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Articles Archive

A Challenge in Charity: A Review of Deep Reading

To counter dogmatic worldviews, we should read prudently and widely across time periods and cultures and not avoid difficult content because of fear.

Sisyphus, Don’t Go it Alone

A Non-Believer Ponders Life, Death, and Staring into the Abyss

From Culture Warriors to Agrarians

Can the rest of us afford such inaction? Yes—and that’s the point. For the travesty of modernity is its constant demand—from left or right—for action, control, and efficiency. But the…
July 19, 2024

The Consolation of Silence

Your presence is needed. Hush. Stay. Show your love by letting them grieve.

The Epic England Never Had: A Review of eÞanðun

But I reckon that eÞanðun can mix with Beowulf and Paradise Lost and not feel out of place.

Chicago Style Citation: False Futures and Utopias

The Chicago Manual of Style is not to blame for any of these trends. The editors’ decision does not shape as much as reflect our culture.
July 15, 2024

The Wild of God in Waterloo Township, Michigan

I found it to be profound and moving, the work of an author who is not lost in flights of fancy but who is deeply receptive to the world and…

It Takes a Lot of Tape to Raise Kids

Behind this type of play, though, is a genuine longing for beauty—a desire not only to appreciate the beautiful things one has seen or read or heard, but also to…

Grief in Eternity

Yet at times, if only for a moment, I feel the shadow over my days is transformed into pure spirit. Such thoughts give me a surprising sense of quiet joy.

The Census Taker in a Church Pew, part 6

This rural mountain church continues to be good because it continues to do what is necessary.

The Final Prayer of Jim Barry  

—it took 40 years for me to begin to realize these words Jim silently put into my hands on that last day of class were a prayer.

Remembering Family History: A Mess, a Murderer, and a Matriarch

Knowing your family’s past fugitives and pretty boys is the kind of localism anyone can aspire toward and practice.

Great Balls of Fire

With a clear sky above us, no one restricting our movements, we learned—sometimes flailingly, like chickens with our heads cut off—how to marvel.

A SNOOT’s Dream Deferred: A Review of Dictionary of Fine Distinctions

I suppose when it comes to discussions of the English language, I prefer sterner stuff.

A Garden of Children

If you understand that a child’s growth comes from a spark within, just as does the growth of a flower, a crystal, or a mighty oak, you might take a…

Medicine Wheel for the Planet: A Review

There ought not be unnecessary opposition between Indigenous and Christian perspectives. The creative work of caring for our ecology is hard enough; let us not also misunderstand one another.

Motherhood, Rural Decline, and Phoenix

I’ll be logging off the internet for a few weeks and thus pausing these Water Dippers. I aim to resume them in early August. In the meantime, make plans to…

The AI Mousetrap

AI promises free cheese, but there is no such thing as a free lunch. Although we often boast about AI’s ability to create, we should instead focus the conversation on…
June 28, 2024

Fatty Bolger, a Local Hero

Perhaps Pippin is right, but none of the friends call Fredegar Fatty anymore, and those chaps know something about heroics.

Beyond the Scoreboard

Here, on a little patch of field in a North Texas suburb, I found life being played out in simple but significant ways.

Emerson’s Grief

Wallie is gone; no visible scar remains. Mourning provides no lesson, no answers, no closure. The poet is not decrying grief for its lack of utility.

Maurin, Partisanship, and Myth

"Ideas and Historical Consequences." Mars Hill Audio released the full version of an old interview with John Lukacs. FPR readers can up for a free FPR affiliate membership at Mars…

Sore Mouth Pond

In this way, “idleness as such is by no means a root of evil; quite the contrary, it is a truly divine way of life so long as one is…

The Census Taker In a Church Pew, Part 5

Her heart is for those little ones, that they might come to know The One who became a child for our salvation and for the glory of God.