Featured

Protester with umbrella and gas mask next to a person in riot gear holding a shield near metal barricades at night.
Behind the Black Umbrellas
A Portlander talks with the black-clad anarchists and Proud Boys battling in his hometown.
Patrick Tomassi
Dispatch
Stylized black and red knight on horseback charging with lance aimed at a dragon breathing fire.
Beyond Pacifism
To be a Christian means serving as a soldier. This is no mere metaphor.
Eberhard Arnold
Essay
Warm-toned painting of a mother tenderly leaning over a baby lying on a textured surface.
The Risk of Gentleness
I was shocked to find I was pregnant during a pandemic. Then I learned how subversive hospitality can be.
Gracy Olmstead
Essay
Close-up detailed painting of a man's face with textured brown and white highlights on a cracked white background.
With Love We Shall Force Our Brothers
Peace is not quiet. The work of creating peace requires confrontation with the forces that undermine it.
Anthony M. Barr
Essay
Two people walking up steps toward large banners with swastika symbols in a stylized black and white image.
We Will Not Be Silent
With an entire nation blindly following an evil leader, where did a handful of students find the courage to resist?
Andrea Grosso Ciponte
Comic
Young girl wearing a blue hijab with a yellow headband resting on her arms at a desk with a pen and notebook.
Call to Prayer, Call to Bread
Eighteen years among Somali Muslims in the Horn of Africa taught an American Christian much about prayer.
Rachel Pieh Jones
Personal History

From the Editor

Brown stylized bird feeding four smaller birds with open beaks against a light green background.
The Case for Meekness
Before 2020, society overwhelmingly agreed: using violence for political ends ought to be out of bounds.
Peter Mommsen
From the Editor

Insights

Impressionist painting of a vibrant sunset with radiant sun, colorful clouds, and silhouetted trees on hills.
Militant Peacemaking
Pacifism is unrealistic – unless it’s conformed to Christ.
Stanley Hauerwas
Reading
Close-up of a man's serious face with short hair against a teal blurred background.
Did You Kill Anyone?
I was ready for that question, the biggest and most intimidating. It would hang as an ominous backdrop to nearly every conversation about my time in Iraq.
Scott Beauchamp
Reading
Collage of vintage newspaper clippings about German Brotherhood protests and refusal to fight.
A Life That Answers War
A Bruderhof member, my grandfather is an ardent conscientious objector to military service. But resistance to war has shaped his entire life.
Scott Button
Essay
Rubble-strewn vacant lot with graffiti-covered walls and red dashed lines encircling areas on the ground.
The Great Escape
For those trapped in the violence of poverty, rap tells heroic tales of breaking free.
Zito Madu
Essay
Backlit silhouette of a person standing in a dimly lit industrial or gym space with light rays behind.
The Minimalist
The boxer to beat calls for help.
Springs Toledo
Personal History

Web Exclusives

Man with glasses and beige shirt standing with arms crossed in front of a building with a cross.
Forgiving Judas
The patient work of reconciliation.
Denise Uwimana
Colorful vector-style portrait of an elderly man with glasses, gray hair, and a beard on teal background.
Suffering with God
The prophetic legacy of Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Susannah Heschel
Abstract illustration of five elongated figures holding signs with a stylized white 'TJ' on brown background.
Is Human Life Always Sacred?
What Peter Singer got right that C. S. Lewis and John Paul II got wrong
Charles E. Moore
Essay

Arts & Letters

Close-up of cracked ice covering soil and fallen dry leaves in natural outdoor setting.
Poem: “March Thaw”
Overhead, skeins of geese ya-honk as they pass. / The dwindling snow crust, an eggshell of glass,
Catherine Tufariello
Poem
Girl wearing a mask and colorful striped pants walks by wall with a tree shadow and her shadow.
Poem: “Candid”
Someone she loved, and who loved her, held the camera / And pointed it suddenly, teasing. The focus is blurred.
Catherine Tufariello
Poem
Close-up of a weathered angel statue's head and wings against a sunset sky.
Poem: “Annuals”
When we go limp and brown, for mercy’s sake / leave us alone; don’t mangle our last shoots / to press in any book; we have no stake / in memory.
Rhina P. Espaillat
Poem
Window with sheer white floral curtains beside partially visible dark patterned curtain.
Poem: “The Widow Offers Herself to Life”
Make me your herald, Life: send me ahead / to hail you, as the earliest light is doing / for each day, and the scent of coffee brewing.
Rhina P. Espaillat
Poem
Abstract close-up of a woman's face with eyes closed, textured with black and orange brush strokes.
Poem: “Mary Magdalen Responds to the Harsh Judge”
Be honest, please: I long to know / why judging others makes you glad: / does my uncleanness make you sad, / or lift you high as I am low?
Rhina P. Espaillat
Poem
Raindrops on a car side mirror reflecting blurry light during a dark rainy scene.
Poem: “In Retrospect”
What did he need to prove, / to no one but himself? What made him so / harsh with himself when others found him better— no, best—at everything? We’ll never know.
Rhina P. Espaillat
Poem
Young girl in a white checkered dress looking back while standing on a sunlit concrete path.
Poem: “A Backward Look”
Some of us turned out much like Mama, though / a silent “No!” / crept into every dialogue, and kept / some secrets swept / into dark corners.
Rhina P. Espaillat
Poem
Pink and white roses with green leaves and thorns on stems against a light background.
Poem: “Where Nectar Was”
Thinking of you, all day I rediscover / myself still here, wondering where you went.
Rhina P. Espaillat
Poem
Close-up of an elderly woman resting her face on her hand, smiling gently.
Poetry You Can Touch
Plough’s poetry editor speaks with poet Rhina P. Espaillat, who recently turned eighty-nine.
A. M. Juster
Rhina P. Espaillat
Interview
Book cover for 'Charis in the World of Wonder' by Marly Youmans with colorful text and illustrations.
Editors’ Picks: Charis in the World of Wonders
Joy Clarkson reviews Marly Youmans’s Charis in the World of Wonders: A Novel.
Joy Marie Clarkson
Review
Book cover of The Reindeer Chronicles by Judith D. Schwartz with snowy landscape and reindeer herd.
Editors’ Picks: The Reindeer Chronicles
David R. Montgomery reviews Judith D. Schwartz’s The Reindeer Chronicles And Other Inspiring Stories of Working with Nature to Heal the Earth.
Review
Book cover titled I Ain't Marching Anymore by Chris Lombardi with a military helmet hanging in the center.
Editors’ Picks: I Ain’t Marching Anymore
Bill Galvin reviews Chris Lombardi’s I Ain’t Marching Anymore: Dissenters, Deserters, and Objectors to America’s Wars.
Review
Book cover for Floaters by Martín Espada showing a black-and-white photo of three people on a porch.
Editors’ Picks: “Floaters”
Sheryl Luna reviews Martín Espada’s Floaters: Poems.
Review