Adam Nicolson has been rehabilitating his farm in Sussex for many years now, and he discusses the difficulties and rewards of this, and the piece that he wrote about it for Plough’s issue on repair.They go on to discuss the topics of some of Nicolson’s books: Sissinghurst, the farm and garden owned by Nicolson’s grandmother, Vita Sackville-West; Homer; the pre-Socratic philosophers; and sailing. 

Norman Wirzba writes that our homes and workplaces should nurture and celebrate life.

Adam Nicolson tells of reversing the destructive agricultural damage done to his farm in the past.

Christian Wiman writes that the “if” is what any honest faith looks like in this life.

Zohar Atkins discusses the real meaning of tikkun olam. Susannah and Zohar discuss the contemporary progressive vision of this idea, which means (or does it?) “to repair the world.” Where did that contemporary interpretation come from? And what was the original meaning?They go through the Rabbinic concept of Tikkun as equity, as a kind of emergency legal decree to be used when the law as written would lead to socially destructive outcomes. They discuss the mystery of how this legal concept became the contemporary vision of Tikkun olam as, essentially, a progressive vision of social justice.Zohar gives a brief description of the development of Rabbinic Judaism after the fall of the Second Temple in 70 AD, and relates it to the later development of the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah.Then they discuss the progress of the idea of Tikkun olam through the Kabbalistic tradition, when Tikkun becomes an endeavor to repair the shattered world.

Carlo Gébler writes that we should try to repair the lives of others, even if things in our own lives seem broken.

Words written by Clarence Jordan, founder of Koinonia Farm, a pacifist interracial Christian community in Georgia, taken from a Plough book, The Inconvenient Gospel.

Kurt Armstrong writes that not everyone can build skyscrapers; someone has to address that damp spot on your kitchen ceiling.

Matthew Sitman and Sohrab Ahmari discuss friendship across political divides.Both men have made their careers in political media and have made significant changes in their politics over the course of their lives – in Sohrab’s case, very publicly. These changes have affected some friendships and have left others intact.Sohrab and Matt and Susannah discuss the phenomenon of friendship that transcends politics, how difficult that can be, how painful when it doesn’t work, but how good when it does.They also discuss the social peculiarities of Left and Right, and challenge Jonathan Haidt’s moral foundationalism. They reflect on what Christianity must say to enmity and friendship, and end with an excursus on Dimes Square.

Benjamin Crosby, a young minister in a declining church, looks for reasons to hope.