The Vast Dechurching and the Paradox of Christianity’s Decline

Firmin DeBrabander

Christians will soon be a minority here, which was for most of this nation’s history unthinkable.

History Bedeviled

Paul Nedelisky

Were the signs and wonders of the early modern mystics divine or diabolical?

The Humor Is Almost Lost on Us

Martha Bayles

Instead of satire, which aims at improvement, we have snark.

All the Little Data

Nicholas Carr

When we communicate using little data, we’re speaking the language of robots.

Current Issue Current Issue: In Need of Repair

In Need of Repair

What are the cultural sources of our broken institutions?


Of Continuing Interest

A selection of articles from the archives

Body and Soul at Table

Wilfred M. McClay

Food is a strong proof of our animality; it is equally strong evidence of how we transcend it.

A Usable Past for a Post-American Nation

Johann N. Neem

We are living through a time, however, when we cannot take our shared identity—and therefore our shared stories—for granted.

Remembering Henry Pleasants

Martha Bayles

What Pleasants found in the Afro-American idiom was a body of music intended to comfort the afflicted.

Democratic Authority at Century’s End

Jean Bethke Elshtain

The democratic story added the following to the idea of civic order: Through pledges and promises—a social contract or covenant—persons throw in their fortunes with one another. They seek not a perfect world, but a better one. And authority is necessary to its realization.