Dear friends,

I hope you’re heading into a restful and meaningful Christmas. If you’re looking for an orienting companion over the holidays or a last-minute gift, keep Flourishing on the Edge of Faith in mind. International friends, kindly place orders using your favorite local book store or Amazon.

Last week, I visited the University of Notre Dame for the “Faith in the Story” conference. It was a special gift to speak about the Neighbor-Love Movement among pioneering academics, journalists, and spiritual leaders. Together we looked toward 2050 and explored where faith might be leading humanity.

On one of our breaks, I visited the campus’s astonishing Christian cathedral. It had golden altars, towering ceilings, and relics from around the world. It was a palace stunning in size and sheer opulence.

But I felt nothing.

In fact, I felt a strange sense of alarm and urgency to leave the church. Despite its soaring architecture, I felt far from Jesus and almost like my spirit was suffocating... Read More

Dear friends,

Sunday was an extremely special day: Flourishing on the Edge of Faith was launched out into the world for the very first time in public!

If you weren’t able to make it or you’d like to revisit the conversation, the event is now available on YouTube. Special thanks to Eric Hoskins for streaming the event live on Facebook and for the 1,200 friends who joined us across the world!

If you’d prefer to read, I’ll include a transcript of the conversation at the bottom of this newsletter with some pictures. If you took pictures, kindly upload them here to help us remember the day 🙂 Big thanks to David Johnson and Lauren Gross Frye for sharing your beautiful pictures!

We had a packed house, and I want to warmly thank the numerous friends – many long-enduring and some just-met – who joined us to make this day so full of joy! Gathering with you was a waterfall of encouragement to my spirit and vocation as a writer... Read More

Dear friends,

I’m excited to share my new Christmas essay with you. Before that, three quick announcements:

• My book launch party is on Sunday at Wheaton College at 2:30pm CST. If you’re in the area, please RSVP and join us!
• The event will also be streamed live on my Facebook page. (For friends in Ethiopia, that will be 11:30pm.)
• Flourishing on the Edge of Faith is now officially available at BitterSweet and Amazon. The audiobook will be released soon!

I hope to see you Sunday! Now back to Christmas…

I’m a shameless lover of Christmas. I love the music, the movies, the trees, lights, and cookies. But I confess that remembering the birth of Jesus feels extra special to me this year.

In its unchanging simplicity and infinite mystery, this is what Christmas is all about: God wants relationship with us.

In fact, God so deeply desires relationship with us that God became one of us. Jesus’s biographer Matthew captures the meaning of this holy birth in a single word: Jesus is “Emmanuel” or “God-with-us” (Matthew 1:23)... Read More

Dear friends,

When was the last time you cried?

I spent the weekend at Laity Lodge for the Breaking Ground retreat and got to share breakfast with a beautiful man named Alfonso. Alfonso has a kind face and warm presence punctuated with laughter. He leads a palliative care center called Silverstone to help people at the end of life die with dignity and hope. As we started talking, Alfonso asked me this unexpected question: “Andrew, when was the last time you cried?”

His question took me by surprise but touched my soul. When I was teaching at Wheaton College, I used to ask my philosophy students this question on the first day of class. (Their responses were voluntary, privately written, and kept confidential.) One of my student’s answers moved me so deeply that I invited him to meet for a meal in the cafeteria to talk about his life. This began one of Lily’s and my most cherished friendships, which continues to this day... Read More

Dear friends,

My beloved wife Lily is generously hosting a launch party for my new book Flourishing on the Edge of Faith.

The party is at Wheaton College on Sunday December 4th at 2:30pm, and it’s my pleasure to extend Lily’s invitation to you below. As Lily says in her letter, I realize that many of you are distant from the Chicago area. But I wanted to make sure that all of you feel warmly invited to celebrate with us. I’ll let you know if streaming the event online becomes possible.

This will be the first gathering where the book will be available for purchase, and it would be a special privilege to sign your copy and express my gratitude for you going on this journey with me toward a fiercer flourishing.

If you are able to join us, kindly RSVP here at your earliest convenience. I’ll turn it over to Lily now and hope to see you at the party!.. Read More

Dear friends,

I’m delighted to share happy news: Flourishing on the Edge of Faith is at the printing press and should be available for purchase before Thanksgiving later this month. I hope this book is a meaningful companion for you and a beautiful gift for friends during the Christmas season. To receive release updates, kindly signup here.

Today I’m excited to share Flourishing‘s Preface with you. It’s only four pages long, but it articulates why this book matters to me and who was in my heart as I wrote it. My deepest desire for Flourishing is not so much to “influence” the reader but to make the reader feel at home and invited into a deeper flourishing through a fresh immersion in Jesus’s practice of prayer. Download the Preface here and let me know what you think.

Lastly, Lily is brainstorming a book launch party for friends in Chicagoland. If you’re in the area or feel inspired to make a special visit, please stay tuned for details... Read More

Dear friends,

This Friday – November 4 – will mark two years since Ethiopia’s civil war erupted. Ukraine has rightly captured the world’s attention. But the world’s deadliest war continues to rage in Ethiopia and has been largely overlooked by the world.

To mark the second anniversary of Ethiopia’s civil war, I want to invite you to do three things below: (1) watch a short video with an inspiring call for peace, (2) pray for peace in Ethiopia, and (3) read an interview that I did with a heroic Ethiopian surgeon in the heart of the war. This should only take you fifteen minutes.

But first a brief update on the conflict:

Last week, the main parties in Ethiopia’s civil war – the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray regional government – met for the first time to start formal peace talks in South Africa. This was an encouraging step in the right direction.

Sadly, however, the primary representative from the Ethiopian government never showed up, and the fighting in Tigray continued throughout the talks. .. Read More

Dear friends,

What does vulnerability feel like to you?

For me, vulnerability at its best feels like the intersection of frightening self-exposure and soul-filling connection. The self-exposure is frightening because it opens the possibility of being rejected, humiliated, or simply ignored.

But the self-exposure, however frightening, can lead to soul-filling connection precisely because we’ve taken the risk of opening ourselves and revealing something intimately important to us. When we do this, we invite others to respond in kind with their own vulnerability.

And when vulnerability meets vulnerability, something divine happens.

I’ve experienced this in a new way as I prepare to share Flourishing on the Edge of Faith with the world. This book has been gestating in my heart for several years, and I’ve poured my soul into every word. It’s intimately important to me.

But after the book was written, I wasn’t done. I then faced that scary moment of self-exposure: I needed to share the book with reviewers and ask for their honest assessment of its value... Read More

Dear friends,

Thanks so much for voting for the cover of my forthcoming book Flourishing on the Edge of Faith. You had an overwhelming favorite, and I’m delighted to reveal the book’s final front cover with you today:

The seven artworks in this beautiful collage were created by Holly Harris, and each piece illustrates one of the seven practices in Jesus’s prayer. Special thanks to Holly for these stunning original works, which she sketched, hand-carved into linoleum, rolled with ink, and pressed for my book.

At the very beginning of his public movement, Jesus taught a wildly diverse crowd of people a seven-part prayer. I believe this prayer distills the essence of Jesus’s entire spirituality into a daily meditation. I also believe it’s the secret to the beautiful way that Jesus lived, died, and lived again.

Flourishing on the Edge of Faith is about these seven practices, how they’re connected, and how practicing them every day can re-integrate us into a mature human flourishing... Read More

Dear friends,

Tomorrow is Lily’s birthday, and I want to celebrate her infinitely precious life by sharing part of our love story with you. Thanks for sharing my joy; I hope our love story reenergizes yours.

In 2007, I made an unusual choice that changed my life: I dropped out of my M.A. program at the University of Chicago. I missed Ethiopia deeply, and I felt called to move back there for the third time. So I consulted with my mentors, met with Dean Owens, and did it.

On the way, I attended a thrilling philosophy seminar at the University of Paris taught by Professor Jean-Luc Marion. The seminar was thrilling to me for three reasons. First, Professor Marion was one of the most respected philosophers in the world and someone I deeply admired. Second, I was the only MA student accepted into this exclusive PhD seminar. And, third, it was Paris – with a course focused on selfhood and the meaning of love... Read More

Dear friends,

Thank you very much for voting on the cover options for my new book Flourishing on the Edge of Faith. 66% of you had a clear preference 🙂 I’m excited for the final cover to be revealed and the pre-order link to go public in the coming weeks.

Stop & Think this week is significantly longer and heftier than usual, but I’m thrilled to share this essay with you, and I hope you wade through it.

Last week marked a special milestone in my life and ongoing education: I finally finished studying all 850 pages of James Baldwin’s Collected Essays (New York: Library of America, 1998).

I highly recommend this volume. But if you don’t have time to read through it yourself,  I hope my essay helpfully distills Baldwin’s powerful ethical vision and highlights some of his most luminous lines. You don’t want to miss him.

If you don’t have time to read the full essay, explore a few of the highlighted quotes below... Read More

Dear friends,

Your opinion matters to me. Flourishing on the Edge of Faith is coming out in November, and I’d be thrilled if you’d help me choose its cover 🙂

Obi Okolo, BitterSweet’s brilliant designer, has given us some beautiful options. Click here and let me know your favorite! The poll takes less than thirty seconds and closes after the first 100 submissions, so hurry and let your voice be heard!

I can’t wait to share this book with you. Thanks for weighing in!

Yours with gratitude and anticipation,

Andrew.. Read More

Dear friends,

Last week, I chatted with one of the most prominent politicians in Ethiopia. I asked him, “If you could use only three words to describe where Ethiopia is heading, what would they be?”

His answer was extremely sobering. He replied, “Syria on steroids.”

The day after Ethiopia’s civil war erupted in November 2020, the U.S. Institute of Peace published this statement: “The fragmentation of Ethiopia would be the largest state collapse in modern history… would lead to mass interethnic and interreligious conflict… would overshadow any existing conflict in the region, including Yemen.”

At the time, defenders of the war ridiculed this statement as nonsense designed to defame Ethiopia. They insisted that the war wasn’t even a “war” and that this surgical “law enforcement operation” would end quickly and secure Ethiopia’s “prosperity.”

But almost two years later, the bitter truth has become undeniable: this war is mass-producing human suffering and super-charging hate. It has only led to catastrophic displacement, death, destruction, and famine... Read More

Dear Friends,

On Friday morning, I opened an email that sent a river of grateful joy flowing through me.

The email was titled “Something New from BitterSweet,” and its message announced the launch of BitterSweet Books, with yours truly as its first author.

Kate Schmidgall founded BitterSweet in 2009 with the mission of telling stories from around the world that Reject Cynicism, Defy Apathy, and Celebrate Good. In the face of a news cycle that glues us to spectacle, violence, and despair, Kate wanted to help us cultivate an alternative imagination for our lives and world.

For over a decade now, Kate and her BitterSweet team have been pursuing this intrepid, prophetic mission with exceptional excellence, elegance, and kindness. From the beginning, I’ve thought of BitterSweet’s work as a healing vision therapy. Their stories shift who we pay attention to, how we see people, and what we believe is possible for our world. Kate has now published over a hundred stories featuring the work of nonprofits that celebrate good in seemingly every context... Read More

Dear friends,

I hope you’re having a refreshing summer.

Stop & Think has taken a pause as I’ve been on a wonderful 40-day journey throughout Europe. After a nasty bout of Covid and a breathtaking hike in the Alps, two joyous weddings, three book recording sessions, five countries, seven reunions, and countless conversations, I’m home. Thank you to so many dear friends for your generous hospitality.

This week I’m sharing my recent interview with Stan Grant on his Religion and Ethics Report for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Grant is one of Australia’s leading journalists and has interviewed many inspiring moral leaders and philosophers, including Nelson Mandela and Charles Taylor.

I was humbled that Grant asked to interview me about my article in Foreign Policy on Christian nationalism in Ethiopia. Our interview is titled “How Religion and Violence Are Shaping Ethiopia Today,” and you can listen to it here.

I hope this brief conversation enriches your awareness of what’s happening in Ethiopia and how we can practice the ethic of neighbor-love in this challenging time... Read More

Dear friends,

On June 18th, Foreign Policy published my article “Christian Nationalism Is Tearing Ethiopia Apart.” Publishing this article brought a collision of gratitude and grief in my life.

On the one hand, I was deeply grateful, because I believe this article compellingly addresses an urgently important but untouchable problem in Ethiopian society: Christian nationalism. I have been inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King’s words, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” And so I chose to break the silence.

Foreign Policy is one of the largest and most respected platforms in the world. Publishing with FP gave my article the best possible chance of being read widely and taken seriously. FP generously published it on the top of their front page, and a week later, my article was still trending on FP’s top seven list. The article has been shared thousands of times on social media and is generating lots of conversation... Read More

On my walk last October, I made my way to some rocks overlooking the bay and a beautiful island. The waves lapping at my feet set a peaceful rhythm, and I hit “call.”.. Read More

Dear friends,

Warm greetings from beautiful Maine! Lily and I are here to celebrate my 39th birthday (May 28) and our 12th wedding anniversary (July 8). I’m so grateful for Lily’s relentless love since the first day we met. She’s my teacher, healer, and gift from heaven.

This week I’m sharing a live conversation about loving our enemies that I recently recorded with Telos Group. Telos is a peacemaking organization that has profoundly impacted my life. I deeply respect their work and am so honored that they invited me to join this conversation. I heartily encourage you to learn more about Telos and participate in their work.

Telos said they were “blown away” by this conversation, and I hope you enjoy it. To listen, please click here.

Happy (early) anniversary, Lily!

Andrew

.. Read More

Dear friends,

I was in D.C. last week recording the audiobook of Why Pray? Seven Practices for Flourishing on the Edge of Faith (updated title). This is an intense and time-consuming process, and I want to thank my producer Robert Winship and the entire BitterSweet team for their energizing excellence.

I believe our bodies are good and that we should befriend them. Paul wrote the beautiful question, “Don’t you know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?” (1 Corinthians 6:17). Ancient spirituality often taught people to ignore or idolize their bodies. Paul calls us to embrace our bodies as sacred homes to be cherished and cared for. I’m with Paul.  

But recording Why Pray? has given me a new window into how my body is still catching up with my belief. As I read my own book into the microphone, I discovered how little I know about my tongue, teeth, and lips. I talk every day and have recorded many hours of content... Read More

Dear friends,

I’m delighted to share that my new book Practice Flourishing: The Spirituality of Jesus is nearly finished being revised. I’ve just presented it to my board at the Institute for Faith and Flourishing, and my submission deadline for the final manuscript is May 15. My publisher BitterSweet Foundation hopes the book will be released in paperback, audiobook, and digital by mid-October. If you’d like to sign up for updates on the book’s release, please click here.

To mark this moment, I’ve written an essay about my experience writing this book. I’m excited to share it with you and want to thank you for your prayer, encouragement, and investment in my work.

Pregnancy: The Creative Process / On Writing

As a man, I would never claim to know what pregnancy is really like. But my sisters and many of my dearest friends have shared their experiences of pregnancy with me. I have watched their pregnancies unfold and witnessed the new life soon after delivery... Read More

Dear friends,

I love firsts, and this one is extra special: Lily and I are collaborating on Stop & Think with a brief essay from me and a brilliant painting from her.

Our shared theme is “groaning,” an experience that becomes increasingly familiar to us amidst pandemic, war, and other forms of conflict and loss. Lily’s painting is entitled Loss and Hope (March 2022). It’s a profound reflection on Ethiopian motherhood with many subtle meanings layered within it. Special thanks to Lily for sharing her sacred gift with me and the world.

Our work was published in this month’s edition of Cultivare, an exceptionally rich online magazine edited by my spiritual director Dr. Duane Grobman. I warmly encourage you to subscribe to Cultivare (it’s free) and read the entire edition. I hope you find it as illuminating and encouraging as I have. Special thanks to Duane for inviting our work!

Yours with groaning and gratitude,

Andrew and Lily

Loss and Hope by Lily DeCort

Groaning: Love in Pain​

My world shook, and I began to groan... Read More

Dear friends,

I recently finished reading the Harry Potter series, which was published between 1997 and 2007. My late PhD adviser Jean Elshtain always spoke so highly of these seven books, and now I know why.

In this essay, I want to share with you some of what I’ve discovered in the Potter universe. Perhaps these reflections will stir up treasured memories for you, or spur you on to read the series for the first time, or simply enrich your own moral imagination. Spoiler alert: I discuss a lot of plot details and endings below. If you want to jump around, I bold the key topics and characters.

For starters, these books deserve to be the best-selling story in history, which they are with over 500 million copies in print. They’re fundamentally about ethics — about good and evil, love and power, loss and resurrection. They speak to the human longing for goodness, joy, and togetherness despite evil, hate, and murder... Read More

Dear friends,

A few weeks ago, I met an extremely kind woman at the airport. She looked at my hat and read it out loud: “Celebrate right and good.” She then said with feeling, “That’s exactly what we need today!” I told her that’s the motto of BitterSweet, the publisher of my new book, and she generously asked me to tell her about it.

I told her it’s called Practice Flourishing, and she immediately said that she loved the title and wanted to buy it. When I told her the subtitle — The Spirituality of Jesus — she responded, “You lost me there. I’m a good Jewish girl. But I’ll buy it for my Christian friend.”

I replied, “I hear you: Christians have done terrible things to Jews for centuries. But Jesus was a good Jewish boy, and the book is for everyone.” But I could tell she had made up her mind and wasn’t interested.

She continued by saying that humans have never managed to “celebrate right and good” throughout history... Read More

Dear friends,

Why has Stop & Think taken a break?

For the last month, I’ve been focusing exclusively on writing my new book Practice Flourishing: The Spirituality of Jesus. It’s almost done, and I’m so excited to share it with you straight from my heart.

I’m also overjoyed to announce that Practice Flourishing now has an exceptional publisher in Kate Schmidgall and her innovative BitterSweet Media House based in Washington, D.C. Kate combines world-class professionalism with incredible kindness and prophetic values. Paul writes from prison that God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” I feel this intensely with Kate and BitterSweet as we prepare to publish Practice Flourishing. Look for updates in the coming months!

Kate, thank you!!! Our conversation blew me away.

This week, I’m excited to share my short article “Protest: Love’s Primal Vocation,” which was just published on Offensis, an online magazine in Germany focused on Christian faith and political praxis... Read More

Dear friends,

As we enter a new year, I want to share a simple but healing practice with you for our relationships. It comes from Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature. Wiesel said,