Category: Technology
The Real Place for Conflict: On Keeping Controversy Close to Home
By Justin Frank Social media gives unprecedented opportunities to know about and engage in controversy. Many of these controversies are rooted in places far from us; involve people we’ve never met (and will likely never know); and grow out of...
Mere Orthodoxy Best of 2018
We ran our list of the best feature writing in 2018 yesterday. Today I wanted to recap the written work we have done at Mere O this year. Due almost entirely to changes with Facebook’s algorithm, our traffic numbers are...
The 2018 Eliot Awards
We started this last year and I’m going to continue it this year because of how much fun I have putting it together. Here’s my list of the year’s best magazine writing. If you have other nominations, mention them in...
Asynchronous Citizens: Addressing Flaws in Digital Citizenship
By Tim Milosch The 2011 Pew Research Center study, “Teens, Kindness and Cruelty on Social Network Sites” is one of many evaluating the experience of the young on social media. Given ongoing concerns about the effects of social media on...
Book Review: The Power of Silence by Robert Cardinal Sarah
The modern world has a curious way of stripping something away and then selling it back to us at a premium. Or, to put it another way, of transforming formerly public goods into a private luxuries. I’m sure you can...
Let Us Now Praise Fractious Men: The Hillbilly as Economic Dissident
Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance’s bestselling memoir, strikes a delicate balance between family history and cultural commentary. In the book, Vance draws on his memories of an unstable family in a stagnant small town to paint a vivid picture of the...
Prophetic Performers, Authenticity Acts, and the Need for Wisdom
Growing in wisdom involves growing in the discernment of who is wise, and who only parodies wisdom. While there are many ways to parody wisdom, two stand out in the age of the internet. At first glance they might seem...
The Christian Journalist in the Era of Fake News
From Jake: This is a great day for Mere Orthodoxy: We have our first long-form commissioned essay paid for by our generous patrons via our Patreon page. We’re kicking off our long-form series with an excellent piece from Gracy Olmstead...
Announcing Mere Orthodoxy’s Patreon Campaign
Mere Orthodoxy Patreon Campaign Our republic is currently embarked on an audacious experiment: We have, through a series of economic and cultural choices, destroyed many of the intermediate social structures that people rely on to shape their lives and give...
17776 and the End of Nature
If you read Hannah Anderson’s Humble Roots a few days before reading Jon Bois’s “17776” you’ll experience a kind of whiplash. Anderson’s book is about gratitude and exploring the ways that creation teaches us about God, about ourselves, and about virtue....