Plough Quarterly No. 35 – Pain and Passion

Pain is inevitable. Almost everyone is living with some kind of pain,whether the cause is physical, emotional, financial, social, or spiritual. Adesire to escape it has led thousands of Canadians to seek euthanasia, andcountless others into opioid addiction. What can we learn from people aroundthe world for whom pain is a fact of life? How can we help others bear theirpain? How might the wisdom of earlier eras help us? What answers does faith offer?On this theme:- Navid Kermani visits farming Madagascar battling drought causedby climate change. - Benjamin Crosby asks why churches haven’t spoken out againstCanada’s euthanasia experiment.- Tom Holland sums up the history of pain in two artworks and threelives.- Lisabeth Button shares correspondence with a friend succumbingto Alzheimer’s.- Rick Warren demonstrated how our own suffering can lead to ourbest ministry.- Wang Yi, an imprisoned Chinese pastor, calls churches to facerepression boldly.- Leah Libresco Sargeant profiles nuns providing palliative care.- Eleanor Parker considers an Anglo-Saxon poem, “The Dream of theRood.” - Brewer Eberly tells what he learned from an insufferable patient.- Randall Gauger, who lost his son to cancer, finds lessons in C.S. Lewis.Also in the issue: - A report on the resurgence of bison by Nathan Beacom- Original poetry by Sofia M. Starnes and Julia Nemirovskaya- An excerpt from a new graphic novel, By Water- Reviews of Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, James K. A. Smith’s How to Inhabit Time, and Nick Cave’s and Seán O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage.- Readings from Eduardo Galeano, Felicity of Carthage, Anselm ofCanterbury, Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther, and J. Heinrich ArnoldPlough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faithto the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews,poetry, book reviews, and art.