Blaise Pascal once wrote that the Christian faith is “Worthy of reverence because it really understands human nature. Attractive because it promises true good.” We believe individuals, families, churches, communities, and nations are renewed when they remember this truth. In a world that seeks to dominate or desert the culture, we seek to renew it.
We do this through recovering the best of the Christian tradition throughout the ages and applying it to the issues of our time. Our aim is to use media to strengthen faith, virtue, and knowledge for the flourishing of our common bonds and to be faithful to the call of Christ on all of life.
The Namesake
Mere, and orthodox.
Mere Orthodoxy gets its name from combining the two great works of C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton, Mere Christianity and Orthodoxy. These books and authors represent some of the best of the Christian tradition. Lewis, a Protestant, and Chesterton, a Catholic, both understood that there is an irreducible core of the Christian faith that unites all Christians across denomination and tradition. They knew that the core of the Christian faith was reasonable, defensible, and beautiful, and when that truth is clearly and carefully articulated, it makes sense of everything else. As Chesterton wrote, “Instinct after instinct was answered by doctrine after doctrine.” We believe that Christianity is the key to the world.
This core is what we guard and are guided by. Most succinctly expressed in the Nicene Creed, we want to answer the instincts of individuals and the broader culture with “doctrine after doctrine.” Not merely as a defense of the truth—though we will certainly defend it—or as an intellectual exercise—though it is fascinating—but as the key that unlocks the mystery and wonder of God and his creation.
The Method
Ideas for the good of the world
We believe that ideas have consequences. This is why we are committed to engaging with important ideas through writing and conversation to spread ideas—Christian ideas—that serve the common good. In a world that is increasingly losing the ability to think well, consider challenging ideas, and frankly, to read, we want to challenge Christians to desire more than clips and posts. Like Paul, we want to think about whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. Our aim is to preserve and spur on the Christian mind for the good of the world.
That is the aim of every essay we publish, Journal we print, podcast we produce, and project we undertake. If you’re looking for hot-takes and ragebait, you’ll be sorely disappointed. If you’re looking for patient reflection on our times in light of history, you’re in the right place. We believe that the entire Christian tradition is the inheritance of every Christian, and that the treasures of the Church have something to say to the contemporary issues of our day. It’s in this way, through prayer, petition, and thanksgiving, that we seek nothing less than the renewal of the Church and culture for the sake of Christ.
