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    Home
    Magazine
    What Are Families For
    Winter 2021
    ,
    NO
    26
    Wooden vintage pull toys including a goose, farmer on tractor, hen, pig, and cow with alphabet blocks.
    The Case for One More Child
    Our society’s future would be radically different if people simply had as many kids as they desire. What’s stopping them?
    Ross Douthat
    Essay

    Featured

    Colorful painting of two African figures with a vivid abstract landscape background.
    Not Just Nuclear
    Families are elders long buried and generations yet unborn.
    Edwidge Danticat
    Personal History
    Three framed classical portraits of men with white wigs on a dark blue wall, the middle one larger.
    Why Inheritance Matters
    What does it mean to belong to a family you didn’t choose?
    Christoph Cardinal Schönborn
    Interview
    Close-up of a Ferris wheel with red cabins against a plain beige sky background.
    Return to Vienna
    Lotte Berger Keiderling, a Kindertransport child, lost her mother in the Holocaust – and went on to bear thirteen children to “give Hitler a kick in the pants.”
    Norann Voll
    Lives
    Black and white photo of a woman in old-fashioned dress standing beside a chair with text behind her.
    The Praying Feminist
    The Victorian feminist pioneer Josephine Butler lost her respectability in order to defend women in the prostitution trade. What gave her the courage to stand alone?
    Sarah C. Williams
    Essay
    Impressionist painting of a reclining woman surrounded by flowers in a soft, muted color palette.
    The Beautiful Institution
    The story of marriage is broken into seven key moments, beginning 385 million years ago with two fish in a lake in Scotland.
    Jonathan Sacks
    Essay

    From the Editor

    Pointillist painting of five figures with multicolored dots and abstract patterns.
    Family Matters
    “Christian family values” aren’t what most people think they are.
    Peter Mommsen
    From the Editor

    Insights

    Colorful abstract feather with red, orange, and purple curved strands on a white background.
    Dependence
    Toward an illiberalism of the weak.
    Leah Libresco Sargeant
    Essay
    Birds perched on two parallel power lines against a cloudy sky at sunset.
    Singles in the Pew
    The unmarried know better than most what it means for the church to be a family.
    Gina Dalfonzo
    Essay
    Football player in red jersey number 32 running forward on the field during a game.
    Manly Virtues
    “Sing about that, bitch!” he spat, pushing my helmet into the turf.
    Noah Van Niel
    Essay
    Family of four with two kids waving through a window decorated with yellow paper plate faces.
    The Best of Times, the Worst of Times
    How are families faring in Covid-19?
    Report
    Fenced perimeter topped with barbed wire around a building under a clear sky.
    Letters from Death Row
    How our family gained an incarcerated “older brother.”
    Community Snapshot
    Boy in light jacket and pants standing in front of a deteriorating brick house entrance at dusk.
    You Can’t Go Home Again
    For an immigrant family, storytelling saves those you love from oblivion.
    Zito Madu
    Personal History
    Detail of Gustav Klimt's The Tree of Life with a couple embracing amid ornate golden spirals.
    Putting Marriage Second
    How the Gospel saves fidelity.
    Johann Christoph Arnold
    Reading

    Web Exclusives

    Three framed photos: elderly couple hugging, family of four with two kids, and senior couple smiling outdoors.
    Proteus Unbound
    Money culture’s conquest of the American family.
    Ian Marcus Corbin
    Essay
    Painting of a man kneeling with open arms to a woman helping a toddler take steps outside near a wheelbarrow.
    The First Society
    The sacrament of matrimony and the restoration of the social order.
    Essay
    A hand holding fresh tea leaves over a pile of leaves with decorative black shapes overlay.
    The Corporate Parent
    Unilever markets itself as a supportive and involved employer, with a particular focus on promoting women’s well-being. But in an attack on its Kenyan workers, it abdicated all responsibility for their basic safety.
    Maria Hengeveld
    Essay

    Arts & Letters

    Traditional painting of a family scene with a mother, baby, man, angel, and an ox in a rocky setting.
    God in a Cave
    A reading on the Holy Family.
    G. K. Chesterton
    Reading
    Abstract painting of geometric buildings and a winding path in muted yellow, white, gray, and blue tones.
    Two Poems
    Dream: halfway to my destination / I remembered something I’d forgotten
    Poetry
    A lit candle in a holder next to an open book and an inkwell on a wooden surface in dim light.
    Little Women, Rebel Angels
    The strangely entwined destinies of Louisa May Alcott and Simone de Beauvoir.
    Mary Townsend
    Essay
    Cover of Plough Quarterly magazine winter 2021 issue with colorful spiral and text about families.
    Covering the Cover: What Are Families For?
    The offshoots suggest the budding next generation as new families are formed, and the spiral toward the center of origin points us to our ancestors.
    Rosalind Stevenson
    Covering the Cover
    Hand holding a vintage Kodak slide showing a group of people seated around a dining table.
    Another View: Sunday Supper
    “No Memory Is Ever Alone” is a visual conversation between my dad and me. He used to bring out a box of slides…
    Another View
    Religious painting of a nativity scene with Mary, baby Jesus, animals, and shepherds in a rocky cave.
    New Prince, New Pompe
    Behould a sely tender Babe, / In freesing winter nighte, / In homely manger trembling lies; / Alas, a pitious sighte!
    Robert Southwell
    Poetry
    Spiral shell illustration with colorful circles and the question, 'what are families for?' on a white magazine cover.
    What Are Families For
    Winter 2021
    Buy this Issue
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    Contributors

    Edwidge Danticat
    Edwidge Danticat
    Jonathan Sacks
    Jonathan Sacks
    Zito Madu
    Zito Madu
    See All

    Departments

    Man wearing face mask holding a bag of bread loaves outside a bakery window with bread bags hanging.
    Family and Friends: Issue 26
    Learn about Plough’s new Rhina Espaillat Poetry Award! Plus traditional Istanbul bakers; the Breaking Ground project; Zoom Bible study with Dr. John M. Perkins.
    Family and Friends
    Editors’ Picks: Issue 26
    Short reviews of Un-American, Prison By Any Other Name, One Long River of a Song, and Hunger.
    Sam Hine
    Editors’ Pick
    Watercolor illustration of an older woman in a bonnet and two men, one holding a bat, in old-fashioned clothes.
    Sojourner Truth
    The abolitionist was sustained by a fierce faith.
    Susannah Black Roberts
    Jason Landsel
    Forerunner

      Back Issues

      Baseball on dirt field with text 'Searching for the Soul of America' and article titles on green background.
      Searching for the Soul of America

      How should America celebrate 250 years?

      Summer 2026
      After Religion
      What comes after religion?
      Spring 2026
      Snowy landscape with tall pine trees, a rocky hill, and a misty castle silhouetted in the background.
      The Call of Beauty
      Beauty holds out a promise, but can we trust it?
      Winter 2026
      Cover of Plough magazine with dense dark green foliage and starry night sky with circular constellations.
      The Supernatural
      All that is seen and unseen
      Autumn 2025
        See All

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