The Archive

Every essay.

Cort GatliffFeaturedFormation

Mocking Death - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

A few weeks ago, my two-year-old daughter and I were out enjoying one of the first crisp afternoons of autumn with a walk around our neighborhood. We turned a corner, and suddenly she stopped and pointed to a house down […]

Patrick MillerFeaturedChurch

Holographic Spurgeons and AI Sermons - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

At a fête for one of evangelicalism’s largest online media outfits, a colleague shared how he asked GPT-3, a language AI, what the Bible says about transgenderism. The AI produced a cogent theological explanation with Biblical citations. A senior editor […]

Miles SmithFeaturedHistoryCurrent Politics

John Quincy Adams: Christian Nationalist? - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

In the February of 1824, politically active Calvinists across the northern United States finally got their wish for a godly devout president who made the American republic a more explicitly Christian and righteous nation. The House of Representatives chose John […]

David MooreBibleFeatured

Why We Never Move Past the Gospel of John - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

David Ford is Regius Professor of Divinity Emeritus at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Selwyn College. The following interview revolves around Ford’s latest book, The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary. The Gospel of John: A Theological […]

Jake MeadorChurchCommunities

The Barnacle Problem - Commonplaces

Back in my marketing agency days, we’d sometimes talk about the concept of “barnacle SEO.” What that meant is that you basically had to find ways to attach your client or brand to some larger entity and profit off of […]

Patrick MillerFeaturedEthics

Platforms Aren't the Problem - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

In How Democracies Die, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt explore how healthy democracies descend into authoritarianism. Counterintuitively, “Democratic backsliding today begins at the ballot box.” A nation elects a demagogic figure who uses executive power to take control of the […]

Glenn MootsFeaturedCurrent Politics

Resistance and Rebellion - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

(Excerpted from Protestant Social Teaching published by the Davenant Institute. Used with permission.) As the Reformation took hold throughout Europe, much ink and blood was spilt over the question of what is right to do when the government is wrong. […]

Jake MeadorChurch

Networks v Institutions - Commonplaces

One of the primary difficulties facing local churches right now is the emergence of large online networks which shape and disciple church members in ways that are conducive to the growth of the network but not conducive to the health […]

Jake MeadorChurch

Haunted by Mars Hill(s) - Commonplaces

Years ago I remember my pastor giving a sermon on forgiveness and bitterness. I was in college, still recently removed from a fairly nasty church situation, and, well, I was struggling a lot with bitterness. After church, I was talking […]

John CarpenterBibleFeatured

Ecclesiastes' Cure for Depression - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Twenty years ago, I was depressed. I was 37 years old living in a nice home in Kentucky. Just a couple of months earlier I thought I was set up for the life I had been working so hard for. […]

Joshua HeavinFeatured

How to Cultivate Epistemic Virtue - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Bonnie Kristian. Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking our Brains, Polluting our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2022. 225pp, $24.99. Over the last decade, many of us have found ourselves increasingly unable to relate to the […]

Scott YenorFeaturedCurrent Politics

Sex Ed as the Leading Edge of the Revolution - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Families and churches relinquished control over sex ed to public schools in the early 1970s. Now families and churches are reaping the whirlwind. Initially, at least, public schools assumed control over sex ed to stop the spread of sexually transmitted […]