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Friendship and its Paradoxes

Friendship is a fulfillment of our nature: the recognition that loving another for their own sake is, paradoxically, itself essential to our own flourishing.

Seamus Heaney, Oakland Ballers, and Frugality

"In fact, MacIntyre’s work is extreme, but we live in extreme times."

The Crisis of the Self in an Age of Solutions

We live under the impression that we can do for the human community and the individual human soul what physicists have done with the atom.

Erich Maria Remarque’s Grief

He decides to write about his experience. Two earlier novels were dismal affairs. But now in 1927, over the course of a few months, he fills each page with pain…

Helping Narcissists Regain Solid Ground

For most people, that’s where their focus on their image ends—they’ve made themselves presentable. But for some, that morning routine was only the beginning.

How One Group Is Disrupting Isolation With Reading

Impressed by this unusual way of cultivating community in a city—NYC, that is—known for its “alone together” anonymity, I decided to reach out

The Waters of Mirabah

In quiet Ottawa County, Michigan, a water crisis is not merely brewing—it is already here.

MacIntyre, Classical Music, and Diapers

“Remembering Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025).” Christopher Kaczor remembers the life and legacy of his teacher: “I have never met, nor do I ever expect to meet, a philosopher as fascinating as…

Leaving the Keys in the Truck: Trust, Tension, and the Rural Bargain

Trust in rural places isn’t built on virtue; it’s built on visibility. It’s knowing you’ll see the person again.

The Family Barber

A person cannot multitask while performing it; instead, all else disappears, and only the person for whom one is caring in this physical way remains the focus for several minutes

Heroic Romanticism

It's entirely possible that many will give up human relationships, turning instead to the safety and predictability of technology, like an AI companion

Keeping A Culture: A Review of Thoroughness and Charm

Classroom culture may develop accidentally, but the truth is that a neutral classroom does not exist. Although her apologia is intended for classical Christian educators, Gerth speaks to all teachers

1.5 Speed to Nowhere

Over the decades, I suppose I learned a lot from podcasts; plenty of facts and all the “sides” to stories. Very little of those things seem to matter to me…
May 6, 2025

On Being Indifferent

The politics of Jesus are “brutally modest.” “Jesus’ life seems to have been mostly one of local, familial labor and relations, carried out in the compass of a small town…
May 3, 2025

Minding Laurie Johnson’s Gap

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] President Trump has been in office a month as of today, and the maelstrom of orders and actions which he has taken has elicited delight,…

The Writing on the Wall

The writing may still be on the wall, but a different story is being written in our block.
December 18, 2024

2025 Front Porch Republic Student Essay Contest

We're announcing a student essay contest! If you're a student, consider submitting an essay, and if you know any students, encourage them to apply. Students are invited to respond either…
Jeffrey Bilbro
October 18, 2024

The Census Taker In a Church Pew, Part 5

Her heart is for those little ones, that they might come to know The One who became a child for our salvation and for the glory of God.

A Son’s Journey to His Father

Men often reflect on their relationship with their fathers during these coincidences of milestones; a similar thing often happens when a son reaches the age his father was when the…

Lincoln’s Grief  

The healthy sorrow of our most melancholy president

98.6 Percent of Us Sense our Dead

We’re not crazy — and we’re not alone
June 3, 2024

Localism and Justice: A Review of The Story of Clyde Kennard

Kennard himself, though worrying about his legacy during his last illness, seemed remarkably free of bitterness. Concerning a prison guard who had abused him, he thought that the abuse had…

The Excellence (and Implications) of Escaping the Housing Trap

All of this only touches the surface of Escaping the Housing Trap’s arguments and only begins the many productive discussions that should—and hopefully will!—follow in its wake. Buy and read…

What’s In Your Garage?

No home but the Garden was there originally for man, once upon a very long time ago. No garage either was part of life before expulsion from Eden.