The Archive
Pieter ValkFeaturedCultureChurchFormation
Having begun the work of bringing his kingdom on earth, Christ promised to redeem all of creation. He promised fullness of life to those who would follow him and blessing to their neighbors. Yet many believers offer timid testimonies about […]
Jake MeadorBook Reviews
Luke has written an obit for the Pope Emeritus over on the main site. So I have little to add to that. I may have something further to say related to Benedict’s passing later, but for now I’m curious to […]
R. Lucas StampsFeatured
Before he was a pope, before he was a prefect or a cardinal or an archbishop, Joseph Ratzinger was a professor. In those years, Ratzinger would rivet crowded lecture halls in German universities with his theological acumen, his clarity of […]
Susannah Black RobertsPolitics
Toby Sumpter has written a thoughtful response to my Theopolis piece on Wolfe’s Case for Christian Nationalism. I wanted to delay responding till post-Christmas (YES, I KNOW, it is still Christmas till Epiphany, calm down) to avoid generating Discourse, which […]
Jake MeadorFeaturedBlogging
I’m going to handle the Eliot Awards a little differently this year. I still am going to link to my favorite magazine writing of the year, but for a few reasons this year’s edition will not be as tightly organized […]
John CarpenterBibleFeatured
Every good story has a good back-story. Ridley Scott made two prequels to his popular Alien franchise. This past year Amazon offered Rings of Power to the Lord of the Rings trilogy as a prequel. The Godfather had The Godfather […]
Joshua HeavinFeaturedFormation
“Quid est enim tempus?” “So what is time?”[1] Pangs of nostalgia for innocence lost, discontent with reality present, and some combination of fear, uncertainty, or despair about the future can combine to make Christmas an especially difficult time. Recently, two […]
Jake Meador
Almost everything I wrote this year ran here at Mere O, either on the main site or here at Commonplaces. Here’s a link to everything I wrote on the main site. It’s been rather a busy year—I’ve written about 110,000 words on Mere […]
Jake MeadorChurchCommunities
I’m trying a new format out with some short-form videos. Here’s our first foray: You can subscribe on YouTube to get alerts when we publish more videos. I’ll also likely cross post them here as well.
Leah Libresco SargeantFeatured
At the waning of the year, looking ahead to the blaze of Christmas, I’ve been reexamining Amazon’s adventures in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium. The first season of The Rings of Power was a moral muddle, but the story was strongest when […]
Andrew BeerBibleFeatured
“Word sower” deserves reviving. It comes from the Douay-Rheims translation of Acts 17:18: “What is it, that this word sower would say?” The word sower in question is the Apostle Paul, visiting Athens. “Word sower” is a literal rendering of […]
Jake MeadorFeatured
We’ll be back with our usual year-end Eliot Awards next week. For now I wanted to spotlight the work we’ve done this year at Mere Orthodoxy. I’ve said it before, but I’m gonna keep saying it: This has been the best […]