The Rise of the Anti-Culture
by Carl R. TruemanThe Culture War is over. Culture is dead, the coup de grace inflicted by an Unholy Trinity. Now begins the Age of the Anti-Culture. Continue Reading »
The Ecclesiastical Failure of Christian America
by James R. RogersRoss Douthat’s Erasmus lecture, “A Crisis of Conservative Catholicism,” and Carl Trueman’s column, “Is There A Crisis in Conservative Protestantism?” put me in mind to think about the American Church. That said, I’m more of a “not-with-a-bang-but-a-whimper” kind of guy, not that . . . . Continue Reading »
Same-Sex Marriage and the Mormon Benedict Option
by Tom StringhamThe Mormons know how to keep everyone guessing. A week ago, they were looking more and more like the liberals in the conservative-on-sexual-matters religious world. Last month, LDS apostle Dallin H. Oaks surprised church members by publicly criticizing defiant Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, and earlier . . . . Continue Reading »
How to Strengthen Catholic Community
by Leah Libresco SargeantAs the Synod on the Family continues, a number of Catholic writers are questioning whether it’s really nice to exclude the divorced and remarried from Communion. The people on the margins of the church, the people oppressed by sin and circumstance are the ones who can least weather being pushed . . . . Continue Reading »
The Calvary Option?
by Carl R. TruemanDoes the Church actually need a new (or new old) option? Continue Reading »
The Benedict Option for Evangelicals
by Phillip CaryIf American evangelicals are to succeed at Christian formation under the new cultural regime that the Supreme Court has just instituted in law, they must re-learn the Gospel of Christ as the word of an external authority worth loving, not the inner voice of their experience. Continue Reading »
On Retreat
by Michael HanbyDavid Mills, inspired by a Facebook post from Robby George, has exhorted mostly unnamed proponents of the “Benedict Option” to reverse their various avenues of retreat and remain in the political fight. Now I can only guess the identity of the defeatists who have “left the front lines to read books in the library and argue causes and effects in the coffee shop.” But the charge puts me in mind of the colloquium discussion in the January issue of First Things which treated the debate between so-called “liberal” and “radical” Catholics, perhaps because my contribution to that discussion has elicited similar accusations of political irresponsibility or moral cowardice from people sympathetic to the liberal line of thought. Continue Reading »
Christian and Countercultural
by Rod DreherOver the past decade, especially in the struggle over same-sex marriage, some of my friends and allies among social and religious conservatives have called me a defeatist for my culture-war pessimism. I believe that pessimism today is simply realism, and that it is better for us to retreat . . . . Continue Reading »
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