johnb
Articles by johnb
The Race to the Bottom: A Review of Ross Benes’s ‘1999’
It never fails—whenever Benes defends low culture, he does so in the exact terms that he ought to be using to criticize it
Seasons, Steel, and Profit
“In Due Season.” Chris Gregorio reviews and praises Matt Miller’s Leaves of Healing: “As he reflects on each slice of liturgical time and the period of garden time in which…
On Lear, Lent, and Christian Tragedy
The man of faith knows that even the deepest darkness may be irradiated
In Between on the Camino de Santiago
Whether the remains of St. James lie there or not, most of our band will likely return again to travel a new way to Santiago.
From Postliberalism to Preliberalism: A Review of The Church Against the State
Next time we’re drinking bourbon together, I look forward to telling him that he’s got all the right impulses and is coming to the wrong conclusions.
Marvin Olasky on the Press, Presidents, and Pivots
The longtime editor-in-chief of World magazine discusses the Zenger Prize, his new gig at Christianity Today, the temptations of conservative politics (compassionate or otherwise), and his memoir Pivot Points. …
The Hidden Sorrow of Easter
Christ’s resurrection offers assurance in the face of inevitable, implacable death. But it doesn’t come easily
Dumber Phones, Godric, and Hiroshima
“Can Using a Dumber Phone Cure ‘Brain Rot’?” Bryan X. Chen tells readers of the New York Times that there’s nothing we can do in the face of our society’s…
An Inside Job
It’s time to give the kids a better life script, to give them something more to aspire to than slumping over a screen for the rest of their lives.
Luddite Pedagogy, Robert Moses, and Blue Labour
“Can We Go to the Neighbourhood?” Amber Lapp has a lovely essay on how her daughter helped her live in her neighborhood: “The sight of this toddler in a sparkly…
America’s Failure to Achieve Posture Perfection
Determining the exact role of posture is impossible, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important for general human health.
A Knock at My door
Many who grieve have discovered that we are not weaker but stronger in our newfound awareness of what matters to us.
The Other Cancel Culture
Perhaps most importantly, however, we need to return to encouraging each other to keep commitments,
Baseball, O’Connor, and Nostalgia
“Play (and Watch) Ball!” Bill Kauffman praises baseball as a community-building pastime, and he highly recommends Will Bardenwerper’s new book: “I started going to ball games with my parents and…
One Weird Trick to Getting a Perfect Education
The basic principle of education is that you can’t learn anything you don’t want to learn
In Praise of Communitarian-not Corporate-Baseball
As Kauffman tells Bardenwerper, perhaps being cut loose from MLB will turn out to be a blessing.
Freedom and Friendliness in Byung-Chul Han: A Critical Introduction
Why does our relationship with technology seem so unhealthy?
Thinking, Baseball, and Eggs
“Have Humans Passed Peak Brain Power?” John Burn-Murdoch points to several indicators that humans across the world are simply thinking and understanding less now than happened ten years ago. The…
Attending to Plants, People, and Place
My wife would say you either are paying attention or you aren’t
It is Not Good to Read (Only) Alone
But there still remains room for us to read books in community today
Journalism, Fractures, and Trash
Save the date for our fall FPR conference at Baylor! “The Tacit Dimension of Shop Class.” Mars Hill Audio is publishing an audio version of this classic Mark Mitchell essay.…