The Archive

Every essay.

Matthew LoftusFamilyCulture

parenting, control, and obligations

I very much appreciated this word from Hannah Anderson at Christ and Pop Culture about parenthood: The first thing we should do is realize that the level of control we feel is not as defined as it seems. To us, the […]

Matthew LoftusFamilyCultureEthics

holy culture and horticulture

Wilfred McClay has a beautiful and much-needed essay at Comment on the tension Christians experience between our calling to be gardeners and pilgrims: We plant, tend, and nourish gardens, gather and prune them, negotiating and harmonizing the resultants of nature’s forces. We […]

Brad LittlejohnFeatured

In Praise of Uncertainty

Imagine that you are a young man and one day your father commands you to find the donkeys that have wandered off, like poor young Saul was commanded to do in 1 Samuel. How will you do this? To find the […]

Matthew LoftusBibleCultureEthics

solidarity and healing after the Tree of Life shooting

My own connection to Pittsburgh is only through friends; my kids have played on the playground across the street from the Tree of Life synagogue several times. I wanted to share a few pieces about the incident, starting with this […]

Matthew Lee Anderson

Mere Fidelity: Procreation, For and Against

Derek and Alastair put Matt through the trauma of a second dissertation defense, as they together discuss the reasons why we procreate and the reasons we might choose not to. If you’re interested in supporting the show financially, you can […]

Matthew LoftusFamilyCultureEthicsHealth & Medicine

how bodies matter in miscarriage

Tish Harrison Warren has a moving and beautiful essay at Christianity Today about her quest to honor the body of her unborn child: Our doctor wasn’t a jerk or insensitive to our grief. He was professional; we liked him. But he worked […]

Guest WriterFeaturedEducation

A New Kind of Theological Master's Degree

Biola professor Fred Sanders explains the rationale for Biola University's new Master of Arts in Classical Theology program.

Matthew LoftusCultureHistoryEducation

where Foucault and the Apostle Paul meet

This interview with Alan Jacobs is full of all the things I love to think about! The new book has an “Interlude,” in which you point to “other pilgrims, other paths,” and one of the figures is Dorothy Day, an icon […]

Jake MeadorFeatured

Book Review: C. S. Lewis on the Christian Life by Joe Rigney

Rigney's book is an ideal introduction and summary of the key themes in Lewis's work and a remarkable achievement in summarizing a prolific, complex author.

Matthew LoftusFamilyCultureEconomics

oikonomia and economics

I don’t wholly agree with everything that Oren Cass has to say here, but he has some very important observations and proposals in this essay about work, family, and political economy: Alongside stable political institutions that protect basic freedoms, family […]

Matthew LoftusFamilyEthics

raising our kids to love others

Since yesterday’s post talked about the value of community and raised questions about how we’re raising our children to love others (or not), here’s a strong essay from D.L. Mayfield about that very subject! It is difficult to raise our […]

Matthew Lee AndersonMere Fidelity

Mere Fidelity: Walking through Infertility

Matthew Arbo is the director of the Center for Faith and Public Life at Oklahoma Baptist University and the author of Walking through Infertility: Biblical, Theological, and Moral Counsel for