The Nightstand

The Art of Living an Examined Life

If human beings flourish from their inner core rather than in the realm of impact and results, then the inner work of learning is fundamental to human happiness, as far from pointless wheel spinning as are the forms of tenderness we owe our children or grandchildren.

The Sinister Agenda Behind “The Economy”: A review of We Built...

Continuing to base economic and government models around a reductive view of homo economicus will trap us within the inhumane “reality we have made.”

Cultivating the Skills that Freedom Requires in Matthew Crawford’s Why We...

Human driving requires unending mutual predictions and constant accommodations for each other. It is in such experiences that we end up with something meaningful for life in the physical world and life in community.

Adapt or Die: Kunstler’s Guide to Living in the Long Emergency

James Howard Kunstler follows the first commandment handed down to all of us at birth: “Thou shalt not be dull.”

Heighten the Mystery

With California burning, Antarctica melting, and a death-toll spiraling, we’re left with a looming question: Can a people walking in darkness yet be made to see?

Marilynne Robinson’s Jack and the Need to be Forgiven

Much of the novel reads like this sentence—the internal struggle of someone who wants—not forgiveness, nor salvation, really, but rather to not need to be forgiven, to not require salvation nor redemption, to maintain what dignity is possible, given irremediable forsakenness.

Fidelity to the Truth in an Illiberal Time, on Rod Dreher’s...

I encourage readers to give Dreher a fair hearing and consider the evidence he offers in support of his arguments. The phenomena he cites are real and disquieting, and he should not be dismissed out-of-hand simply because he forecasts a world far darker than many of us believe could possibly emerge.

Awakening to Virtue: Confessions of a Well-Read, Unlucky Good Girl

Both Prior and Gibbs agree that ultimately virtue orients us toward one end, to “love God and enjoy Him forever.” Loving God is difficult; it too requires our attention in a culture that is constantly distracting us. And while virtue brings about human flourishing that can be observed from the outside, loving God requires us to remember who we are on the inside. It is the place where we are to be good alone … in the presence of One.

From the Village Square to the Global Village—and Back?

At their best, local papers “help provide a common reality and touchstone, a sense of community and of place.”

Learning to Live a Second Life in Two Stories by John...

There are second chances for some of us, but even second chances bring new losses. For me, it is the grace and hope of these stories and others like them in the work of Berry and Berger that has earned them pride of place on my shelves and in my life.