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    Plough Quarterly No. 47: After Religion

    Spring 2026

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    Featured Articles

    All Articles

    Editorial

    What Comes After Religion? The project to forge a Christian society is in retreat. What comes next?

    Essays

    It’s Not All Good, Man Churches are in decline. How should Christians respond? The Critique of Religion Marx called Christianity the opium of the people. What if it isn’t the religion he thought it was? How Solzhenitsyn Found Faith As a prisoner in the gulag, the great Russian author discovered a hard truth about good and evil. The Moral Beauty of Middlemarch George Eliot’s masterpiece teaches us to live faithfully a hidden life. The Gods of Modernity Max Weber claimed today’s world is disenchanted. Actually, it’s teeming with new enchantments. Knowing What Time It Is What will our politics look like after Christianity? A tour of the post-religious right. Blaise Pascal’s Night of Fire What’s the difference between a cultural Christian and an actual believer? The great French philosopher's conversion shows us how to distinguish. The Fight Against Mammon In the febrile atmosphere of the Weimar Republic, Plough’s founding editor sets Jesus’ gospel against the gods of wealth and war.

    Personal History

    Mother Mary in Cuba After decades of Communist suppression of religion, I found marks of faith in my mother’s hometown.

    Poetry

    Poem: “A Tang Dynasty Ceramic Horse” It stands on all four hooves, just stopped / as if before a cliffside topped / with waving grasses like its mane. Poem: “Pear Trees in Winter” To see the orchard stand undressed and cold, / shivering before the blue mountain, trunks dark Poem: “Afterwords” High summer throbs and buzzes like a light / bulb burning out, the fields all full of wings.

    Fiction

    Short Story: Sieidi In all the years since, I’ve never regretted what we did.

    Editors’ Picks

    Donald and His Seven Cows A novel about a solitary old farmer on a Scottish island who talks to his cows and listens to the fairies. Craftland Many traditional crafts have been lost and more are threatened, but we can learn to value them again. Towards Dawn In his recently published essay collection, Bishop Erik Varden sees hopeful signs of a spiritual revival stirring.

    Family and Friends

    Find Your People Plough readers meet in real life.

    Comic

    Poetry Comic: Dylan Thomas’s “Fern Hill” A graphic artist interprets the Welsh poet’s masterpiece about nature, time, and lost youth.

    Community Snapshot

    Singing in Community At the Bruderhof, music is worship, fellowship, and fun.

    Forum

    Readers Respond Readers respond to Plough’s Winter 2026 issue, The Call of Beauty.

    Interview

    The Church in China Isn’t What You Think A scholar of Chinese Christianity dispels some common myths.

    Report

    Grieving for Peace in Israel and Palestine Israelis and Palestinians who lost family band together to promote an end to the violence. The Asbury Outpouring Asbury University’s president talks about the ongoing effects of the student spiritual revival in 2023.

    Forerunners

    A Gadfly of God Justin Martyr, like Socrates before him, was convicted of being an atheist under the emperor Marcus Aurelius.

    Featured Authors

    After Religion cover

    About This Issue

    Christianity shaped the West, bringing conquest and religious strife but also the modern ideals of emancipation, human rights, and democracy. Now Christendom’s influence is waning, and many churches are seeing decline in membership. What happens if we lose the Christian teaching that each human being is made in the image of God, and that humankind, in all its diversity, is one whole? This issue of Plough looks at the social, political, and cultural implications, reminding readers that Jesus brought more than a religion and that this is not how his story ends.