Our parents’ need for meaning
No matter how much we avoid it, the day will come when our parents will not be able to get by without us, just as we would not have been able to grow up without them.
Deadly ideas
“To them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever” (Isaiah 56:5).
”Think of the children!” Are video games harming us?
As the world went into various lockdowns over the course of last year, people turned to a variety of entertainment forms to cope with...
Working with a toxic boss
When professional activity causes constant stress, it is necessary, as part of a strategy for better communication, to identify the traits of a toxic boss and decipher problematic behaviours.
Positive thinking overdose: Why too much optimism is harmful
If optimism helps us get rid of problems more easily, too much optimism does the exact opposite: it amplifies them. Pushed to the extreme, positive thinking prescribed as an antidote to suffering prevents us from accepting reality as it is and starting to look for solutions that can make our lives easier.
The fall of communism
“Communism is the only serious rival to Christianity.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
Communist prisons were filled with Christians of every denomination, from lay believers...
You can do anything and be successful at it, as long as you believe in yourself. True or false?
Some say that of all the opinions we can have in life, the most important is the opinion about ourselves.
Happiness left behind
“A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.”
Five lessons from the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It takes a brave man to stand up to a dictator and perhaps an even braver one to stand up to his church. Dietrich Bonhoeffer has been held up as a hero of the cause of justice and equality, and a statesman of modern Christian theology. For some readers, these two things might not seem a natural fit. But for Bonhoeffer, the two...
What’s growing on your family tree?
From a distance, it looked like a simple picture of a tree: nothing very artistic—more of a sketch in subtle shades of brown and green. But as I looked closer I noticed something unusual. The tree had been constructed out of words and phrases. Someone had collected snippets of information about their family and their ancestors, and written it down to form the...
Overwhelmed by simplicity
Social upheaval, an identity crisis, the sexual revolution, experimentation with drugs, and Eastern philosophies distanced entire generations in Western Europe from conservative values and faith. However, in the same 1960s and 1970s environment, Marijke and Bernard Beranger found something better and more lasting.
Clash of sexual cultures (I)
More than half a century has passed since the beginning of the sexual revolution, which was characterized by a period of suspension of conventional boundaries, in order to experience a deeper sexual freedom. Fifty years of experimentation, however, do not seem to have been enough to dispel the persisting suffering and confusion present in romantic relationships.
From the written page to the screen | The winding paths of reading
The readers who immerse themselves in the maze of paper and ink, savouring every word, seem to be on the verge of extinction.
The slumber of the proud
One of the best-known stories told by ambitious entrepreneurs today is that if you work hard, you will have a lot.
The fascination of eternal freedom in a communist regime
The biggest surprise of 1989 was the speed with which the communist regimes in Europe collapsed. Their collapse occurred as quickly as their establishment. Two personalities played an undeniable role in undermining a communist regime that seemed to be eternal.