Featured

Cubist still life painting with open books and a bowl of fruit on a table with a rust 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 jackets and hats, with serious expressions in muted earth tones.
The Workers and the Church
What happened to the Christian tradition of supporting workers’ rights?
Sohrab Ahmari
Essay
Softly lit grayscale close-up of a person's face in profile with a contemplative expression.
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 small group of geometric figures in dark and muted earth tones under light beige background.
Encounters at the Southern Border
Who are the migrants seeking asylum in the United States?
Robert Donnelly
Dispatch
Woman holding a young child in a rundown urban area with dirt ground and buildings in the background.
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 yellow lights reflected in still water along the corridor.
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 on an empty street carrying two briefcases.
Paraguayans Don’t Read
In a dictatorship, literature nurtures freedom. In a democracy, does it matter?
Santiago Ramos
Essay
Painting of a rural landscape with reddish fields, a white church with a steeple, and trees under a cloudy sky.
The Bible’s Story of Freedom
Scripture tells an unfinished history of liberation.
Heinrich Arnold
Bible Reflection
Two people crossing a street at a crosswalk casting long shadows in low sunlight.
The Autonomy Trap
Is commitment just for suckers? A conversion story.
James R. Wood
Personal History
People wearing face masks standing with suitcases and backpacks in an airport terminal.
An Exodus From China
A persecuted house church chooses to flee together as a community.
Pan Yongguang
Interview
Abstract seascape painting with blocks of blue water, sky, and hints of orange rocky formations.
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 roses in a glass vase with sunlight casting shadows on a yellow surface.
Taking Lifelong Vows
Poverty, chastity, and obedience bring a different kind of freedom.
Dori Moody
Essay

Web Exclusives

White church steeple with cross overlaid by firework bursts and American flag stripes.
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 and Route 99 roads stretch straight towards a sunset with Roy's Motel and Cafe sign on left.
The Open Road
I went on a roadtrip down Route 66 looking for freedom.
Christina Cannon
Dispatch
Abstract painting with dark background, blue circular shape, and red brush strokes across central figures.
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
Abstract painting of a man with a green face playing violin in a snowy village with houses and trees.
We Are All Fiddlers on the Roof
Sixty years on, what can a classic musical teach us about tradition?
Joy Marie Clarkson
Illustration of black birds flying over abstract background with blue and gray shapes.
Bad Faith or Perfect Freedom
Sartre and Augustine reflect on what it takes to be free.
King-Ho Leung
Essay
Young woman in period dress peeking around a door, with lit candles and tapestry in the background.
Jane Eyre Holds Her Own
Charlotte Bronte’s character still has much to teach us about free will.
Karen Swallow Prior

Arts & Letters

Book cover for American Mother by Colum McCann with Diane Foley featuring a man's face in block letters.
An American Mother Forgives
In American Mother, Diane Foley recounts her journey to forgive her son’s killers.
Sharla Moody
Editors’ Pick
Book cover for 'I Cheerfully Refuse' by Leif Enger showing a sailboat on a river with hills and a fire.
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 for Fully Alive by Elizabeth Oldfield with rings and subtitle Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times.
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
Close-up of yellow and brown fern leaves in a shaded forest setting.
And Is It Not Enough?
The poet relishes the beauty of autumn, but sees the stripping away that comes with it.
Malcolm Guite
Poem
Two men talk in an empty theater with a sketched orchestra on stage; one asks about practicing once more.
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