Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16New Yorker who founded the Catholic Worker movement, took his words literally: she never voted. Her reason, according to her friend Ammon Hennessy, was that she “did not bother to choose between the rival warmongers who sought to run the country,” but “voted every day by practicing her ideals against war and the capitalist system which caused war.” Dorothy Day was anything but apoliti- cal – she campaigned for women’s suffrage and workers’ rights, protested militarism, and struggled against racial injustices. Crucially, she did so not despite her faith but because of it. And it was for precisely the same reason that she took no part in electoral partisanship. She had a better, more lasting solution: to express in action Jesus’ love to the oppressed, the vulnerable, and the guilty – to build up communities that embodied the kind of life that Jesus taught. Today more than ever, Day’s kind of poli- tics – the politics of an alien citizen – seems to make a lot of sense. This issue of Plough seeks to flesh out what it might look like to live accordingly. That’s why we lead with an interview with Rod Dreher, whose proposal of what he calls the “Benedict Option” – a more communal Christianity – has sparked both wide interest and controversy (page 8). For many, the first introduction to the early Christian vision of church community was the 1989 book Resident Aliens by Will Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas. On page 17, Willimon looks at what it means to be a resident alien today in light of an essay by Eberhard Arnold, Bonhoeffer’s contemporary (page 22). Arnold’s reflection, on the Incarnation and the church’s calling to be the body of Christ in the world, helps us place contemporary questions within the great context in which they belong. Arnold, like Bonhoeffer and Day, rejected the charge that Christian discipleship meant political quietism. On the contrary, he insisted that the church’s mission has everything to do with the wider society: To be sure, the Christian is obliged to let himself be put to death rather than to instigate violent insurrection. All the more, he is chal- lenged to combat oppression with every inner resource in the name of Jesus Christ. The Christian has the duty of standing up against all public or private wrong with power and commission and authority, even at the risk of death – just as was the case with John the Baptist and with Jesus himself. As we face the radical uncertainties of the year ahead, may this fearlessness be ours as well. Even more urgently, may we get to work building up the body of Christ on earth as a tangible sign of the justice of God’s coming kingdom. This cannot remain just a topic for symposia and discussion groups. It means a commitment to the messy work of joining together in real flesh-and-blood church com- munities. It requires a new way of life. As the angel told the shepherds of Bethle- hem, the “glad tidings of great joy” with which we are entrusted will one day “be unto all peoples.” Here, and nowhere else, is a politics to which we can rightly devote our lives and fortunes. Warm greetings, Peter Mommsen Editor We must commit to the messy work of building up real flesh-and- blood church