From the Editor: September/October 2021 | Sojourners

From the Editor: September/October 2021

What models can help guide us as we go about the work of building something new?
Jesuit priest, peace activist, and president of the Columbian Truth Commission Francisco de Roux / Illustration by Johnalynn Holland
Jesuit priest, peace activist, and president of the Columbian Truth Commission Francisco de Roux / Illustration by Johnalynn Holland

AS WE WORKED on the three feature articles in this issue, a common theme became clear: Each of the authors, in distinctive ways and from varied points of view, was grappling with related questions: How do we take the next steps in constructing a more just church and society? What models can help guide us as we go about the work of building something new?

In an excerpt from his new book A More Perfect Union, Sojourners President Adam Russell Taylor looks to the southern African philosophy of ubuntu—interdependence—as offering wisdom that goes far beyond one-on-one relationships to a paragon for society itself. Colleen Murphy, a law professor in Illinois and an expert in issues of transitional justice, explains why making progress on racial justice requires facing the hard realities of our past. And associate editor Christina Colón talked with pastors about how their churches will be different as they enter the post-quarantine era. In their own unique ways, each author is wrestling—as all of us are called to do—with questions of what it means to put our faith into action in an uncertain world.

This appears in the September/October 2021 issue of Sojourners