopulation and resource depletion, there’s a prevailing idea that human nature can’t stomach living forever. The end of a Netflix series called The Good Place captures this well: the occupants of paradise become so bored with the afterlife’s never-ending stream of pleasures that they rejoice when finally offered a chance to vanish from existence. The show concludes that fleetingness gives life its meaning.
Emotional Enlightenment
December 31, 2021 | By Hannah Turner, BK ‘23+1
The concepts Karl Marx did not grasp led to the downfall of communism, but may also lead to the magnification of our societal understanding. He believed that there must be an enlightenment of the proletariat for the realization of the bourgeoisie’s exploitation of them. A revolt would follow. Finally, once the proletariat is in control of the state, a communist society would be born. Everyone would live, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
What Christians Can Learn From (And Bring To) Mutual Aid
October 31, 2021 | By Shayley Martin DC ‘22
More and more nonprofits are questioning the charity model because it suggests a big power imbalance: wealthy donors versus poor recipients. Since charities rely on donors, they have to guard against valuing donors’ interests more highly than the needs of the people they want to help.
And they don’t always succeed.
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