“All of life and all of our humanity in its many dimensions come from God and we are called to glorify God in all these dimensions. God is already at work in all of life, but Hopkins’ statement calls us to see and attend to God’s many ways. Sadly, our busyness, and sometimes our excessive focus on “doing for God,” prevent us from seeing and savouring the myriad signs of God’s work.
Sometimes we are also captive to an unbiblical view of what it means to be human. The art historian Hans Rookmaker would ask his students, “Why (to what end) does God save us?” His wonderful answer was, “To make us fully human!” Similarly, the early church father Irenaeus says that “The glory of God is the human person, fully alive!” This is not a call for sinful indulgence, but it is a call to become fully ourselves in the very best sense of the word. Indeed, it is as we become ourselves that we image God and enhance his reputation in his creation.
TBP aims to embody the myriad ways in which Christ plays in our lives.”
Issues of The Big Picture centre on a theme, such as craft or economics, but TBP is eclectic. We encourage submissions on any topic relevant to public theology and Christian living. A first draft should be sent for consideration by the deadlines that we publish here, though we encourage you to submit earlier if possible.
Themes and Dates for Submission and Publication for Issues 16-19:
Issue 16: Third Places – Third places are places between work and home. You can think of the British pub, the French bistro, the coffee shop, the club, etc. They are places where people gather for good conversation, a drink, and for socialising in general, and as such constitute an essential part of a community. Especially as people work more from home, third places become more important. We invite you to share with our community your third places and why they work and matter. Submission date: Friday, 30 January 2026; Publication date: March 2026.
Issue 17: Evangelicalism Today – When the US was attacked on 9/11 the lack of religious literacy became apparent. We are not sure that western cultures have advanced much since then. Parts of US Evangelicalism has aligned firmly with MAGA but mainstream media seem to devote very little attention to this, both negatively – how has this happened? – or positively – how might healthy Evangelicalism be part of the solution? Religion is central to many of the hotspots in the world today and we will not understand them if we continue to ignore it. We invite contributors to explore what healthy Evangelicalism looks like today and how it might contribute to solutions geopolitically. Submission date: TBC; Publication date: TBC.
Issue 18: The Ten Commandments as the Ethos of the Good Neighbourhood – 2026 is KLC’s year of the Decalogue. As we host a variety of events in relation to this we invite you to write about the Ten Commandments and how they contribute to building the good neighbourhood. Submission date: TBC; Publication date: TBC.
Issue 19: International Law and Justice – Since 1945 the rules based international order with such institutions as NATO and the UN have played a vital role in maintaining peace, however imperfectly. This order is now under attack not least from the Trump administration. We invite you to explore this theme: what is international law and why does it matter? How might we promote multilateralism as opposed to multipolarity? How can we strengthen international institutions? Submission date: 2027; Publication date: 2027.
Issue 20: Homemaking – The family and thus the home are at the heart of human and national life. How are we –and how should we – building healthy, creative homes? Submission date: 2027; Publication date: 2027.
We welcome our readers’ contributions! Before submitting, please download our cover letter, add it to the top of your submission document and fill in the relevant information. Email your document in .docx (or .pdf if .docx is unavailable) to tbp@kirbylaingcentre.co.uk.
Please feel free to email us with any questions or submission ideas too!
When writing for us, please adhere to the guidelines listed here.
Try to keep your piece as short and focused as possible. The word limit of a submission is 1500 words, including footnotes, for ordinary submissions, or 2000 words for those who have been invited to write a feature. (If you have an essay that exceeds our maximums, we may be able to publish it in a different form; please email us about it.)
Please also include an author bio of 40 words or less.
Short is good! We welcome contributions even shorter than 500 words in the form of a great recipe, a poem, a short film review, a book notice, etc.
Please be aware that your submission will be edited for length, readability and quality. We may ask you for additional feedback during the editing process.
Although TBP issues tend to have a core theme, submissions that do not reflect the theme are welcome.
We use UK English and Chicago Style / SBL Style for references. (Refer to the Concordia University Summary of SBL Style Guide.) Please avoid footnotes other than for referencing and provide full publication information.
For written submissions, please use MS Word format (PDF is acceptable if Word is unavailable). It is fine to use bold, italic and underline, but it is preferable that you type your essay in the default paragraph format without changing the font, type size, paragraph spacing etc. MS Word’s formatting interferes with the formatting of our design software.
We welcome the submission of images and artwork, though we need written permission to use the image from the rights holder, and permission to use the likeness of anyone pictured.
Please ensure that the images are at least 1000 pixels wide (bigger is better), with minimal compression, and please supply any information that must appear in a caption (such as a title or an image credit).
Please note that we do not guarantee that the images will be used and we reserve the right to add images to written submissions at our discretion.
We are deeply grateful to our community for your contributions. Please be aware that we cannot publish every submission that we receive, and while we aim to use as many as possible, we regret that some may be held over for a future issue or declined.
