Why are we here?

You might think that the idea of a Christian voice in the public square is unnecessary, archaic, or at worst dangerous. Religion surely is a realm best kept private with little to contribute in life today?

We believe that Jesus of Nazareth, a Hebrew who lived and died two thousand years ago, really was God incarnate, and that his resurrection has transformed everything. In Jesus we receive not only the gift of grace but a new way to be human. His resurrection has opened up a new life, not ‘pie in sky’ but rather real relationship, community, sociality, work, culture, art, and love. This kingdom over which he is Lord is the one he instructs his disciples to pray for on earth as in heaven.

German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his celebrated Letters and Papers from Prison writes on the process of “metanoia,” a Greek word from the New Testament which refers to change and transformation in one’s life.

“If one has completely renounced making something of oneself—whether it be a saint or a converted sinner or a church leader (a so-called priestly figure!), a just or an unjust person, a sick or a healthy person—then one throws oneself completely into the arms of God, and this is what I call this-worldliness: living fully in the midst of life’s tasks, questions, successes and failures, experiences, and perplexities—then one takes seriously no longer one’s own sufferings but rather the suffering of God in the world. Then one stays awake with Christ in Gethsemane. And I think this is faith; this is μετάνοια [metanoia]. And this is how one becomes a human being, a Christian.”

Metanoia is founded on the conviction that the Christian gospel has something to the world, community, and places we live in. This is the vision through the reflections, discussion, and dreams we publish here we hope to embody, as a people making their way and learning to live under the True Human. This way of life is something which deserves reflection and attention.