Category: Culture
exposing the wounds in the Church
I really wish this New Yorker profile of Karen Swallow Prior had been about three times as long, but it’ll have to do for now: The next morning, we shared a breakfast of scrambled eggs with some venison that Roy had...
whither conservatism?
While there’s a lot more that could be said and a lot of things that could be said differently (as I hope to in a forthcoming essay for Mere-O), I appreciated this assessment from Timothy Shenk at Dissent of where things are...
“Is redemption even possible?”
It’s impossible not to be moved by this story about gang members in El Salvador finding redemption for their souls (and practical help for their very difficult post-gang life!) in local churches: As I speak to Gomez, the former gang...
education and all God’s children
I really appreciated D.L. Mayfield’s essay about educating our children and “gifted and talented” programs: What is the right relationship to educational choice for the Christian? It’s complicated, and I often think about what Paul was trying to communicate in...
the moral vision of George Bailey
I really appreciated what K.B. Hoyle had to say about It’s a Wonderful Life: Most of the film is devoted to showing us these things about George’s life. From the deafness he suffers in one ear—physical disability—to having to miss out...
what if there’s nothing to assimilate to?
Shadi Hamid continues to be indispensable in thinking through issues of identity, belief, and assimilation in America: In short, Muslims are becoming more integrated, but they are becoming more integrated within only one half of the country, the Democratic one....
culture is learning to be free
This is a fascinating interview with Patrick Deneen at the ever-worthwhile Comment magazine (subscribe now for $30/year!) Liberalism ends in slavery because its notion of freedom involves the pursuit of desires that can never be sated, that can never be fulfilled....
Sabbath and soil
Years ago, when I first studied Isaiah 58, I found its call to honor the Sabbath mingled with the call to do away with violence and injustice odd. I suppose that I had grown up thinking of Sabbath-keeping as a...
“Uncontrolled liberalism, in other words, prepares the grounds for its own demise.”
There are some very sharp insights in this interview with Pankaj Mishra in the LA Review of Books: “Liberal modernity,” you’ve argued, “has prepared the ground for its destruction” by unleashing forces that are “uncontrollable.” Have these forces contributed to...
“economics of meaning”
Shadi Hamid has a very interesting essay in American Affairs Journal about the possibilities of left populism and the “economics of meaning”: It might be tempting to say that Left populists simply need a “hero”; the Left, unlike the Right,...