The Archive

Every essay.

Brad LittlejohnFeaturedHistoryCurrent Politics

The Search for a Christian Nation: Christian Nationalism and the American Founding - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

“Christian Nationalism” and the Appeal to History Is America a Christian nation—or was it ever? This vexed question, debated for decades, has been given a new lease on life by the heated and sometimes obsessive conversation around so-called “Christian nationalism” […]

Zach HollifieldFamilyFeatured

When Permanent Contraception Can Be Licit - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Alex and Sarah are Christians who have been married for five years. They have 2 children and would like to have more. However, they feel called to adopt as the route to parenting more children. Their only hesitation is that […]

Matthew LoftusCultureEthicsEconomics

four theses on immigration - Doctors Without Boredom

The only solution to the immigration crisis involves making many places around the world worth staying in.

Jake MeadorChurch

Alternatives to Culture War - Commonplaces

One of the lines we have taken for a long time at Mere Orthodoxy is a skepticism about culture war strategies and motifs in Christian public speech and Christian political strategy. (This is one of the first pieces I wrote for […]

Jake MeadorChurch

The People Who Don't Ask Questions - Commonplaces

Jemar Tisby: How can a group of people be so certain about topics that are so complicated? How can they say with so much certainty, “The Bible says…” when so often their interpretations have led to injustice and oppression? The […]

Jake Meador

Nursing Fathers and the New Right - Commonplaces

Eric Hutchinson first drew my attention to the suggestive description of the government as a “nursing father” in the 23rd chapter of the Westminster Confession. The phrase is in keeping with the Reformed tradition’s sensibilities about the fifth commandment, for […]

Colin RedemerFeaturedEconomics and BusinessCurrent PoliticsJournalJournal 3

Unions are Dead; Long Live Unions - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Oren Cass’s book The Once and Future Worker is among the most important in living memory on the subject of labor from the conservative perspective. He instinctively gets that there is a pre-economic political relationship in which all economic activity […]

Jake MeadorHistoryEconomicsBook Reviews

Gray on Sociology - Commonplaces

Gray: If Positivism is the chief source of the twentieth century’s most powerful secular religions it is partly through its impact on the social sciences. For Positivists, modernity is the transformation of the world by the use of scientific knowledge. […]

Jake MeadorChurchBook Reviews

Schaeffer's Legacy - Commonplaces

I am a former L’Abri student. Every time I visit Rochester, MN, I make a point of visiting Dr. Schaeffer’s grave. He’s something of a spiritual grandfather to me. My most treasured book in my home library is a copy […]

Katelyn Walls SheltonFamilyFeaturedJournalJournal 3

Flawed Myths - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Lyz Lenz. Belabored: A Vindication of the Rights of Pregnant Women. New York: Bold Type Books, 2020. 240pp, $26. At church, I was taught that if a woman denied sex to her husband, he would find sex elsewhere. At church, […]

Chris KrychoFeaturedEconomics and BusinessFormationJournalJournal 3

The Great Unmooring - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Richard Sennett. The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism. New York: WW Norton, 2000. 176pp, $15.99. Anne Helen Petersen and Charlie Warzel. Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from […]

Jake MeadorChurch

Charlie Dates on Trusting God - Commonplaces

This’ll preach: The text says now Jesus asked them these questions to test them. He knew what he was gonna do. Jesus says ‘where can we buy bread that we may eat?’ You know what I think Jesus is looking […]