The Archive

Every essay.

Jake MeadorChurch

Why do so many people feel the need to lie about Cardinal McCarrick?

The reporting is clear that Cardinal McCarrick sexually harassed young men. So why do so many in the church and the media keep lying about it?

Matthew LoftusEducation

The glory of reading

Micah Meadowcroft sounds a refrain that we can’t hear often enough: The glory of reading is its capacity to make us more ourselves, as we learn with minimal mediation how to pay attention and integrate within our own minds the […]

Matthew LoftusEthics

the four-paned window

I like Carl Ellis’ take on the four-paned window of Biblical righteousness: If we pair these dimensions in all possible combinations, we get four manifestations of righteousness: personal piety, social piety, personal justice, and social justice. This can be illustrated by the […]

Guest WriterFeaturedChurch

Why Evangelicals Should Care More About Ecclesiology

Many of the problems currently afflicting evangelicalism circle back in one way or another to questions of power, accountability, and institutional life.

Matthew Loftus

the call is coming from inside the house

You should always read Comment and you should always read Alan Jacobs, but you should especially always read Alan Jacobs in Comment: This essay has been, I hope it is now clear, a series of stories of evasion. Human beings wish to believe […]

Matthew LoftusCultureEconomics

the devil in the details

Jeffrey Bilbro has an excellent essay ruminating on the question of GMOs in the New Jerusalem, inspired by Abigail Murrish’s thoughts at Christianity Today on the same. Here’s Murrish: if the New Jerusalem will have as-yet-unseen cultural diversity—the best of what […]

Matthew LoftusHealth & Medicine

Supporting Graduate Medical Education in East Africa

An appeal for funding to support African doctors who want to bless their communities

Matthew LoftusCultureHistory

"the joy of cryptozoology"

How can you not love an essay like this? Clare Coffey is a delight to read: That the movements of the human mind, its bent for narrative and order, might correspond to something real besides raw evolutionary fitness simply does […]

Matthew LoftusFamilyEthics

the temptations of social media

All of us wrestle with how to use social media and Andrew Peterson has a thought-provoking post up about how and why he’s been using it less and less — but also why that’s not an easy decision: Okay, so […]

Matthew Loftus

"You have mismanaged the light."

This analysis of how South Sudanese refugees living in Northern Uganda understand the spiritual dimensions of their displacement is sharp: But the role of the church is not just social. Often, biblical explanations for suffering are presented as a means […]

Matthew LoftusEthics

"I was hurting and she was trying to make sure I was OK"

Sorry there were no blog posts last week. I traveled from one side of the country to the other (literally!) and was swamped with work and other very important things. The regular posting schedule resumes this week.  This story about […]

Brad EastFeatured

God and All Things in God: The Theology of John Webster

One of the defining qualities of the late theologian John Webster's work is a patient revelry in the delight of knowing God.