![Wrestling With Identity](https://politicaltheology.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Wrestling-600x450.jpg)
Just as Jacob’s encounter brought new beginnings and transformation for him, embracing our true identities can lead to a powerful ripple effect within our communities. By cultivating a culture of acceptance, understanding, and celebration of individual uniqueness, we can foster an environment where marginalised voices get uplifted and empowered.
![Identification with the Remainder—Luke 15.1–10](https://politicaltheology.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Parable_of_the_Lost_Drachma_by_Fetti-600x600.jpg)
The two stories of Luke 15:1–10, which we might call “parables of the remainder,” illustrate a core component of the Christian political orientation. That is, they highlight the alternative logic of much of the Judeo-Christian scriptures that urges us to foster solidarity in community through identification with the remainder, with the least of these, and to thereby bring justice and liberation.
![Attending across the Divide—Psalm 1](https://politicaltheology.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Albrecht_Altdorfer_007-600x600.jpg)
Psalm 1 presents the reader with two, mutually exclusive categories of human existence: righteousness and wickedness. However, experience tells us that to be human is far more complex. Rather than simply embracing the psalm’s presentation of life, we might enter a dialogue instead, one wherein we consider what it might mean to be formed by attending to others rather than reifying our existing in-groups.