Leaving Egypt
by Chuck DeGroat
The Exodus story is your story.
The Israelites' liberation from Egypt and journey to the promised land is one the Bible's most compelling narratives. But the Exodus isn't just a long-ago Bible story.
150
by Kevin Adams
Sung, whispered, shouted, and groaned by Muslims and Jews, Protestants and Catholics, Bob Marley and J. S. Bach, the Psalms express the faith of a thousand generations. People have used psalms to voice their deepest anguish and delight, to comfort others, to express emotions they hardly dare to admit.
Song of a Scientist
by Calvin B DeWitt
With the rare combination of scientific rigor, poetic imagination, and a deep Christian faith, DeWitt probes the twin books of God's Word and God's world, nudging us toward grateful stewardship and praise, joining the doxology of all creation.
The Day Metallica Came to Church
by John Van Sloten
What do the music of Metallica and Bach, the film Crash, and stories about Batman have in common? According to author and pastor John Van Sloten, God can speak through all of them—if we're listening.
Our Inspiration
Dutch statesman and theologian Abraham Kuyper once famously said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’”
Informed by this inclusive vision of the kingdom of God, Reformed Christians refuse to split the world into "sacred" and "secular." We believe and declare that this is God’s world, every square inch of it.
- In this world, in every square inch, the Holy Spirit is at work, pointing to the God who created and sustains all things, calling every person and every institution to honor their God-given calling.
- In this world, in every square inch, a world-destroying spirit is also at work, seeking to turn every person and institution away from their God-given calling and toward self-service.
Christians' Response
Well-meaning evangelical Christians have tended to respond to the painful realities of sin in the world by doing their significant work of love and healing apart from the cultural and political institutions of the world. Therefore they:
- produce “Christian” music, art, and literature instead of participating in the cultural institutions themselves.
- respond to the injustice and pain of the world by building Christian orphanages, hospitals, and feeding centers, instead of calling governments and institutions to fulfill their God-given roles in creating societies where humans flourish and justice rolls down like water.
Furthering Grace
Reformed Christians need to grow in the grace of following the Holy Spirit into this God-created and God-loved world, listening for the Spirit’s call as individuals, as the church, and as participants in the broader culture and its institutions. This grace will foster an involvement in the world that:
- affirms the manifold ways in which the Holy Spirit is present in the yearnings, the passions, the ideas, and the institutions of the world in its various cultural manifestations.
- discerns the activities and callings of the Holy Spirit from those of the unholy spirit.
- calls persons and institutions to their God-given task of bringing blessing, wholeness, justice, beauty, and truth to the world.
- walks alongside persons and institutions as they are prodded to listen to God’s call.
Square Inch aims to publish books and other media that fosters this Reformed vision of an affirming and discerning involvement in the larger culture and its institutions among Christians. We will offer excellent and accessible works from fresh voices on such topics as the arts, justice, ethics, spirituality, economics, and biblical study, that open the mind and heart to the claim of God’s kingdom to “every square inch” of human existence.
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