What Is the Public Square? The Third Guiding Principle of Headwaters Journal
In this episode of Headwaters Journal, host Arndt Braaten introduces the third principle guiding the project: modeling a healthier, more vibrant public square. Drawing on his experience as both a physician and a pastor, he argues that the great traditions of faith and healing have something essential to offer a society that has largely asked them to leave the room. Along the way he revisits the project’s foundations, retells a beloved children’s fable, and invites listeners to bring something of their own to the table.
Headwaters rests on a few core convictions. The first is that health reaches beyond biological function and is shaped by hope, faith, meaning, purpose, love, and reconciliation, and that when these falter, the body eventually follows. The second is diversity, explored in the previous episodes. The third is the public square: a shared space where traditions interact and cooperate for the good of the communities they serve and for society as a whole.
The Naked Public Square: How Religion Was Pushed Out of Public Life
Arndt is candid that faith traditions have not always earned their seat at the table, since competition and antagonism between them have fueled conflict and even violence over millennia. He admits some sympathy for the response that followed, which effectively pushed religious voices out of public conversation. Yet drawing on Richard John Neuhaus’s 1984 book The Naked Public Square, he argues that this exclusion left society poorer, creating a vacuum now filled by raw grabs for power, half truths, and outright falsehoods. His hope is for traditions to return to the conversation, and he says plainly that he wants to hear what each one has to say.
The Commons: Exploring Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, and Anishinaabe Healing Traditions Together
On HeadwatersJournal.org, a button labeled The Commons serves as the project’s own public square. Over time it will hold the shared understandings that guide Headwaters, along with conversations in which practitioners from different traditions examine cases with similar themes, looking first for where they converge and then exploring what their differences mean. Drop-down menus will let visitors focus on Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, mindfulness, Anishinaabe, Christian, and other content, but Arndt’s hope is that listeners grow comfortable spending time in the Commons too, helping a beleaguered part of society recover its health.
Stone Soup Meaning: A Lesson in Community Building
Arndt retells Stone Soup, the old fable with well-known versions by Marcia Brown and Ann McGovern, in which hungry soldiers coax a wary French village into sharing a feast. It begins with nothing but a borrowed pot, some water, and a stone, but one onion leads to carrots, then cabbage and potatoes, a meaty bone, and fresh bread and butter, until the whole town gathers to eat. He lingers on the Caldecott Honor illustration of an old woman whose gray, stony face slowly warms along with her heart. Headwaters, he says, is that stone: the pot is on the fire, and now the project needs listeners to bring what they have.
Faith and Health Books: The Headwaters Reading List
Arndt previews the books and research the podcast hopes to explore, offered as conversation starters rather than limits on the project’s scope.
The Naked Public Square by Richard John Neuhaus
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s work on death and dying
Peer Power by Patricia and Peter Adler and Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, in preparation for an interview with his daughter about cliques and how faith can offer young people courage and identity
When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Rabbi Harold Kushner
Motivation and Personality by Abraham Maslow, with a fresh look at the hierarchy of needs
Dynamics of Faith and The Courage to Be by Paul Tillich
Plato’s Laches, a dialogue on the nature of courage
Of Boys and Men by Richard Reeves and The War Against Boys by Christina Hoff Sommers
Where Wolves Don’t Die by Anton Treuer
Research from Dr. Harold Koenig’s Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University
Equals Before God by Sherryl Kleinman and Bad Religion by Ross Douthat
How to Support Headwaters Journal: Presenters, Members, and Partners
Arndt sees himself mainly as a host and moderator, and he is actively seeking presenters who can bring cases from the traditions they represent. Membership is free with an option to join and support, and for now every presenter is a volunteer while he personally covers production costs and takes no compensation until other contributors are paid fairly. He closes by thanking Asher Carlson of Duluth Creative Co for production, Josh Lindeman of Common Good Creative for the website, and Rick Coles of Cole Design for the logo, then invites listeners to subscribe, share the podcast, and connect anyone who might want to contribute.
Notable Quotes
“There is more to health than biological function.”
“When these fundamental determinants falter, ultimately so will biological function.”
“I believe that the public square would benefit from a return of these great traditions. And I, for one, am interested in what your traditions have to say.”
“The beginnings of this podcast are like a stone. We have a pot and some water and have gathered enough wood to start a fire. But if only we had an onion.”
“Do not muzzle the ox when it is treading out the grain.”
“Until that day, I labor for the love of the work. For me, it is a joy.”
