The Archive

Every essay.

Jake MeadorBook ReviewsPan-AfricanismKenneth Kaunda

Reading the Pan-Africanists: Kenneth Kaunda (VI) - Commonplaces

Here Kaunda is discussing military rule and why he sees it as a dead end for newly independent African nations. (Military rule mostly came in with the second generation of dictators, such as Idi Amin and Mobutu, and usually with […]

Jake MeadorBook ReviewsPan-AfricanismKenneth Kaunda

Reading the Pan-Africanists: Kenneth Kaunda (VI) - Commonplaces

Here Kaunda is discussing military rule and why he sees it as a dead end for newly independent African nations. (Military rule mostly came in with the second generation of dictators, such as Idi Amin and Mobutu, and usually with […]

Josh PaulingFeaturedCulture

Living By Kairos Time in a Chronos World - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Lewis Mumford wrote in his 1934 classic Technics and Civilization that “the clock, not the steam-engine, is the key machine of the modern industrial age.” Due to the mechanical clock, “time-keeping passed into time-serving and time-accounting and time-rationing.” Mumford explains […]

Joshua HeavinFeatured

The Blood of Christ, Shed for You - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Trembling, elderly hands sometimes lack the most amenable digits for holding thimble-sized cups filled with wine, but they are the hands into which the sacrament is placed nonetheless. Though having the congregation drink from one common cup has been the […]

David MooreFeaturedHistory

Stuck in the Present - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

(Scroll to the bottom to learn about a free book giveaway.) Let me say a few words about the title, Stuck in the Present: How History Frees and Forms Christians. I find many Christians uninterested in the study of history. […]

Jake MeadorBook Reviews

You Mostly Shouldn't Write About People You Hate - Commonplaces

A thought provoked by Miles’s column at World in which he says: What made McCullough so different from his critics is that he maintained affection and charity towards the United States and its peoples despite its flawed history. McCullough had the […]

Ronni KurtzFeaturedEducationBlogging

When Should I Write? Brief Reflections on the Relationship Between Writing and Expertise - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

It was a Thursday afternoon; I was perched up in the corner of my favorite local coffee shop with a back-pack full of books that teetered somewhere between impressive and embarrassing. I was in the middle of what I refer […]

Andrew BarberFeaturedGaming

Gaming and the Metaverse - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Officially, I am a high-school English teacher. I lead discussions, assign important texts, and grade essays (slower than I should… Christmas cards from my students often read like bribes: “Merry Christmas and please grade our Narrative Essay”). But once or […]

Kelly GivensFamilyFeaturedEducation

Teaching Children to See - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

This past winter, my six-year-old began each day looking out the window. I would hear him roll out of bed, feet hit the floor, his footsteps moving toward one of the windows in his room. I knew what he was […]

Susannah Black RobertsUncategorized

Danger and Play and Proverbs 31 - Radio Free Thulcandra

There’s been, I’m sorry to say, Discourse. So I figured I’d make things a little worse by highlighting an aspect of a thing that I wrote a couple years back for the Calvinist International (may it rise again). What do […]

Jake Meador

The Dead Consensus vs Ahmarism in Three Sentences - Commonplaces

The Dead Consensus has no theory of power. The Ahmarists have no theory of martyrdom. A Christian political philosophy has to have both if it is going to be actually Christian.

Jake MeadorChurch

Five Ministry Dynamics for the Gray Zone - Commonplaces

From Rebuilders, which continues to be one of my favorite podcasts. Essential listening for ministry leaders, pastors, etc. Here they are discussing challenges that are confronting the church in what Sayers calls a “gray zone.” Gray zones refer to historical […]