We welcome article submissions from anyone in the Duke Divinity community, whether faculty, staff, student, or alumnus. Ideally, submissions should range in length from 800-1200 words. If you feel a need for more space, though, just ask.

The Confessio is divided up into five sections, and you’re welcome to write for any and all of them.

1) Arts and Literature includes poetry, original artwork, fiction, creative nonfiction, and reviews of things like novels, plays, music, and concerts.

2) Dispatches from the Front is for anything and everything to do with parish ministry, especially reflections from field education experience. Sermons work too.

3) Theology and Culture is where we put stuff that engages with contemporary thought and current events. Have thoughts on US military policy, or abortion, or health care? Or what NT Wright and Douglas Campbell think about justification in Paul? Want to show the world why Wendell Berry is great, or why Slavoj Zizek is wrong (or vice-versa)? And, do you want to try your hand at making your case theologically and biblically? This is the section for you.

4) Living Tradition is our place for drawing upon the tradition of the Church and the words of Scripture to listen to God’s Word today. Have a great exegesis of the call narrative in Isaiah 6, or Christ’s speech at the Nazareth synagogue in Luke 4? Or, do you have something to say about the love of God and the love of humanity in Augustine, or the rule of faith in Irenaeus, or atonement in Luther?

5) Eruditio et Religio is where we cover events here at Duke and talk about issues that matter to our community. So, here’s where we write up and engage with things like Shane Claiborne and Jody Bottum’s visits to Duke Divinity, as well as ask questions such as how we as students are called to serve the Durham community while we’re here.

In general, we’re not looking for papers from class. We’re looking for a different type of writing, pitched not to professors but to general readers with an interest in theology and the church’s mission. Basically, we want to publish the sort of thing that you’d see written in magazines like the Christian Century, First Things, Books & Culture, Christianity Today, and Commonweal. If you have something from class that you’re proud of, that’s great– work it up into a magazine article, and we’ll be glad to publish it.

That’s pretty much it. Our goal is to publish something at least once a week, so we’re always looking for new stuff. Don’t sweat it if you haven’t written something like this before, either– our editors are more than willing to work with you. And don’t worry if you think that the editors won’t agree with your opinion, either. That’s not the point of this. The point is to get people in the Duke Divinity community talking with each other, learning how to write well and have truly theological disagreements and engagements. Hopefully, we’ll all learn something by listening to each other as we listen together to God’s Word.

So stop staring at the screen and write us an article! Feel free to shoot us an email or stop one of us in the hallway if you have any questions.

Christ’s peace,

Leigh Edwards & Emily Leonardy

The Editors

(send submissions, questions and encouragement to: dukeconfessio@gmail.com)