Articles on Community
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2026 Shalem Picks for Contemplative Resources
As Yourself by Caroline VogelI have loved Caroline Vogel’s book, As Yourself. Caroline is a Shalem graduate and her book is about how we can take seriously Jesus’s mandate to love ourselves (love your neighbor as yourself). The book is wise and compassionate and full of embodied practices. – Jehanne Gheith, Board of Directors Becoming…
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Searching for the Divine Light
I struggled with how to approach this talk of grief. I’m a stoic Norwegian and German Lutheran, so I am notoriously uncomfortable talking about my own grief or life obstacles. I’m sure some of you can relate. We find a myriad of ways to minimize our sadness. For example, it is an ironic act of…
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Contemplatives Build Bridges
Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP By mid-December 2025, Minnesotans knew we were in for a rough winter.On January 7, 2026, our fears were realized and expanded when Renée Nicole Macklin Good was shot by a federal agent after saying directly to him, with a sincere smile on her face, ‘I’m not mad at you.’…
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“The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” – John 1:5
Shalem Institute invites you into a new special limited series: “Contemplation in Troubled Times” Minnesota’s example of courage and nonviolent action in the face of oppression is something we continue to witness and be in solidarity with as best we are able. It also extends beyond Minnesota to our brothers and sisters across the U.S. and around…
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Contemplation Through Our Shared Humanity
In these months of federal occupation in Minneapolis, as a person of faith and as a pastor, I have relearned that contemplation is connection – rather than, as I have sometimes been tempted in the past to believe, contemplation being withdrawal. Partly because of the unpredictability of each day during this stretch, contemplation for me…
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Board Update on Executive Director Search
Dear Friends, As the Shalem Institute looks toward its next season of leadership, we are invited into a moment that is both grounded and generative—grounded in the contemplative vision of our founder, Tilden Edwards, and generative in responding faithfully to the spiritual hunger and complexity of our present time. The search for a new Executive…