Mere Orthodoxy

Buildings That Preach: The 2025 World Building of the Year and the Crisis of Beauty

Phil Cotnoir — Mon, 04 May 2026 11:00:00 GMT

At the recent World Architecture Festival—an annual international gathering of leading figures where prestigious prizes are awarded—the biggest prize of all was awarded to a church. As the news article on Archinect.com put it, “World Building of the Year 2025 awarded to minimalist concrete church by Fernando Menis." We learn the basic facts from the opening paragraph:

Rebelling Against Nostalgia and Self-Deception

Brian Pell — Mon, 04 May 2026 11:00:00 GMT

Is there anything to rebel against in your thirties? That’s a question any millennial lover-of-punk-rock or any formerly angsty teenager will occasionally find themselves asking, and it’s the question I found myself asking as Joyce Manor released their latest album.

1 Corinthians 13:1, 6

E. J. Hutchinson — Fri, 01 May 2026 11:00:01 GMT

If I speak with men's and angels' tongues,
But have not love, I'm only noise—
Clashing cymbal, clanging gong,
Unmeaning Babel, demon's tongue.
Though hot the breath that fills the lungs,
If, cold to truth, I won't rejoice,
My voice of bronze, my thousand tongues
That have not love are only noise.

A Farewell to Cinema from a Christian Who Loves It

Andrew Barber — Fri, 01 May 2026 11:00:01 GMT

“Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever… Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.” ~The Great Gatsby

The Church, the Medical Profession, and Applied Ethics

Michael Porter — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:00:00 GMT

For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men: the solution is a technique; and both, in the practice of this technique, are ready to do things hitherto regarded as disgusting and impious…

A Prayer for the Teaching of Mathematics

James Drimalla — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:00:00 GMT

In his book Reading Augustine: On Education, Formation, Citizenship, and the Lost Purpose of Learning, Joseph Clair proposes that education be reset within the liberal arts tradition with four overarching aims, each with a related question:

Complementarianism and the Dignity of Women

Nadya Williams — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:00:00 GMT

Of the making of books trying to argue for or against women's ordination there is no end.

We Need a Warrior: Reflections on Revelation and Wake Up Dead Man

dking@lewishouse.org (Derek King) — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:00:00 GMT

At the premiere of the new Knives Out thriller Wake Up Dead Man [Spoilers ahead], Director Rian Johnson introduced the viewing by saying, “We’re going back to church.”

The Myth of the American West

estice@gmail.com (Elizabeth Stice) — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:00:00 GMT

Megan Kate Nelson. The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier. Scribner, 2026. $31.00. 464 pp.

The Emptiness of Atheism for a Romantic Idealist

Daniel K. Williams — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:00:00 GMT

Christopher Beha. Why I Am Not an Atheist: The Confessions of a Skeptical Believer. Penguin Press, 2026. $30.00. 432 pp.