Plough Quarterly
@plough.bsky.social
Another life is possible. Plough is an international magazine of stories, ideas, and culture, publishing daily online and quarterly in print.
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“There are two questions on which the abortion debate hinges. First: When do we become a person? Second: When is it permissible to take a person’s life?” —Nafeesa Dawoodbhoy
An Abortionist Changes Her Mind
The birth of my daughter confronted me with the competition between my autonomy and her demand to be loved.
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November 28, 2025 at 2:50 PM
“There are two questions on which the abortion debate hinges. First: When do we become a person? Second: When is it permissible to take a person’s life?” —Nafeesa Dawoodbhoy
“As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for.” —Henri Nouwen
Finding Gratitude
In this excerpt from his book Seeking Peace, Johann Christoph Arnold argues that hardship need not stop us from giving thanks. In fact, he writes, it may even be the best time for an attitude of grate...
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November 27, 2025 at 2:33 PM
“As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for.” —Henri Nouwen
Reposted by Plough Quarterly
“While I love the winter ducks, the season I most eagerly anticipate is spring migration. It starts with a trickle: the robins staking out the lawns, the killdeer in the fields, and red-winged blackbirds around the ponds.” —Caleb Scholtens
Consider the Birds
Birdwatching, George Orwell suggests, makes a peaceful and decent future a little more probable. Calvin and Hobbes would agree.
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November 26, 2025 at 1:07 PM
“While I love the winter ducks, the season I most eagerly anticipate is spring migration. It starts with a trickle: the robins staking out the lawns, the killdeer in the fields, and red-winged blackbirds around the ponds.” —Caleb Scholtens
“The thing that I’ve come to realize about marriage is that just like with the gospel, it’s love that changes you. You can’t get there by your efforts. You can’t get there by talking yourself into it. But actually, the thing that changes us as human beings is encountering love.” —Sarah Killam Crosby
When You Believe in a Living God
What happens to your life, church, and marriage when you actually believe in the Holy Spirit?
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November 25, 2025 at 4:08 PM
“The thing that I’ve come to realize about marriage is that just like with the gospel, it’s love that changes you. You can’t get there by your efforts. You can’t get there by talking yourself into it. But actually, the thing that changes us as human beings is encountering love.” —Sarah Killam Crosby
Reposted by Plough Quarterly
Probably my favorite @plough.bsky.social opening sentence this year:
"It’s 1980 Berlin, the Berlinest of years."
I wish the two angels traveling around Berlin could check in on Jackson Lamb and Smiley's people.
www.plough.com/en/topics/fa...
"It’s 1980 Berlin, the Berlinest of years."
I wish the two angels traveling around Berlin could check in on Jackson Lamb and Smiley's people.
www.plough.com/en/topics/fa...
The Angel Who Wanted a Hamburger
Karl Rahner helps us take angels seriously, even if they are admittedly hard to pin down.
www.plough.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:11 AM
Probably my favorite @plough.bsky.social opening sentence this year:
"It’s 1980 Berlin, the Berlinest of years."
I wish the two angels traveling around Berlin could check in on Jackson Lamb and Smiley's people.
www.plough.com/en/topics/fa...
"It’s 1980 Berlin, the Berlinest of years."
I wish the two angels traveling around Berlin could check in on Jackson Lamb and Smiley's people.
www.plough.com/en/topics/fa...
“During the many hours I spent with Sally, I struggled with what I thought was a strong inner resistance to her. Now I realize that the resistance was to Christ, who was knocking insistently on the door of my heart.” —Patricia Barber
The Love I Could Not Give
Caring for an elderly neighbor with a prickly personality taught me some hard truths.
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November 24, 2025 at 2:19 PM
“During the many hours I spent with Sally, I struggled with what I thought was a strong inner resistance to her. Now I realize that the resistance was to Christ, who was knocking insistently on the door of my heart.” —Patricia Barber
“Instead of considering whatever crisis is hanging in the air as a problem that needs to be solved, like a puzzle on a coffee table between you, we ought instead to be with the suffering more in the manner of gazing at a complex painting together.” —Zac Koons
Sit There and Shut Up
Zac Koons on the best way to support a suffering friend.
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November 21, 2025 at 8:22 PM
“Instead of considering whatever crisis is hanging in the air as a problem that needs to be solved, like a puzzle on a coffee table between you, we ought instead to be with the suffering more in the manner of gazing at a complex painting together.” —Zac Koons
“An extraordinary, unique, informative and fascinating read from start to finish. It is an especially and unreservedly recommended pick for personal reading lists, as well as community and university library collections.” —Midwest Review of Books
www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/nov_25.h...
www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/nov_25.h...
November 21, 2025 at 7:29 PM
“An extraordinary, unique, informative and fascinating read from start to finish. It is an especially and unreservedly recommended pick for personal reading lists, as well as community and university library collections.” —Midwest Review of Books
www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/nov_25.h...
www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/nov_25.h...
Reposted by Plough Quarterly
We read this book in Theology classes. It's fairly short, but very impactful.
“Dorothy Day was one of a kind. Not a self proclaimed theologian but some of her insights on faith and love and suffering left me with a deep yearning to know the Lord as well as she did. Will have to read again.” —Jose Ovalle
The Reckless Way of Love: Notes on Following Jesus (Plo…
In this guidebook Dorothy Day offers hard-earned wisdom…
www.goodreads.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:30 AM
We read this book in Theology classes. It's fairly short, but very impactful.
“If any proof were needed of the enduring power of Christianity, the fact that these ancient texts speak so directly to our situation almost two thousand years later would more than suffice.” —Justo L. Gonzalez
Free download of *The Early Christians* by Eberhard Arnold here:
Free download of *The Early Christians* by Eberhard Arnold here:
The Early Christians: In Their Own Words
Includes excerpts from Origen, Tertullian, Polycarp, Clement of Alexandria, Justin, Irenaeus, and others — and equally revealing material from their critics, detractors and persecutors.
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November 20, 2025 at 4:49 PM
“If any proof were needed of the enduring power of Christianity, the fact that these ancient texts speak so directly to our situation almost two thousand years later would more than suffice.” —Justo L. Gonzalez
Free download of *The Early Christians* by Eberhard Arnold here:
Free download of *The Early Christians* by Eberhard Arnold here:
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Stories, ideas, and culture to inspire everyday faith and action
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November 20, 2025 at 3:46 PM
“Jesus calls, urging a divided humankind to sit together at one table, God’s table, where there is room for all. He invites all people to a meal of fellowship and fetches his guests from the roadsides and skid rows.” —Eberhard Arnold
The Spirit of Early Christianity
The catastrophe of the final battle must be provoked, for Satan with all his demonic powers can be driven out in no other way. Jesus’ death on the cross is the decisive act
www.plough.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:58 PM
“Jesus calls, urging a divided humankind to sit together at one table, God’s table, where there is room for all. He invites all people to a meal of fellowship and fetches his guests from the roadsides and skid rows.” —Eberhard Arnold
Reposted by Plough Quarterly
Als men in de Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) grijpt naar RK-theoloog #HenrideLubac om de alarmbel te luiden over #WhiteChristianNationalism, is er niet alleen iets aan de hand, maar is er ook hoop (schitterend geïllustreerd met Piet Mondriaan): www.plough.com/en/topics/ju...
The Politics of Pagan Christianity
Today’s nationalist Christians should heed the message of the anti-Nazi theologian Henri de Lubac.
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November 18, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Als men in de Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) grijpt naar RK-theoloog #HenrideLubac om de alarmbel te luiden over #WhiteChristianNationalism, is er niet alleen iets aan de hand, maar is er ook hoop (schitterend geïllustreerd met Piet Mondriaan): www.plough.com/en/topics/ju...
New PloughRead from Mary Townsend: “Your Friends Are Not in Your Phone”
📻 Listen here : open.spotify.com/episode/1v04...
📻 Listen here : open.spotify.com/episode/1v04...
Your Friends Are Not in Your Phone by Mary Townsend
open.spotify.com
November 19, 2025 at 4:24 PM
New PloughRead from Mary Townsend: “Your Friends Are Not in Your Phone”
📻 Listen here : open.spotify.com/episode/1v04...
📻 Listen here : open.spotify.com/episode/1v04...
“We should know our enemy. But that means knowing who our enemy really is, and who is a friend in disguise, and the only way to know which is which is to read nearly everyone with sympathy.” —David Mills
Read Your Enemies
Know your enemy is always good advice, but knowing your enemy may include knowing in what ways they’re not enemies but allies.
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November 19, 2025 at 3:39 PM
“We should know our enemy. But that means knowing who our enemy really is, and who is a friend in disguise, and the only way to know which is which is to read nearly everyone with sympathy.” —David Mills
“For a book that sets you in the strong, clear light of Advent as a season of preparation, even of penitence, this is the best. ... For ‘preparing a way for the Lord’ in my heart in this season, this book has long been a brave and resourceful companion.” —Sarah Clarkson
Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas
Selections from the world’s greatest spiritual writers provide inspiration for the most widely celebrated holiday of the year.
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November 19, 2025 at 2:54 PM
“For a book that sets you in the strong, clear light of Advent as a season of preparation, even of penitence, this is the best. ... For ‘preparing a way for the Lord’ in my heart in this season, this book has long been a brave and resourceful companion.” —Sarah Clarkson
Reposted by Plough Quarterly
For @plough.bsky.social, I have written a little essay on beauty in music -- and unbeauty, too (though such things are in the eye, and the ear, of the beholder, and listener). See what you think. www.plough.com/en/topics/cu...
The Beauty of Dissonance
Music has a variety of jobs to do, as the other arts do. It can calm, soothe, and delight. It can also provoke, disturb, bite.
www.plough.com
November 18, 2025 at 5:08 PM
For @plough.bsky.social, I have written a little essay on beauty in music -- and unbeauty, too (though such things are in the eye, and the ear, of the beholder, and listener). See what you think. www.plough.com/en/topics/cu...
“Dorothy Day was one of a kind. Not a self proclaimed theologian but some of her insights on faith and love and suffering left me with a deep yearning to know the Lord as well as she did. Will have to read again.” —Jose Ovalle
The Reckless Way of Love: Notes on Following Jesus (Plo…
In this guidebook Dorothy Day offers hard-earned wisdom…
www.goodreads.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:26 PM
“Dorothy Day was one of a kind. Not a self proclaimed theologian but some of her insights on faith and love and suffering left me with a deep yearning to know the Lord as well as she did. Will have to read again.” —Jose Ovalle
Reposted by Plough Quarterly
“Music has a variety of ‘jobs,’ as the other arts do. It can calm, soothe, and delight. It can also provoke, disturb, bite. No one expects the other arts to be beautiful and soothing, only. (Think of theater!) But some people have that expectation of music.” —Jay Nordlinger
The Beauty of Dissonance
Music has a variety of jobs to do, as the other arts do. It can calm, soothe, and delight. It can also provoke, disturb, bite.
www.plough.com
November 18, 2025 at 1:53 PM
“Music has a variety of ‘jobs,’ as the other arts do. It can calm, soothe, and delight. It can also provoke, disturb, bite. No one expects the other arts to be beautiful and soothing, only. (Think of theater!) But some people have that expectation of music.” —Jay Nordlinger
“What kind of human being did Christ become when he was made flesh? Not someone, scripture hints, who was valuable by virtue of his physical beauty, credentials, social status, or freedom from dependence and vulnerability.” —Peter Mommsen
Made Perfect
Peter Mommsen asks: whose lives count as fully human? The answer matters for everyone, disabled or not. As the Bible says, my strength is made perfect in weakness.
www.plough.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:05 PM
“What kind of human being did Christ become when he was made flesh? Not someone, scripture hints, who was valuable by virtue of his physical beauty, credentials, social status, or freedom from dependence and vulnerability.” —Peter Mommsen
“The American vision of success is clear: a cavernous, private home with a massive yard. For churches, maybe it’s a sprawling, massive complex built on a big, empty hill. These things aren’t necessarily bad. But Jesus invites us into something better.” —Andrew Berg
Yes in My Spare Room
What would a truly Christian response to America’s housing shortage look like? I have some ideas.
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November 17, 2025 at 2:35 PM
“The American vision of success is clear: a cavernous, private home with a massive yard. For churches, maybe it’s a sprawling, massive complex built on a big, empty hill. These things aren’t necessarily bad. But Jesus invites us into something better.” —Andrew Berg
Reposted by Plough Quarterly
Just discovered this older (but beautiful) essay by @dorimoody.bsky.social :
www.plough.com/en/topics/li...
www.plough.com/en/topics/li...
A Broken but Faithful Marriage
Dori Moody relates the story of her grandparents marriage. Even though they separated, they remained faithful to one another.
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November 15, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Just discovered this older (but beautiful) essay by @dorimoody.bsky.social :
www.plough.com/en/topics/li...
www.plough.com/en/topics/li...
“Where have you read Dover proudly welcomes refugees? And if the media are not reporting what is actually happening, then the pundits do not know what they are talking about, and the interviewers are not asking the right people the right questions...” —Horatio Clare
When Migrants Land in Britain
A journalist heads to Dover to gauge local reactions to an influx of migrant dinghies – and discovers that the headlines get it all wrong.
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November 14, 2025 at 3:01 PM
“Where have you read Dover proudly welcomes refugees? And if the media are not reporting what is actually happening, then the pundits do not know what they are talking about, and the interviewers are not asking the right people the right questions...” —Horatio Clare