Comment Magazine

Comment Magazine Public theology for the common good. It’s our families and financial systems, politics and education, museums and labour unions, and much more.

Comment is one of the core publications of Cardus, a think tank devoted to renewing North American social architecture, rooted in 2000 years of Christian social thought. In our print and online essays and reviews we zoom in on the multiple components that make up this “social architecture”: the institutions that serve as the scaffolding and skeleton of social life. We’ve been doing this since 1983

. Thanks to our donors and patrons over the decades, Comment has spoken public theology from the time of the Cold War to today.

“What the traumatic events of late antique Byzantium remind us of is how exceptionally vicious the debate can be when pe...
08/08/2025

“What the traumatic events of late antique Byzantium remind us of is how exceptionally vicious the debate can be when people find themselves at a moment of intense historical anxiety, doubt, and fear.”

Do empire debates reveal more about us than history?

Modern debates about empire and colonialism are not so different from those that took place thirteen hundred years ago.

“What is the purpose of a Jewish state? What kind of state should it be? And how do we achieve it? Two central Zionist p...
08/08/2025

“What is the purpose of a Jewish state? What kind of state should it be? And how do we achieve it? Two central Zionist personalities answered these questions in markedly different ways.”

Rabbi Philip Graubart on the dream of a people, the dispute of a nation.

Theodor Herzl and Rav Kook never met, but their visions for Jewish destiny still duel across Israel’s politics. Between liberal democracy and sacred land lies an unresolved argument—and the high cost of refusing to choose.

“While a chimpanzee typing at random with an infinite amount of time may happen to produce the complete works of Shakesp...
08/08/2025

“While a chimpanzee typing at random with an infinite amount of time may happen to produce the complete works of Shakespeare, no one is tempted to use a chimpanzee as a means of generating an email to a friend.”

James Cornwell on how AI’s imitative nature risks hollowing out communication and truth.

Behaviourism is a discredited account of human language use, but AI and LLMs threaten to reduce our interactions to its principles.

“Reality is good, and making contact with reality is worth the cost of its pursuit.”Joshua Heavin on resisting AI’s pull...
08/08/2025

“Reality is good, and making contact with reality is worth the cost of its pursuit.”

Joshua Heavin on resisting AI’s pull toward disembodied life.

A holistic, Christian response to AI might look not like an argument but a like a way of life.

“It’s hard to see how any society can balance two political dreams of such radical difference.”Rabbi Philip Graubart on ...
08/07/2025

“It’s hard to see how any society can balance two political dreams of such radical difference.”

Rabbi Philip Graubart on Israel’s deeply diverging visions of Zionism.

Theodor Herzl and Rav Kook never met, but their visions for Jewish destiny still duel across Israel’s politics. Between liberal democracy and sacred land lies an unresolved argument—and the high cost of refusing to choose.

“The empire wars are about the future direction of the country, and they have acquired their virulence because they are ...
08/07/2025

“The empire wars are about the future direction of the country, and they have acquired their virulence because they are taking place at a moment of geopolitical uncertainty and anxiety, when history seems to be changing its tracks.”

Modern debates about empire and colonialism are not so different from those that took place thirteen hundred years ago.

“Rav Kook was a genius, a masterful mystic, an inspiring poet, a unique and beautiful writer and thinker. But he took no...
08/07/2025

“Rav Kook was a genius, a masterful mystic, an inspiring poet, a unique and beautiful writer and thinker. But he took no consideration of non-Jews living in biblical Israel, nor of non-Jews in general, and statecraft can’t survive on mythopoetic aspirations, no matter how beautiful.”

Rabbi Philip Graubart on conflicting visions of Zionism.

Theodor Herzl and Rav Kook never met, but their visions for Jewish destiny still duel across Israel’s politics. Between liberal democracy and sacred land lies an unresolved argument—and the high cost of refusing to choose.

“The wars over history, empire, and colonialism that have flared up so viciously of late are about the future as much as...
08/07/2025

“The wars over history, empire, and colonialism that have flared up so viciously of late are about the future as much as the past.”

Nick Spencer on what we argue about when we argue about colonialism.

Modern debates about empire and colonialism are not so different from those that took place thirteen hundred years ago.

“Human folly is primarily composed of efforts by created reflections to sunder ourselves from That which we reflect.”
08/05/2025

“Human folly is primarily composed of efforts by created reflections to sunder ourselves from That which we reflect.”

When in the Boundary Waters, a wilderness that spans the US–Canadian border, it's difficult to know when you've crossed from one country into the other. Which is a lot like prayer.

“At what point should one dissent, and how, and with whom? How does one form a conscience capable of choosing rightly wh...
08/05/2025

“At what point should one dissent, and how, and with whom? How does one form a conscience capable of choosing rightly when dark forces are on the rise? Can dissent do more than resist—can it bear the seeds of something new?”

In the swirl of today's conflicting moral urgencies, what does resistance look like?

“We can bring the moral will to help shape the decisions we have to make as societies, individuals, households, churches...
08/05/2025

“We can bring the moral will to help shape the decisions we have to make as societies, individuals, households, churches, and every scale in between.”

Mark Labberton talks with conservationist and environmental advocate Ben Lowe.

Conservationist and environmental advocate Ben Lowe discusses our ecological crisis, the role of Christian faith and spirituality, and how churches can respond with hope, action, and theological depth. He joins Mark Labberton for a grounded conversation on the intersection of faith, climate change,....

“To know ourselves rightly, we must know what we are not, and part of that is recognizing which of our desires and calli...
08/03/2025

“To know ourselves rightly, we must know what we are not, and part of that is recognizing which of our desires and callings are external to our true identity before God.”

A reflection on the ways Ignatian wisdom can help us to discern the voice of God in our place and time.

Address

Hamilton, ON

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Comment Magazine posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Comment Magazine:

Shortcuts

Share

Category