Archives for December 2024

Sunday night odds and ends

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A few things online that caught my attention this week: There are no social media utopias A war of Catholic magazines A conservative center at the UNC-Chapel Hill Studs Terkel’s Working at 50 The problem with blue-collar populism Paul Kingnorth […]

Commonplace Book #291

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“…from the Great Recession in 2008 to 2018, both gross domestic product and household income increased in Democratic districts and declined in Republican districts. Likewise, in educational attainment, the number of adults with a college degree grew significantly in Democratic […]

Paul Kingsnorth: “Against Christian Civilization”

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In October 2024, writer Paul Kingsnorth delivered the 37th Erasmus Lecture to the Christian community associated with First Things magazine. After I read it, I could not help but wonder what the audience in attendance at this lecture thought about […]

On the politics of the average American

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Tyler Austin Harper brings the evidence: The politics of the average American are not well represented by either party right now. On economic issues, large majorities of the electorate support progressive positions: They say that making sure everyone has health-care coverage is […]

Commonplace Book #290

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We come to see that there is within every man, the image of God, and no matter how much it is scarred, it is still there. And so, when we come to recognize that the evil act of our enemy […]

MacArthur Foundation Announces $20 Million in Support of Local News

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More good news for local journalism. Here is the press release: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today announced $20 million to support newsrooms and provide journalism infrastructure as part of its commitment to revitalize local news. MacArthur launched the Local […]

The intellectual life of Luigi Mangione

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According to Brank Marcetic at Jacobin, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson was “far from an ideologue.” Here is a taste of his piece: If you wanted, you could cherry-pick your way through the digital trail Mangione […]

The Joe Rogan of American Catholicism

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Check out Molly Worthen’s fascinating piece on Robert Barron, the bishop of Winona-Rochester (MN) and founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. Here is a taste: Now is an unlikely time for a Catholic ministry to grow. Fewer and fewer […]

Commonplace Book #289

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What could break the endless cycle of injustice? The prophetic myth of Judaism and Christianity, both of which required “the spiritual discipline against resentment.” Such a discipline discriminated “between the evils of a social system…and the individuals who are involved […]

Where are all these nationalist evangelicals who “seek to transform American culture through conservative-leaning politics and free market economics?”

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Some of you may recall historian Matthew Sutton’s claim that “post-World War II evangelicalism is best defined as a white, patriarchal, nationalist religious movement made up of Christians who seek power to transform American culture through conservative-leaning politics and free market economics.” We […]