The Editors
Articles by The Editors
Else Lasker-Schüler’s Grief
Her work is certainly redolent of sorrow and, as she describes it, the eternity that dwells within her. But her words also carry hope and surprising faith that she will…
Nadya Williams and The Good News
Williams reminds us of a lesson that we should have already learned good and hard, namely that rejection of Christianity does not result in blissful liberation and self-expression.
On Abortion, Uncompromising Values, and the Value of Compromise
Perhaps one day moral clarity on this issue will be found or the values of the American people will align more neatly. Until that day arrives, if ever it does,…
Figures of Death and Deathlessness
But our culture’s celebration of Halloween suggests that we know yet more. We sense not only that we are dust and will return to it; we also sense that life…
Falling is Not Failure, and Getting up is Not the Point
Life knocks us down. It is the price of this world, however much we may kid ourselves otherwise. Our falls become part of us.
Jeff Bilbro’s Convivial Quest
The editor-in-chief of the FPR website discusses the recent conference in Grand Rapids and his latest book, Words for Conviviality. Highlights Resources Jeff's bio and buy the book (and some…
Wheeler Catlett’s Love Beyond Organization in Wendell Berry’s “Fidelity”
Organized community events bring people together and are an integral part of forging strong communal bonds in a place. Like the law, they serve a purpose in a community’s ecosystem…
Gendered Worlds: Our Need for Belonging and Usefulness
If we choose to befriend our many obligations—to connect with other people, to love, to serve, to create, to borrow, to lend, to repair, to celebrate, to support—instead of buying…
Unpacking My Library (Again)
Maybe, in the end, a home library does what a long-inhabited home does: charts a middle ground between the chaos of the world and the hyper-rationality of modernity.
Home Libraries Will Save Civilization
It is a reality not frequently enough acknowledged: like so many other things in life, the love of reading is caught, not taught.
The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite: A Review of Musa al-Gharbi’s We Have Never Been Woke
So the core of We Have Never Been Woke is persuasive, and it's hard not to see his thesis in operation in all kinds of fields, once you look at…
Eduard Habsburg On Building Families
My guest once again is His Imperial and Royal Highness, His Excellency Eduard Habsburg, Archduke of Austria and Ambassador of Hungary to The Holy See and the Sovereign Order of…
Blue Walls Falling Down: A Novel
Joshua Hren’s new novel, Blue Walls Falling Down, releases today. We’re happy to share the following excerpt with FPR readers.
Living in Language (a Reply)
I heard it then, followed by a man’s agonizing cry. I hear it now in every Franco-Norman word we unknowingly pronounce: that arrow piercing King Harold’s eye.
Modern Architecture Erodes Community: What We Can Do About It
The future of our built environment is in our hands. We can reject the alienation of modernism and instead foster spaces that cultivate connection, celebrate history, and create a sense…
Large Language Models and the Final Paragraph
Like the sonnet, the five-paragraph essay traps investment in truth felt in the heart and forged in the mind by means of its life-respecting limitations.
An Invitation to a Different Story: A Review of Letters to a Future Saint
Christianity is not merely a doctrine to believe but a life to live and embody. East understands this and invites Future Saints into a different imagination and way of life.
Real Communities and Democratic Theory
If we don’t experience full, unqualified “concrete, historical community,” then we won’t experience full, unqualified “genuine deliberation.”
Hunting Silence
To find these deeper wells of silence, however, we must seek them out, whether in the woods or the deserts of our own shut doors.
Southern Appalachia is a Place
These questions would cause little debate or consternation without the importance of place tethering them. And, despite the erasure of communitarian mindsets and regional identity, place still matters.
Matt Walsh’s Racial Reckoning
While it is impossible to be sure what the ultimate cultural importance of this movie will be, I do think Walsh has hit a nerve.
Steel-Manning the Amish: The Wisdom of Communal Discernment
What the Amish understand perhaps more than we do is the necessity of maintaining and protecting domains of embodied human agency in our lives.
The New Alignment
Contemplating this turn of events in our politics reminds me that we human beings have a strong desire for tidy coherence. Sometimes this desire can be a kind of sickness.
Pastoring while Living in the Trenches of Prison
Pastoral ministry in prison can change lives, but it doesn’t magically erase the pain of incarceration.