Barabbas we can understand—
a bit unhinged, but we have planned
for that containable derangement,
just as in the kind estrangement
of Legion, as he styled himself,
by the grave edge of a lakeside shelf.
Aside from the price of swine, you see,
that madman was dependably
—well, mad. Our wars, our garrison
seemed peaceful by comparison.
The howling soothed us like a salve.
A distant, fully twisted valve,
he gave a vent to our frustrations
with scribes and priests, and with the nations.
It threatens our humanity,
this terrifying sanity.
—Bryce A. Taylor
Russia’s Sacrilegious War on Ukraine
Today’s Russian Orthodox leadership is a theological, moral, and pastoral train wreck. U.S. foreign policy can’t fix…
Mind the Gap
Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religiousby ross douthatzondervan, 240 pages, $29.99 I grew up in a religiously sympathetic,…
Killing Time
On October 29, 1945, Jean-Paul Sartre delivered his lecture “Existentialism Is a Humanism,” a declaration of independence…