The Archive

Every essay.

Brian MesimerFeatured

No Reluctant Father - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

In his book Attached to God, Krispin Mayfield tells the story of how Mr. Rogers, the patron saint of unconditional positive regard, questioned his own standing before God on his deathbed.[1] Alluding to Matthew 25, Mr. Rogers asked his wife […]

Andrew BarberFeaturedFormation

Dante Was Right: Suffering and Our Journey Toward God - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

“Midway on our life’s journey, I found myself/ In a dark wood, the right road lost.” These are the famous opening lines of Dante’s Divine Comedy and, even if you hate what follows, their brevity and archetypal power are hard […]

Jake MeadorFamily

Tolkien, Marriage, Liberalism - Commonplaces

A number of questions have come up in response to the piece on the main site concerning the Respect for Marriage Act and what I guess one might call the political theology of Tolkien, who I built the essay around. […]

Jake MeadorFamily

Tolkien, Marriage, Liberalism - Commonplaces

A number of questions have come up in response to the piece on the main site concerning the Respect for Marriage Act and what I guess one might call the political theology of Tolkien, who I built the essay around. […]

Jake MeadorCommunities

Tech and Leadership - Commonplaces

A short riff on Samuel’s article today on the main site: One of the consequences of the shift Samuel is noticing is going to be felt more in the next 6-8 years, I expect. Up till now, many of our […]

Jake MeadorCommunities

Tech and Leadership - Commonplaces

A short riff on Samuel’s article today on the main site: One of the consequences of the shift Samuel is noticing is going to be felt more in the next 6-8 years, I expect. Up till now, many of our […]

Samuel JamesFeatured

Untangling Theology from Digital Technology - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

A few years ago I received an advance copy of a book on the end times by a well-loved and influential pastor. Most of the book was standard, biblically faithful reflections. The most interesting section, however, argued that the European […]

Jonathan TomesFeaturedCurrent Politics

Matthew 18 and the Public Square - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

We’ve heard this story dozens of times this year, the year before that one, going on for what feels like a generation: a schoolteacher is in the public discourse for apparently radicalizing students behind the backs of parents. Blast the […]

Jake MeadorFeaturedCurrent Politics

Tolkien Was Right: Notes on the Respect for Marriage Act and the Post-Boomer Church - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Some time after his death, an editor was going through the papers and books in J. R. R. Tolkien’s library when he came across an old copy of C. S. Lewis’s pamphlet “Christian Behavior,” which would later be re-published as […]

R. Lucas StampsFeaturedFormation

Pursue Obscurity - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Craig Bartholomew, who has been a friend and mentor to many of us younger Christian scholars, often repeats the admonition: “pursue obscurity.” It is not enough simply to accept obscurity, if it happens to be our lot. Rather, there is […]

Cole HartinFeaturedChurch

The Hollowness of the Mainline, Now and Then - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Douglas J. Brouwer Chasing After Wind: A Pastor’s Life. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2022. 238 pp. $22.00 It’s no secret that Western Christianity is in decline. And this is nowhere more evident than in the once venerable churches of the mainline. […]

Ian OlsonFeaturedCurrent Politics

The Withering of Persuasion - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

What are any of us doing when we take up our avatars and handles to enter into fights on Facebook and Twitter? When we post links and frame them with incendiary remarks as though sharing the link was itself a […]