catapult magazine: unite.learn.serve
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Recent Issues
Election
You’re probably tired of hearing about it already, but there are still four months to go. Beyond the parties and punditry are a lot of questions Christians should be asking and seeking good answers to, especially American Christians steeped in an election year.
The Artist & the Toothpaste
What is happening to the world when a teen-ager confuses a reference to a renowned Baroque painter with a widely available brand of dentifrice? This issue will look at the relationship between contemporary popular culture and what came before.
Fame & Fortune
It’s easy to look at Britney and decry the destructive power of fame and money, but what about Bono? And how many of us daydream about winning the lottery or becoming independently wealthy so we can give it all away? And yet, most people find themselves stuck, by choice or by circumstance, in a more moderate income bracket. On fame and fortune, scarcity and abundance, ambition and contentment.
Ideas Have Legs
The Nazi worldview was one of the past century’s most striking examples of a set of ideals that sprouted legs and trampled over half the world, leaving behind unparalleled devastation. Though Hitler represents an extreme example, worldviews have significantly shaped movements throughout history and around the world. What do we see when we take a critical look at the past, present and future?
Draw Me a Story
In many academic institutions, graphic novels are emerging as a rich medium for study. Fortunately, creative storytellers have not been so slow on the uptake and there’s a treasure trove of works already available. This issue will explore the form of the graphic novel for beginners and fans alike.
Keeping House
According to Wendell Berry, home economics is defined as “the ways of human housekeeping, the ways by which the human household is situated within the household of nature.” From the time we’re children, we act out our instinct for keeping house and as we do, our decisions can affirm or betray what we confess to be our deepest values.
Things I Keep
Move after move, we pack them into boxes and then unpack them into places they’ll stay until the next time we uproot for a new place. What are some of the stories behind the sentimental objects that follow us from house to house, state to state, country to country?
Engaging Monasticism
Principles of monasticism are claimed by a spectrum of people—from those who commit to life in a monastery to those who incorporate a rule into their everyday experiences outside of the monastery. What is the relationship between committing to the contemplative life and being in the world?
Artful Transformation
Reflections during the end of Lent and the beginning of Holy Week on art and transformation. What is the nature of the effect a piece of art can have on its audience? What roles to symbol and story play at this time of year?
Tales from the Table
Individual, family, neighborhood, region, country—cultures form around food at a variety of levels. How does food both separate us from each other and bring us together?
A Field in Winter
In many parts of the world, the land is quiet at this time of year, but not inert. The soil is preparing for another year of planting and farmers are making plans for another season of crops…a good time to sit back and think about where our food comes from.
Safe and Secure
Much of our lives, from locking our front doors to choosing our neighborhoods to advocating for defense strategy, revolve around minimizing risk and ensuring a safe, predictable existence. On myths, decisions and hopefulness related to the idea of security.
Ten Things
A conglomeration of lists on a wide range of topics, spanning the past year, the past ten years or a lifetime of learning and being.
I Do Love My Family
Oh, the holidays—a time when love abounds and tempers flare. Spending extended periods of time with our families can help us understand who we are now, revert us to children, inspire immense gratitude and create loads of stress…sometimes all at once. Stories of change, reconciliation, discovery and joy.
Art House
Art finds its way into our lives and homes with regularity—from a child’s drawing to the painting that “ties the room together,” from our dabblings in candlemaking to dedicated studios. And for a few of us, art is a full-time calling that takes us on a journey to imaginative mental and physical places as we create.
Hope and Cynicism
The temptation is strong, as we navigate daily through a broken world, to submit to the despair of cynicism. And yet we know hope is valid and necessary. So how do we maintain hope without closing ourselves off to reality? How do we entertain essential critique without becoming immobilized by powerlessness?
Good Gifts
It’s something most of us think about this time of year—if we haven’t been pondering already for weeks. Though tangible and intangible gifts surround us all year round, autumn seems like a good time to give some special consideration as we prepare to give thanks and express our gratitude through the exchange of presents.
Conviction
Whether we name it or not, our actions fundamentally emerge from a worldview, a way of understanding who we are and what our responsibility is in the world. The values that compose a worldview can come from many sources, can be absorbed intentionally or unintentionally, can lead to service or destruction.
Dressing Up
Some of the most significant events and religiously observed celebrations in our lives involve putting on special clothes—from dresses to costumes, family heirlooms to handmade suits. This issue will explore stories and themes that are interwoven with getting all gussied up for a purpose.
Autumn, and Then Winter
The weather may not be showing it yet, but the northern hemisphere is moving into the fall season and then into winter. This issue will include perspectives from a range of life stages on watching others grow older, growing older ourselves and being caregivers to those in the winter of life.
