Featured

Colorful abstract painting of a sleeping baby cradled in large hands on a white background.
Let the Body Testify
When society pressures women to alter their bodies to meet others’ expectations, who pays the price?
Leah Libresco Sargeant
Essay
Close-up of green leaves on a branch with sunlight filtering through in the background.
The Abyss of Beauty
Why do we shy from paying attention to nature’s beauty?
Ian Marcus Corbin
Essay
Abstract painting of a calm face surrounded by ghostly, winged figures in blue and purple hues.
Ernest Becker and Our Fear of Death
One by one, Becker shoots down various ways humans alleviate their dilemma as too paltry, too cowardly, too self-destructive.
Kelsey Osgood
Essay
Dense dark forest with scattered colorful light spots and a bright opening in the background.
Into the Sussex Weald
In my corner of England, the labors of people long dead live on in the landscape.
Adam Nicolson
Essay
Boats floating on calm water with a city skyline of tall buildings and cloudy sky in the background.
More Fish Than Sauce
Beneath Panama City’s gleaming skyscrapers, traditional fishermen still venture out to sea for a hard-won catch.
Iván Bernal Marín
Dispatch

From the Editor

Medieval-style illustration of an orange pig above a blue boar with decorative plants on a gold background.
The Book of the Creatures
In which Plough’s editor quotes Monty Python and Maximus the Confessor,
Peter Mommsen
From the Editor

Insights

Abandoned wooden house in a grassy field beside curving railroad tracks and distant hills under a cloudy sky.
Return to Idaho
When I went back to Idaho, I connected with more than just the land.
Gracy Olmstead
Personal History
Abstract portrait of a person's side profile with textured, brushstroke-like patterns and muted colors.
The Lords of Nature
New medical ­technologies promise to let us mold our bodies at will. Should we use them?
Edmund Waldstein
Essay
Close-up of a serious man with slight facial stubble and a shaved head against a blurred blue background.
Midwestern Logistical Small Talk
If only a returned soldier’s relation to society didn’t need to be renegotiated with each conversation.
Phil Klay
Forum
Deep space view showing numerous distant galaxies and stars scattered across a dark background.
Singing God’s Glory with Keith Green
Keith Green’s singing opened my eyes to the truth of God’s creation and our place in it.
Randall Gauger
Reading
Two circular illustrations: one with concentric colored rings, the other with birds in and around a leafless tree by a river.
The Glory of the Creatures
Revisit each of the seven days of creation with Augustine, Francis, Job, Pascal, Mechthild, and others.
Reading
Boy with glasses climbing a mossy forest hill holding a stick in daylight.
Why Children Need Nature
The inventor of kindergarten says we can’t drive children like sheep, nor lead them like soldiers.
Friedrich Froebel
Reading
Man in black coat standing on rocky cliff, gazing at misty mountains and foggy landscape.
Made in the Image of God
What does it mean to be made in the image of God? Humans are called to something higher than being an animal.
J Heinrich Arnold
Reading

Web Exclusives

Red fox standing on a path, looking to the side with green grass in the background.
The Elemental Strangeness of Foxes
In pursuit of London’s wildlife.
Zito Madu
Crowded medieval village scene with people engaging in various market activities and horse riders.
Love in the Marketplace
What’s for sale on online dating sites?
Mary Harrington
Two robed figures standing on a cloud beneath a glowing celestial ring of angelic beings.
Astronomy According to Dante
Plough interviews astronomer Sperello di Serego Alighieri.
A bearded saint with a halo sits holding a lion's paw inside a cave-like setting.
Saints and Beasts
Could the unlikely story about Saint Gerasimos and Jordanes the Lion be true?

Arts & Letters

Painting of a rural landscape with fields, a winding path, scattered trees, and a distant treeline.
Poem: “The Path”
It’s not a path that takes you very far. / It only brings you back to where you are.
Alfred Nicol
Poem
Impressionist painting of trees and a mountain under a pale sky in soft green, yellow, and blue hues.
Poem: “The Berkshires”
An older mountain’s easier to climb. / What once were jagged peaks are rolling hills, / more welcoming this way, if less sublime.
Alfred Nicol
Poem
Common loon with red eyes swimming in dark green water.
The Secret Life of Birds
A globetrotting bird photographer stalks the elusive mulga parrot and other feathered marvels.
Portfolio
Book cover titled 'The Opening of the American Mind' with moon phase shapes on a dark background.
Editors’ Picks: The Opening of the American Mind
Brandon McGinley reviews The Opening of the American Mind: Ten Years of The Point.
Brandon McGinley
Review
Book cover of Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro with a hand and sun illustration on a red background.
Editors’ Picks: Klara and the Sun
Joy Clarkson reviews Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun.
Joy Marie Clarkson
Review
Man in suit bending over looking at the shadow of a large tree on the ground.
Writing in the Sand

You can become complacent in faith – and also in doubt. But God is in the world, just as poetry is in a poem.

Christian Wiman
Essay