The Archive

Every essay.

Jake MeadorBook Reviews

Gray on the Two Faces of Liberalism - Commonplaces

So I first heard mention of John Gray on a recent episode of Rebuilders. Then I mentioned it in our writers’ Slack and found out that a few folks in there were already big fans of Gray’s work while another […]

Jake MeadorBook Reviews

Gray on the Two Faces of Liberalism - Commonplaces

So I first heard mention of John Gray on a recent episode of Rebuilders. Then I mentioned it in our writers’ Slack and found out that a few folks in there were already big fans of Gray’s work while another […]

Josh FenskaFeaturedEvangelicalism

What Augustine Might Say to Someone Deconstructing - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

In my early twenties, I dove deep into questions and doubts about the Christian faith. After hundreds of Sundays, countless youth programs, and a few years at a Christian college, I began dismantling many things I had always assumed. Today […]

Jake MeadorChurch

Boromir - Commonplaces

To briefly say a bit more about this: "Evangelicalism" as a Movement of Boromirs: each faction in the movement trying to wield a ring of power in its own way, thereby using worldly means to supposedly obtain heavenly goods. Or, […]

Jake MeadorChurch

Boromir - Commonplaces

To briefly say a bit more about this: "Evangelicalism" as a Movement of Boromirs: each faction in the movement trying to wield a ring of power in its own way, thereby using worldly means to supposedly obtain heavenly goods. Or, […]

Bill MeloneFeatured

An Interview with Isaac Adams on "Talking About Race" - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Isaac Adams serves as lead pastor at Iron City Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and is the founder of United? We Pray, a ministry devoted to praying about racial justice. The following transcripted interview revolves around his book, Talking About Race: […]

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 […]