Featured

Serving Kings
Never look down on a human being unless you’re trying to pick them up.
Interview
Up Hill
Through their art and stories, the residents of one Medellín neighborhood have transformed the pain of their history into a sense of place.
Adriano Cirino
Report
Save Your Sympathy
John Thornton reviews This City Is Killing Me by Jonathan Foiles.
John Thornton Jr.
Reviews
City of Bones, City of Graces
The city stinks. This city, that city, every city everywhere.
Joseph Bottum
Essay
Small Acts of Grace
Laying the first beams of the scaffolding that will support a rebirth of community-based Christian witness in Pittsburgh.
Brandon McGinley
Essay
City of Clubs
These were clubs, places where public persons secreted away and made themselves private.
Clare Coffey
Essay

From the Editor

In Search of a City: Issue 23
Why should a magazine named after a farm tool bring out an issue on cities?
Peter Mommsen
From the Editor

Insights

Digging Deeper: Issue 23
A reading list of books about cities.
Susannah Black Roberts
Digging Deeper
In the Valley of Lemons
The people who live here are “as tough as lemons.”
Jose Corpas
Doers
Beneath the Tree of Life
The City of the Age to Come
N T Wright
Reading
Not Just Personal
The conscience must be directed toward the kingdom of God.
Eberhard Arnold
Reading
Sidewalk Ballet
Under the seeming disorder of the old city is a marvelous order.
Reading
The Eternal People
Is the eternal city full of gilded towers?
Philip Britts
Reading
The Pilgrim City
Love of God made the heavenly city.
Augustine of Hippo
Reading

Web Exclusives

Another Hundred People
The city challenges us to contend with our comparative smallness.
Tara Isabella Burton
Cities for Children
Cities are ready-made education far from the classroom.
The Accidental Urbanist
An interview with singer-songwriter Dar Williams.
Dar Williams
Leaving the Church Doors Open
Love is not meant only for the easily loved.
Terence Sweeney

Arts & Letters

Urban Series (Neighborhood)
His artwork is inspired by how ordinary people “respond to social, political, and economic forces in their daily living.”
Another View
Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays”
What did I know, what did I know / of love’s austere and lonely offices?
Julian Peters
Comic
From “In the Holy Nativity of Our Lord”
The Babe looked up and showed his face, / In spite of darkness, it was day.
Poetry
The Last Christians in the News
News commentary and media coverage of Plough’s book, The Last Christians by Andreas Knapp.
Covering the Cover: In Search of a City
This issue’s cover needed a city on it, but it also needed people.
Rosalind Stevenson
Covering the Cover
Readers Respond: Issue 23
Letters to the editor: readers respond to our fall issue.
Forum