Front Porch Republic
Subsidiarity: A New Intellectual Virtue?
Responsibilities—actions, decisions, discussions—should be exercised at the level closest to the individual and only move “upward” if necessary.
Magnifica Humanitas, Artificial Intelligence, and Amish Country
Well, what would the Amish do, I wondered?
Magnifica Humanitas and a Healthy Realism
Magnifica Humanitas encourages us to not give up on changing the world
A Brief Introduction to Catholic Social Teaching
At the heart of CST is the title of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical: magnificent humanity
AI Data Centers, Exponential Growth, and the “J Curve” from Hell
AI may be perceived as an “immaterial” technology, but it totally depends on data centers that have intense physical demands.
News, Notes, & Podcasts
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Edgy and Dull: Songs About Obsession
For a while, the episode risked becoming an episode on unreliable narrators—but really we’re talking about obsession, a subject I suspect we all know something about. Send your song suggestions…
Groceries, Sin, and the Grail
Shawn Regan describes the manifold benefits the Great Salt Lake provides and the cross-partisan effort to replenish it.
I Only Want to Drown: Songs About the Ocean
We’re approaching the ocean from fourteen different directions on this week’s A Symposium of Popular Songs, featuring, for whatever reason, some very long songs (as well as a few short…
Humanity, Stupidity, and Adversity
Peter Mommsen articulates the real good that small magazines can accomplish.
More Articles
Localists Abroad: A Conversation with Joel Carillet
Sometimes I’ll sit still for, say, an hour, and imagine all the people around the world who have embraced me, shook my hand, kissed my cheek.
What Hero Can Defeat the Hydra with a Thousand Faces?
The hydra we face is not only hard to defeat; it’s hard to define.
The Language of Drought and Duty
Sometimes, God does not simply give or withhold. Sometimes He rearranges who belongs where.
The Dignity of Dependence: How the Vulnerabilities We Share Become the Ties that Bind
The loving entanglement that defies our culture’s idol of autonomy is available to men just as much as it is to women, though differently.
On Warren Farha, Cultural Renewal, and the (Too Few) Bookish Places Where They Happen
I cannot imagine a better metaphor for, and a better invitation to, the forming and renewing of cultural connections and communities than bookish places.
Where is Everybody? Lao Tzu’s Response to Fermi’s Paradox
What if our galactic neighbors have never come for a visit because they simply feel quite at home in their little corner of the universe?
Pat Buchanan, Subsidiarity, and the Fractured Religious Right
Buchanan’s fusion of Catholic subsidiarity and anti-globalism reveals the enduring fractures within the Religious Right that still shape today’s populist divides.
Sundays for the Young Son of a Theologically Conservative Pastor
My father was the pastor, and he was not above reprimanding his children from the pulpit if we didn’t sit very quietly.
Healthy Birds Leave the Nest
We didn’t raise our children to keep them for ourselves. We raised them to go make a home, to share grace and love.
Is There Room for Enmity in the A.I. Classroom?
By heightening emotion, hatred deepens the personhood of both teachers and students.
The Hardware Store
The hardware store’s customers aren’t just customers. They aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. They are its neighbors.
Dessert with Darlene: The Hospitality of Widows and the Making of Membership
Throughout the epistles, the apostles in both word and deed prioritize the care of widows and summarize it as "true religion."
From the Archive
From the Editor–Local Culture 4.1: The Civil Dissent Issue
Think not, then, of the ubiquitous screens and hideous architecture and suburban metastasis and microwave dinners. Think rather of Eric Voegelin’s famous quip—Voegelin, who said that “no one is obliged…
Spiritual Secession: A Conversation with Paul Kingsnorth
" None of your readers need me to tell them that the useful work is practical, particular, small and careful: to get away from screens as much as we can, get…
Tanya Berry’s Faithful Art
Women like Tanya bring artistry and honor to everything they touch: the homes they inhabit, the land they steward, the children they raise. These photographs are testimony to the clear,…
Can There be a National Conservatism?
Here’s the irony: a growing number of conservatives realize that it will require the assistance of the State to correct many of the problems that have been created by the…
Cheese Should Be Dangerous
The cheese crafted here came about as a byproduct of a larger whole, the natural dividend of a complete way of life, and this is the foundation of the best…