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The Editors

Articles by The Editors

Wholeness and Gratitude: Working through Scott H. Moore’s How to Burn a Goat

Moore insists that his book about farming is not exclusively about rural places: “the point is not even about farming . . . most of what I’ve said in this…

Poems, Essays, Stories, and Songs for a Pandemic

When despair for the world grows in me . . .

The Classroom as a Welcoming Space

If we have all the knowledge in the world but have not love, the apostle Paul says, then we’re as annoying as a banging cymbal. It’s no wonder students wouldn’t…
March 16, 2020

Learning about Food and Proper Nouns

Berry moves the conversation from common nouns to proper ones and implicates us all in something deeply practical and doable, yet inexplicably difficult: to love our neighbor, the person right…

Personality Tests, Community, & Our Nagging Loneliness

Ironically, by searching for the self, we also lose ourselves. The more intently we look within, the more elusive our sense of self becomes.

The Ordinary Christian Option

Elevated figures in church history have a great deal to teach us, but we should not forget that we can also learn from the early, run-of-the-mill Christians who were as…

An Artistic Ecosystem: A Review of Makoto Fujimura’s Culture Care

If truth, beauty, and goodness are truly and mystically related, beauty really is dangerous—but only to evil. Reading Culture Care, and contemplating Makoto Fujimura’s art, I can believe it.

Why Love Belongs in Politics

Lubbock, TX. One month ago, the Senate concluded the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.  The process was almost purely partisan: Republicans, who control the Senate, stymied Democrats’ attempts to…

The Road Back from Impeachment: Are We There Yet?

So why am I against all these impeachments, investigations and inquiries? It is because in every one of these instances, the ultimate goal, far outweighing any truly high-minded purpose, is…

The Uses of Nostalgia

Nostalgia's got a bad rap, but, in addition to being nearly inescapable, it has indispensable benefits, provided it’s kept within reasonable limits.

Liberty or Empire? Reconsidering the Articles of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation undoubtedly had their problems. But the spirit of concurrence they embodied is worth celebrating. To revitalize American public life, we should revisit this period in our…

Graced Grit: A Hymn-laced Eulogy to True Grit Author Charles Portis

U.S. Marshal Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn and Mattie bring a type of vigilante justice to Tom Chaney, and we are glad, but Portis doesn’t allow us to be easy about…
February 28, 2020

Old Tracks Toward New Connections

A new walking trail brings economic benefits, but its more enticing, though less measurable, value lies in the deeper, more appreciable sense of place that the rail trail should cultivate.
February 25, 2020

Christian Ecological Virtues

There is much to admire in Bouma-Prediger’s approach to environmental ethics. If practiced within the context of a robust Christianity, the virtues he recommends would certainly help readers become better…

Martin Heidegger’s Lost Saints

Heidegger’s life and work are a lesson to so many confused, angry, and lonely young Western people today who feel out of place in a toxic post-millennial world torn by…

Independent Interdependence: A Mark of Successful Communities

Clay County, MO. At first blush, independent interdependence may seem an oxymoron. Yet people exercise a kind of balance between their need for autonomy and their need for what others…
February 12, 2020

Catholic Social Thought, Abraham Lincoln, and Common Good Capitalism

One need not support every economic prescription of the distributists or Lincoln. Each, however, presents certain principles that we can use to orient our economic thinking in the era of…
February 10, 2020

Power, Friendship, and a Better Set of Democratic “Rules”

For those tired of the fake news and play hate, who are convinced by Austin and their own better natures that accomplishing something better is actually still possible within the…

The Super Bowl Spectacle Sends Mixed Messages about Women

What was on display in the halftime show was not a celebration of sexuality or empowerment for women. It was an elevation of instinct.
February 5, 2020

Noticing Birds

We don’t have to escape to a new and better location with more perfect neighbors. We need to lovingly attend to the ones we have.
January 29, 2020

How Farms Differ From Factories

For farming to exist sustainably, even from an economic perspective, it must be re-imagined.

Journeys in Trump Country

More interesting than the big-name hits and misses, though, are the everyday but often extraordinary people that she meets along the way. Some are firmly in the Trump camp; some…

On Being Kind

If it keeps us from flying at each other’s throats, I’ll take kindness every time. But if we seek more than survival, kindness is just the beginning.
January 23, 2020

When Protestants Became Libertarians

Protestants and American Conservatism reveals a capacious knowledge of American religious history. As skeptics of the liberal order slowly work out a positive vision for the republic, they now know…