Politics & Society
Discerning the body
Bodies get sick. What becomes of a church body when we enact unity at the table while ignoring our brokenness?
Nonviolent crisis response in my city
I wish Durham’s HEART program had existed when my friend Joe was killed.
A preventable oil spill in Kansas
Fossil fuel companies aren’t promoting sustainability. They can’t even be trusted to take baseline safety measures.
Extravagant consumption
For Jesus, the inverse of scarcity isn’t abundance—it’s accumulation.
Who is Naoíse Mac Sweeney’s new history of the West for?
Like so many books today, it seems aimed at convincing an audience that will never read it.
Ordinary violence
Peacemaking is a crucial part of the Christian life—but it isn’t just about war.
Rose Macaulay was ahead of her time
In Crewe Train, the neglected Anglo-Catholic novelist tells the story of a woman who resolutely does not fit in.
Hostile architecture
In metro areas today, park benches are becoming an endangered species.
Walter Earl Fluker’s call to the Black church
In King’s time, the goal was to stir the churches to struggle. Now it’s to wake the dead.
A very particular humanity
Suzanne Robertson didn’t meet “life” on death row. She met a man named Cecil who loved cheesecake.
American Protestantism and what it has done
David Hollinger explores how Protestantism has shaped—and warped—a nation’s intellectual life.
Domestic poverty and who it serves
Matthew Desmond unties the knot of being poor in the US—and shows the rest of us that we hold the strings.
SNAP under siege
Federal debt default has been averted. The price is more restrictions on a critical program that feeds hungry Americans.
The strangers who saved my life
When you receive an emergency transfusion, you don’t get to choose who the blood comes from.
Welfare for the wealthy
Half of all business meal expenses are tax deductible. This puts SNAP cuts in helpful perspective.
Rival Orthodoxies in Ukraine
The war is revealing divisions among Christians in the region—and deepening them.
Hungary’s progressive Christian resistance
Viktor Orbán has tried to buy the loyalty of the churches, but not everyone is selling.
The myth and reality of Jim Thorpe
David Maraniss’s biography of the legendary athlete highlights the contradiction in White America’s attitude toward Native people.
Secrets that must not be kept
Clergy-penitent privilege and mandatory reporting exist in complex tension. But child welfare has to come first.