Dear Readers,

As this year draws to a close, many of us are looking back at loss, isolation, and upheaval. We have all gone through a year full of the unexpected and uncomfortable. We at Fare Forward re-launched our journal this August in the middle of the pandemic, but we have chosen not to focus on the events and circumstances of this tumultuous year. Many other publications were publishing quarantine journals and reflections on what the Covid-19 pandemic can teach us, and doing it well—we wanted to provide, rather, a reminder that life does, and will, continue to go on.

In that spirit, we’ve entitled our tenth issue “The Never-Ending End of the World.” We began by drawing on Alan Jacobs’s remarkable 2018 book The Year of Our Lord 1943, which focuses on five Christian humanist writers who were looking forward to the end of the second world war. They were thinking beyond the war itself to what they wanted the world to look like when the rebuilding could finally begin. We decided to investigate what these and other Christians who have gone through terrible, life-changing events have written about the challenges and opportunities of moving forward in the midst of them. What wisdom do they have for us as we think about changing this world that, despite all indications to the contrary, hasn’t yet come to end?

In this issue, you’ll find essays addressing the ideas of many of those mid-century Christian humanist thinkers, including Michael Sacasas on Jacques Ellul and Tessa Carman writing about Simone Weil. Rowan Williams graciously allowed us to reprint his essay on T. S. Eliot, entitled “Lazarus.” We’re also delighted to feature a conversation with Alan Jacobs in which he shared his own strategies for changing the world with us. Finally, you’ll find some thoughts on seemingly world-ending events from longer ago, including Eve Tushnet reviewing the little-known Soviet dystopian novel The Foundation Pit. We’ve been inspired by the hope (or at least, perseverance) that our predecessors in crisis brought to the table—and we hope you will be, too.

Fare Forward,

Sarah Clark

Editor-in-Chief