The Archive

Every essay.

Aryana Petrosky Roberts and Mark SawyerFeaturedCurrent Politics

The Virtues We Need to Repair Trust - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

As residents of Washington, D.C., we had a front row seat to the events of January 6, 2021 as they unfolded in our neighborhood streets. Glued to our couches and phone screens, we heard the sirens blare down streets to […]

Jake MeadorFeatured

Our Year in Reading (2021) - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Here’s a short summary of the books that several of us amongst the regular Mere O editors and contributors enjoyed this year: Jake Meador One of my most enjoyable reads this year was Michael Chaplin’s Newcastle United Stole My Heart. It’s a […]

Benjamin WoollardFeatured

The World Becomes Light Again - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

I have long had an obsession with books. Since middle school, at least, I have loved to sit by a shelf and examine the titles, to arrange them, to examine their cover art, to read the summaries and flip through […]

Jake MeadorBook Reviews

2022 Reading Goals - Commonplaces

I’m following Leah Sargeant’s lead this year and am trying to give myself a list of “goal books” to read for 2022. Thanks to some news I’m going to share in a separate post on the main site, I’m hoping […]

Jake MeadorFeatured

The 2021 Eliot Awards - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Since 2017, I’ve made a habit of going back at the end of the year to review and recognize some of my favorite pieces in magazine and web writing from the past 12 months. Inspired by David Brooks’s old Sydney […]

Mitch EastFeatured

In Defense of Dante - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

I read Dante for the first time in my ninth grade English class at McNeil High School. I have hazy memories of my teacher lecturing about the first few circles of Dante’s inferno, but the mental image of the ninth […]

Bruce ClarkFeatured

Advent and the Near Irrelevance of Political Power - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

The Advent story, as commonly conceived, tells of the remarkable events that lead up to the birth of Jesus, as found in the opening chapters of Luke’s Gospel. It also introduces the reader to some of the most powerful political […]

Dustin MesserFeaturedChurchEvangelicalism

Why We All Need Baptists to be Baptist - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

The liturgy started sleepily this fourth Sunday in Advent, people trickling in later than usual. A traffic jam made traveling downtown to our Anglican parish especially difficult. It turned out the standstill was caused by the Secret Service. As we, […]

Joshua Heavin

Notes on Season One of Passages

A number of listeners have reached out to us with various questions about the first season of “Passages.” Here are our answers.

Jake MeadorFeatured

Toward a Constructive Public Christianity - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

“Hello Joshua. I really appreciate the work you do through your podcast. I need a little help if possible.” That’s the start of a listener email that Josh Heavin, writer and co-producer of our podcast “Passages,” received a month ago. […]

Jake MeadorFeatured

Mere Orthodoxy Best of 2021 - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

As is our custom, we’re going to be doing some year-end wrap ups over the next couple weeks. I’ll have this year’s Eliot Awards up later in the week, God-willing. For now, here’s a run down of the best of Mere […]

Jake Meador

Being Deep in History and Protestant - Commonplaces

If your background is anything like mine, you both grew up in the church and grew up tremendously ignorant of much of what the church has said and thought throughout her history. I remember realizing with a shock while I […]