The Archive

Every essay.

Jake Meador

Voting and Virtue - Commonplaces

A further note re: the Orbanism piece: When we talk about how citizens engage in political life, there are really two separate things we can talk about. We can talk about a relatively narrow category concerned with voting, perhaps some […]

Jake Meador

Notes on the Orbanism Essay - Commonplaces

One common question that’s come up since the Orbanism piece on the main site is one that I tried to anticipate in the essay itself: Is the Augustinian liberal strategy naive? Or, put another way, does it matter if liberalism […]

Jake MeadorEconomics

Basil the Great Addresses the Rich - Commonplaces

St Basil: Since, then, the wealth still overflows, it gets buried underground, stashed away in secret places. For (they say), “what’s to come is uncertain, we may face unexpected needs.” Therefore it is equally uncertain whether you will have any […]

Jake MeadorBook Reviews

Christopher Thompson on New Natural Law - Commonplaces

Christopher Thompson, author of what looks to be a fascinating book on natural law and ecological care, on the failure of New Natural Law (this is an excerpt from the Friday Feature of Mars Hill Audio, which you need to […]

Gillis HarpFeaturedEconomics and BusinessEvangelicalism

What Two Gilded Age Christian Socialists Would Say to Evangelicals Today - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

The rehabilitation of socialism’s reputation among Millennials and Gen Z has grabbed the attention of political analysts in recent years: “Socialism as Popular as Capitalism Among Young Adults in U.S.” (Gallup). “Majority of Gen Z Americans Hold Negative Views of […]

Jake MeadorChurchPan-Africanism

Reading the Pan-Africanists: Kenneth Kaunda VI - Commonplaces

Kaunda on churches and the life of nations: We need the uncommitted [Kaunda is referring to intellectuals not employed by the state or by a political party] intellectual whose mind is able to range widely and to occupy himself with […]

Jake MeadorHistoryChurchCommunitiesPan-AfricanismKenneth Kaunda

Reading the Pan-Africanists: Kenneth Kaunda V - Commonplaces

More on nationalism: The leader must recognize that politics alone do not create a nation; a whole network of cultural, religious and social factors play an important role. Nation-building, therefore, is not solely a political operation, active encouragement must also […]

Jake MeadorHistoryBook ReviewsPan-AfricanismKenneth Kaunda

Reading the Pan-Africanists: Kenneth Kaunda IV - Commonplaces

The whole chapter on nationalism is fascinating reading, especially if the main forms of nationalism you’re familiar with are European forms or the muddled thing we have here in America. African nationalism, this explosive force which has changed the shape […]

Rachel Roth AldhizerFamilyFeaturedFormation

The Contradiction of Healing Prayer - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” I think about this verse often. I am not sure who counts as a righteous person, and I’m not sure how to qualify “working.” The sentence before […]

Dan OlsonFeaturedEducation

An Education for Lincoln's Heaven - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

In a 2013 article on ‘Christian Schooling and Racial Realities,’ Hunter Baker concluded that while “the racial unification of the American church might best begin in the Christian schoolhouse” he lamented that it is a “mission … awaiting a champion […]

Jake MeadorHistoryPan-AfricanismKenneth Kaunda

Reading the Pan-Africanists: Kenneth Kaunda III - Commonplaces

It’s from 1966 and Zambia but, dang, if parts of this don’t map eerily well onto the “racial reconciliation” discourse. It is truly tragic the fear which has been engendered in European minds because they now find themselves ruled by […]

Matthew WileyFeaturedEvangelicalismhealthFormation

Seminary Anxiety - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Everyone here bites their nails. I first noticed this last Fall and the realization was at once troubling and consoling. Troubling, because this is a child’s bad habit; consoling, because at least I’m not the only one who hasn’t used […]