Featured

Cubist style painting of an abstract table with books, a fruit plate, and geometric shapes on a reddish background.
Recovering from Heroin and Fiction
I sought freedom in drugs and novels. They couldn’t save me.
Jordan Castro
Personal History
Painting of four men wearing coats and hats, with solemn expressions in muted earthy tones.
The Workers and the Church
What happened to the Christian tradition of supporting workers’ rights?
Sohrab Ahmari
Essay
Side profile of a person with a halo-like glow around their head in a textured, dark-toned artwork.
The Body She Had
If only her parents had been spared the terrible freedom of having to choose whether to have a child with a disability.
Rosemarie Garland-Thomson
Essay
Abstract painting with stylized figures in a horizontal row beneath geometric, light-toned blocks.
Encounters at the Southern Border
Who are the migrants seeking asylum in the United States?
Robert Donnelly
Dispatch
Smiling woman holds a toddler in a yellow shirt on a dirt path with buildings and debris behind them.
A Lion in Phnom Penh
An insider reckons with complicity and compromise in Cambodia’s aid industry.
J. Daniel Sims
Report

From the Editor

Man wearing a straw hat sitting in a small wooden boat on turquoise water with fishing gear.
In Defiance of All Powers
What’s the point of freedom? Which kinds of freedom might be worth dying for?
Peter Mommsen
Editorial

Insights

Arched hallway with vaulted ceilings reflected in a still pool of water inside a historic building.
Form and Freedom
A visual artist, an architect, and a poet celebrate the freedom of coloring within the lines.
Hannah Rose Thomas
C M Howell
Malcolm Guite
Reflection
Black and white photo of a man walking alone on an empty street carrying two bags, seen from behind.
Paraguayans Don’t Read
In a dictatorship, literature nurtures freedom. In a democracy, does it matter?
Santiago Ramos
Essay
Oil painting of a countryside landscape with rolling hills, trees, and a white church with a steeple.
The Bible’s Story of Freedom
Scripture tells an unfinished history of liberation.
Heinrich Arnold
Bible Reflection
Two people walking across a street with a zebra crossing casting long shadows in low light.
The Autonomy Trap
Is commitment just for suckers? A conversion story.
James R Wood
Personal History
Group of people wearing face masks waiting in airport with luggage trolleys.
An Exodus From China
A persecuted house church chooses to flee together as a community.
Pan Yongguang
Interview
Abstract impressionist painting of rocky formations reflected on calm blue water under a cloudy sky.
Yearning for Freedom
Four thinkers across the centuries reckon with Christian freedom.
Augustine of Hippo
Dorothee Soelle
Hans Scholl
Oscar Romero
Reading
Painting of two red flowers with green leaves in a glass vase on a sunlit surface with shadows.
Taking Lifelong Vows
Poverty, chastity, and obedience bring a different kind of freedom.
Dori Moody
Essay

Web Exclusives

Church steeple with cross overlaid with a transparent American flag and fireworks in the background.
American Freedom and Christian Freedom
Freedom is central to American ideals and to the Christian faith, but there is danger in confusing the two.
Benjamin Crosby
Essay
Empty Route 66 road at sunset with Roy's Motel and Cafe sign and desert buildings on sides.
The Open Road
I went on a roadtrip down Route 66 looking for freedom.
Christina Cannon
Dispatch
Abstract painting with bold orange and blue brushstrokes over white and gray shapes on dark background.
Disciplines for Freedom
A doctor learning how to die of cancer finds guides in Simone Weil, Iris Murdoch, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Pedro Arrupe.
Bill Gardner
Reflection
Painting of a green-faced man in white playing a violin in a snowy village with houses and a church.
We Are All Fiddlers on the Roof
Sixty years on, what can a classic musical teach us about tradition?
Joy Marie Clarkson
Abstract art of black birds flying against wavy beige and gray background.
Bad Faith or Perfect Freedom
Sartre and Augustine reflect on what it takes to be free.
King-Ho Leung
Essay
Young woman in period clothing peeks from behind a dark curtain near lit candles and a tapestry.
Jane Eyre Holds Her Own
Charlotte Bronte’s character still has much to teach us about free will.
Karen Swallow Prior

Arts & Letters

'American Mother' book cover with a portrait of a woman integrated in bold text on a light background.
An American Mother Forgives
In American Mother, Diane Foley recounts her journey to forgive her son’s killers.
Sharla Moody
Editors’ Pick
Cover of the novel I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger, showing a sailboat on water near hills and flames.
I Cheerfully Refuse Despair
In Leif Enger’s novel I Cheerfully Refuse, one man fights against despair (and wrongdoers) in a post-apocalyptic world.
Joy Marie Clarkson
Editors’ Pick
Book cover of Fully Alive by Elizabeth Oldfield with abstract green circles and text about tending to the soul.
The Glory of God Is a Human Being Fully Alive
In Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times, Elizabeth Oldfield uses the seven deadly sins to point towards the seven heavenly virtues.
Elizabeth Wainwright
Editors’ Pick
Yellow and brown fern leaves with detailed veins against a blurred natural background.
And Is It Not Enough?
The poet relishes the beauty of autumn, but sees the stripping away that comes with it.
Malcolm Guite
Poetry
Two men with sheet music speaking in an empty concert hall with orchestra sketched behind them.
Arvo Pärt’s Journey
In this excerpt from Between Two Sounds, we see the moment when the Estonian composer begins to run afoul of the Soviet regime.
Joonas Sildre
Reading