Comment Magazine

06/20/2026

“The gaining of self-knowledge through studying the past and the schooling of our imagination through literature, poetry, and the arts must reflect God’s own love for humanity. Education must be subservient to the common good of society.”

The roots of Christian humanism begin in the incarnation, and the tradition extends through history to today.

06/20/2026

“It was a season of dark depression that first rattled my youthful confidence in philosophy. It descended on me in my early forties, and I have never been so tormented by perplexity. I was a stranger to myself.”

James K.A. Smith built his life on philosophical certainty until depression, poetry, and a battered copy of "Dark Night of the Soul" taught him the liberation of unknowing.

06/18/2026

“In a world obsessed with fixing, sorting, and ranking the human, Equiano insists on something more demanding: a humanity that cannot be possessed, only lived and discovered together.”

A formerly enslaved African stood at the heart of an empire and redefined what it means to be human. Luke Bretherton on the enduring witness of Olaudah Equiano - Christian humanism personified.

06/18/2026

“We recognize Christian humanism whenever Christian existence is defined by the incarnation and lived out of one’s union with Christ, in whom all of reality finds its unifying centre.”

Jens Zimmerman with a brief history of Christian humanism.

The roots of Christian humanism begin in the incarnation, and the tradition extends through history to today.

06/18/2026

“Each universalizing discourse harbours a contradiction: In naming “humanity,” it almost always smuggles in a local portrait of the human, one that includes some and excludes others.”

Luke Bretherton on the witness of Olaudah Equiano.

A formerly enslaved African stood at the heart of an empire and redefined what it means to be human. Luke Bretherton on the enduring witness of Olaudah Equiano - Christian humanism personified.

06/11/2026

“I confess I often experience God’s absence, but in those moments, I can look around and see his presence in the way humans are made.”

What do you believe when you stop believing in atheism? David Brooks reviews Christopher Beha's intellectual odyssey from Catholic faith to unbelief and back again.

06/11/2026

“Each year our technology extends our knowledge farther and farther into the galaxy while our daily lives are lived increasingly under the oppression of a dark sun, our lives shadowed by alienation and distrust.”

James K.A. Smith built his life on philosophical certainty until depression, poetry, and a battered copy of "Dark Night of the Soul" taught him the liberation of unknowing.

06/11/2026

“If materialists are the party of the head and the Romantics are the party of the heart, the religious worldview celebrates both those parts of our nature but also acknowledges the yearnings of the soul.”

David Brooks on Christopher Beha’s journey out of atheism.

What do you believe when you stop believing in atheism? David Brooks reviews Christopher Beha's intellectual odyssey from Catholic faith to unbelief and back again.

06/11/2026

“As a young Christian philosopher, I wanted to be the confident, heresy-hunting Augustine, vanquishing the pagans with brilliance, fending off the Manicheans and Pelagians with iron-clad arguments. As a middle-aged man, I dream of being Mr. Rogers.”

James K.A. Smith on the liberation of unknowing.

James K.A. Smith built his life on philosophical certainty until depression, poetry, and a battered copy of "Dark Night of the Soul" taught him the liberation of unknowing.

06/09/2026

Evangelicals, historically, have largely supported the state of Israel. But is support waning?