The History of Fare Forward
Fare Forward began because a group of recent Ivy League graduates wanted to keep learning, thinking, and talking over ideas with each other and our peers. Moreover, we believed it was crucial to do so. This was, in large part, because we got our training in the first wave of the campus Christian journal movement. Before it was the Augustine Collective, and before there were thirty journals of Christian thought on college campuses throughout the nation, we graduated from college and went about building personal and professional lives. We didn’t want to let go of something that had become a crucial part of our collegiate lives: being part of an active group of Christians who learn, read, write, and think together.
Naturally, since we had learned to practice this kind of conversation in the context of a journal, it made sense to us to continue to produce a journal. But where before we had been trying to engage our campuses, we now set our sights on a larger goal: to engage the country, and the world, starting with our peers and extending to anyone else who wanted to listen in. We called ourselves “A Christian Review of Ideas,” because our goal was to engage with the ideas and events of the world around us. Our subject matter was anything and everything that could be thought of from a Christian perspective—which was everything.
In recent years, Fare Forward has been on a publishing hiatus, with the exception of our “year in review” issue published at the end of 2017. We are resuming publication in August 2020 as an online magazine and a weekly newsletter, with the same goals and organized around the same principles as the original journal.
Fare Forward’s approach to ideas isn’t our own invention. We believe that Christianity provides a comprehensive perspective on and foundation for all of life and thought—a position that comes straight out of the rich tradition of historical and ecumenical Christian thought. From the beginning, we have envisioned a journal formed by “thick doctrine, deep practice,” combining rigorous thinking and high caliber writing with transformative faith.
What do we mean by “thick” doctrine?
“Thick” doctrine intentionally weaves historical and ecumenical sources of Christian thought and tradition together to promote a rich and rigorous vision of the ongoing apostolic Christian tradition. We recognize that Christian doctrine is not strictly limited to morality or evangelism or social justice, and we boldly affirm that it provides an intellectual framework for addressing any issue.
What about “deep” practice?
The life of Christian discipleship is both disruptive and distinctive, and Christian tradition attests to the fact that the practices we engage in shape us. Thus, we aspire to live transformed lives in which the demands of Christianity are not simply spiritualized or compartmentalized. “Deep” practice, then, is about integrating heart, head, and hands to live out “religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father.”