Articles By: Alicia Prickett
Pray Like You (Don’t) Mean It: On Genuine Prayer
When the human hands off her wish or hope or desire to God, what is the action taking place? How does prayer happen?
The kneeling murderer suffers through an attempt at prayer. Repentant yet addicted, he bows and shouts and almost hopes. As he prays, he notices he must adjust his brother’s royal...
June 10th, 2013 | Religion | Read More
Just Let Them Think You’re Stupid: Choosing Humility
By a quirk of our schooling, report cards and grades catechize us into perfect certainty of (at least) one thoroughly false lesson: that our ability to demonstrate understanding of something is more important than the understanding or the thing itself. Mixed with our natural inclination toward that frightened...
June 3rd, 2013 | Moral Philosophy | Read More
The Lessons Learned through Suffering
Since I can’t send this to my own 2010 self, I’ll open it up to everyone else
Dear Pre-Suffering Self,
Thank you for going through everything you’re about to go through; it’s going to suck. You’re going to feel the fire and regret and loss of being human. You’re going...
May 28th, 2013 | The Gospel | Read More
Christian Creativity: The Subversive Grace of the Inspired Imagination
Driving out of town on a Thursday, a pastor passed an adult movie store. Toward the edge of its parking lot, a familiar bright green car caught his eye. It belonged to another clergyman in his town, a man with whom he had led Bible studies and had prayer meetings over coffee. Upon seeing the car, the...
May 20th, 2013 | Religion | Read More
Freaking Annoyed, or How to See God
Anna Karenina watches her husband’s hands, thinking how ugly they are. Anna, glorious and refined, thinks how annoying it is to look at those hands. To touch their clammy skin or watch them fumble doorknobs. And, what’s more, to hear that man make chewing noises when he eats, or glimpse a...
May 13th, 2013 | Church | Read More
Precarious Providence: Un-Worrying about God’s Will
From six years of college, I believe the most important lesson I’ve learned is contained in two words. The two terms express something uncannily alike, but completely dissimilar. There’s only the smallest of gaps between their meanings, a gap exactly the size of a mustard seed. The last six...
May 6th, 2013 | Religion | Read More
Revision as Devotional
I write. And, in writing long and hard, I found a secret heartbeat backing my action. If prayerful, Christians often find an echo of Christ in their creative efforts. In mine, it centers around the act of revision.
But, please, don’t think “editing” when I say revision. Editing and...
April 30th, 2013 | Religion | Read More
The Forgotten Gift of the Dove Real Beauty Video
You’ve probably seen the Dove Real Beauty Sketches Youtube video. Last week, it generated a lot of responses, from the informative to the satirical, both pro and con. Surprisingly, no one I read mentioned the feature of the video toward which I gravitated most strongly.
While everyone else watched...
April 22nd, 2013 | Culture, Media, Television | Read More
Abortion: How and Whether to Read about Evil
The trial of a particularly demented abortion doctor has been going on, this last week, and links to news stories appeared on Facebook under comments like “I’m almost hesitant to share this…but, you need to know.”
That hesitation wavers in my heart. Reading these articles is painful....
April 15th, 2013 | Abortion, Bioethics, Media | Read More
Jonah and the Hipster
Music is, mostly, a non-rival good; my having it doesn’t decrease your having it. There are exceptions: if you’re going to a concert, the seats are limited (my being there makes there less room for you to be there). But, if we’re talking about being a fan, listening to music on iTunes,...
April 9th, 2013 | Music | Read More
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