Your job is not your vocation. Everyone hungers for work that has meaning and purpose. But what gives work meaning? Vocation, or “calling,” is the answer Protestant Christianity offers: each person is called by God to serve the common good in a particular line of work. Your vocation, evidently, might be almost anything: as a nurse, a wilderness guide, a calligrapher, a missionary, an activist, a venture capitalist, a politician, an executioner… Yet, as Will Willimon writes in this issue, the New Testament knows only one form of vocation: discipleship. And discipleship is far more likely to mean leaving father and mother, houses and land, than it is to mean embracing one’s identity as a fisherman or tax collector. This issue of Plough focuses on people who lived their lives with that sense of vocation. Such a life demands self-sacrifice and a willingness to recognize one’s own supposed strengths as weaknesses, as it did for the Canadian philosopher Jean Vanier. It involves a lifelong commitment to a flesh-and-blood church, as Coptic Archbishop Angaelos describes. It may even require a readiness to give up one’s life, as it did for Annalena Tonelli, an Italian humanitarian who pioneered the treatment of tuberculosis in the Horn of Africa. But as these stories also testify, it brings a gladness deeper than any self-chosen path. Also in this issue: - Scott Beauchamp on mercenaries - Nathan Schneider on cryptocurrencies - Stephanie Saldaña on Syrian refugee art - Peter Biles on loneliness at college - Phil Christman on Bible translation - Michael Brendan Dougherty on fatherhood - Insights on vocation from C. S. Lewis, Thérèse of Lisieux, Mother Teresa, Eberhard Arnold, Dorothy Sayers, Jean Vanier, and Gerard Manley Hopkins - poetry by Devon Balwit and Carl Sandburg - reviews of books by Robert Alter, Edwidge Danticat, Matthew D. Hockenos, Amy Waldman, and Jeremy Courtney - art and photography by Pola Rader, Dean Mitchell, Mark Freear, Timothy Jones, Paweł Filipczak, Mary Pal, Harley Manifold, Sami Lalu Jahola, Marc Chagall, and Russell Bain. Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to put their faith into action. Each issue brings you in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art to help you put Jesus’ message into practice and find common cause with others.

Plough Quarterly No. 22 - Vocation: Why We Work (Plough Quarterly, 22)

Business & Money

Saldaña, Stephanie

Willimon, Will

Rowe, Mike

Schneider, Nathan

Christman, Phil

Jones, Rachel Pieh

Beauchamp, Scott

Constant, Anne-Sophie

Dougherty, Michael Brendan

Peters, Julian

Angaelos

Job Hunting & Careers

Plough Publishing House

Communal music has the power to shape a soul and a society. In many places today, a culture of singing and making music remains robust, despite pressure from the commercial music industry. Or it was until the Covid pandemic hit and we glimpsed what a world without communal music-making could be like. According to Plato, virtuous music is vital for building a virtuous community. Jewish and Christian traditions take this insight even further: good communal music shapes and builds up the people of God. So how can we choose good music and avoid the bad? The sheer ubiquity of music available for consumption - its presence as a near-constant soundtrack to our daily lives - poses a hazard. Digital music on tap is a temptation to chronic distraction of the soul, to a habit of superficiality and non-attention. Fortunately, the remedy is straightforward: spend less time consuming prepackaged tunes and more time making music. This will be doubly rewarding if done with others - singing with one's family, singing in church, playing in a string quartet, starting a regular jam session. If personal media players tend to cut us off from the physical presence of others, sharing in good music together breaks the spell of isolation and disembodiment. It builds friendship and community. On this theme: - Maureen Swinger's amateur choir sings Bach's Saint Matthew Passion. - Stephen Michael Newby says Black spirituals aren't just for Black people.&nbsp; - Mary Townsend finds Dolly Parton magnificent, but would Aristotle?&nbsp; - Phil Christman finds catharsis in the YouTube comments of eighties songs.&nbsp; - Ben Crosby says congregational singing should be unabashedly weird to visitors. - Joseph Julián González draws on ancient Nahua poets in his music. - Christopher Tin explains why he weaves so many historical influences into his music.- Seven musicians talk about making your own music in schools, churches, prisons, backyards, or children's bedrooms: Nathan Schram, Esther Keiderling, Norann Voll, Chaka Watch Ngwenya, Eileen Maendel, Adora Wong, and Brittany Petruzzi. Also in the issue: &nbsp;Exclusive excerpts from forthcoming books by Eugene Vodolazkin and Esther Maria Magnis - Thoughts on music from Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, Hildegard of Bingen, Martin Luther, and Eberhard Arnold - Catholics and Anabaptists unite to commemorate the Radical Reformation - New poems by Jacqueline Saphra - A profile of Argentinian singer Mercedes Sosa. - Reviews of Kate Clifford Larson's Walk with Me, Rowan Williams's Shakeshafte, and Sam Quinones's The Least of Us Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.

Plough Quarterly No. 31 – Why We Make Music

Townsend, Mary

Magnis, Esther Maria

Vodolazkin, Eugene

Swinger, Maureen

Tin, Christopher

Newby, Stephen Michael

González, Joseph Julián

Crosby, Ben

Schram, Nathan

Petruzzi, Brittany

Voll, Norann

In a culture that prizes keeping one's options open, making commitments offers something more valuable.The consumerism and instant gratification of "liquid modernity" feed a general reluctance to make commitments, a refusal to be pinned down for the long term. Consider the decline of three forms of commitment that involve giving up options: marriage, military service, and monastic life.Yet increasing numbers of people question whether unprecedented freedom might be leading to less flourishing, not more. They are dissatisfied with an atomized way of life that offers endless choices of goods, services, and experiences but undermines ties of solidarity and mutuality. They yearn for more heroic virtues, more sacrificial commitments, more comprehensive visions of the individual and common good.It turns out that the American Founders were right: the Creator did endow us with an unalienable right of liberty. But he has endowed us with something else as well, a gift that is equally unalienable: desire for unreserved commitment of all we have and are. Our liberty is given us so that we in turn can freely dedicate ourselves to something greater. Ultimately, to take a leap of commitment, even without knowing where one will land, is the way to a happiness worth everything.On this theme:- Lydia S. Dugdale asks what happened to the Hippocratic Oath in modern medicine.- Caitrin Keiper looks at competing vows in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. - Kelsey Osgood, an Orthodox Jew, asks why lifestyle discipline is admired in sports but not religion.- Wendell Berry says being on the side of love does not allow one to have enemies. - Phil Christman spoofs the New York Times Vows column.- Andreas Knapp tells why he chose poverty.- Norann Voll recounts the places a vow of obedience took her.- Carino Hodder says chastity is for everyone, not just nuns.- Dori Moody revisits her grandparents' broken but faithful marriage.- Randall Gauger, a Bruderhof pastor, finds that lifelong vows make faithfulness possible.- King-Ho Leung looks at vows, oaths, promises, and covenants in the Bible.Also in the issue: - A young Black pastor reads Clarence Jordan today.- Activists discuss the pro-life movement after Roe and Dobbs.- Children learn from King Arthur, Robin Hood, and the occasional cowboy.- Original poetry by Ned Balbo- Reviews of Montgomery and Biklé's What Your Food Ate, Mohsin Hamid's The Last White Man, and Bonnie Kristian's Untrustworthy- A profile of Sadhu Sundar SinghPlough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.

Plough Quarterly No. 33 – The Vows That Bind

Self-Help

CHESTERTON, G.K.

Berry, Wendell

Osgood, Kelsey

Knapp, Andreas

Leung, King-Ho

Thomas, Starlette

Dugdale, Lydia S.

Relationships

Midwest Futures

What does the future hold for the Midwest? A vast stretch of fertile farmland bordering one of the largest concentrations of fresh water in the world, the Midwestern US seems ideally situated for the coming challenges of climate change. But it also sits at the epicenter of a massive economic collapse that many of its citizens are still struggling to overcome. The question of what the Midwest is (and what it will become) is nothing new. As Phil Christman writes in this idiosyncratic new book, ambiguity might be the region's defining characteristic. Taking a cue from Jefferson’s grid, the famous rectangular survey of the Old Northwest Territory that turned everything from Ohio to Wisconsin into square-mile lots, Christman breaks his exploration of Midwestern identity, past and present, into 36 brief, interconnected essays. The result is a sometimes sardonic, often uproarious, and consistently thought-provoking look at a misunderstood place and the people who call it home.

Economics

Belt Publishing

Review\n"A combination of history, memoir, reportage, and lit-crit that taught me a lot about a region I’ve reported on....Check it out." ―James Fallows, The Atlantic\n"As the country stumbles through ever-growing crises, Christman’s book taps into a broader conversation about the future of the country―of how it’s shaped and who is shaping it―and in doing so, offers an extraordinarily insightful, potential path forward for the Midwest."―José Pablo Fernández García, Midstory\n“Phil Christman is mapping new territory. He is surveying the intricacies of the forgotten Midwest, and he is an expert guide, taking the reader, grid-by-grid, through a landscape we must know better.” ―Jon Lauck, Editor-in-Chief, Middle West Review\n“Phil Christman is a beautiful writer with a sharp analytical mind. Both are on display in Midwest Futures, a book about culture, identity, space, and place in the American Midwest. As our public discourse reckons with the categorical descriptions of a diverse, changing population, it is more important than ever to have more precise interpretations of which 'we, the people' are being leveraged and for what ends. Midwest Futures reveals the diversity of the region’s people, opinions, and experiences. Christman’s writing, as always, is readable, engaging, and funny as hell, while also maintaining intellectual rigor. You don’t have to be a Midwesterner to feel connected to this book and its people.” ―Tressie McMillan Cottom, National Book Award Finalist and author of Thick: And Other Essays\n"Equal parts lyrical journalism, historical reckoning, and vision statement, Midwest Futures is slight in size yet sprawling in scope. Writing from the inside out, Christman documents a people accustomed to looking up at wide-screen horizons, then down in modesty at their shuffling feet. Confessing the region’s contradictory nature early and often―”Which is it: middle, or western?” he writes―allows Christman to till and tend the heartland on behalf of a people who often abdicate their right to define themselves. ... Drawing from a reservoir of hope, Christman stakes claim to his corner of a growing New Midwestern canon, alongside the likes of Sarah Smarsh’s Heartland and Hanif Abdurraqib’s poetry as documentary."―Aarik Danielsen, Rain Taxi Review of Books\nA Commonweal notable book of 2020.\n"Midwest Futures is a remarkably rich and clear-eyed meditation on the region. While the Midwest has long been bound up with the myth of national destiny, Christman reminds us that its history was neither fated nor inevitable, but chosen by human actors. What emerges is a place far more protean and variable than the caricatures that so often dominate the popular imagination. In thinking deeply and imaginatively about the region's history―its injustices and inequities, its social experiments and utopian visions―Christman uncovers a multiverse of possible futures, asking us to consider what might have been and what still may be." ―Meghan O'Gieblyn, author of Interior States\n"Christman's text is pointed and often very funny as he ponders a subject that has been hiding in plain sight. ... Though much of the tone is dark and acerbic, the author finds glimmers of hope in the region as "a moral frontier," where Americans might best face the considerable challenges of capitalism and climate change. A provocative analysis. You'll never think of Peoria in the same way again." ―Kirkus Reviews\n"Brisk and thought-provoking. ... Reading Christman’s book is like a road trip through time and sentiment and culture of the Midwest." ―Martha Stuit, Pulp: Arts Around Ann Arbor\n"Christman excels at pointing out the doublethink powering American endeavors and slathering deodorant on its collective soul."―Dan Kelly, Third Coast Review\n"To write about the Midwest is to risk joining a succession of truisms that tread and retread the same ground. In 'Midwest Futures,' Christman sidesteps this fate. Rather than try to pin the region to a single argument or narra

Literature & Fiction

Essays & Correspondence

How to Be Normal: Essays

Review\n"Phil Christman is one of the best essayists in America. . . . [H]e is unafraid to reject the portions of a position that do not withstand scrutiny, and his largely left-wing conclusions are the product of careful and humane self-searching." —Becca Rothfeld, TLS\n"Erudite riffs on race, religion, masculinity, and other contentious subjects...A crisp set of essays that bring big social and cultural debates to a human level." —Kirkus Reviews\n"A probing and provocative collection." —Publishers Weekly\n"Christman presents essays on a variety of topics ranging from race and masculinity to religion and pop culture, all written in the tone of a subversive self-help guide. Engaging a belles-lettristic negative capability, Christman takes on the big subjects while always remembering that the point of criticism is to more fully be a person, part of 'our little attempts that we make at building a home in this world.'" —Ed Simon, The Millions\n"In a host of grimly besieged arenas of public life, from religion and race to mass culture and masculinity, Christman charts a frank and fearless guide for the perplexed, the battered, the exhausted, and the outraged." —Chris Lehmann, The New Republic\n“Mr. Christman titles the collection and each of the essays with the 'How to' format, but he points out in an author’s note that this is not an advice manual. Rather, he takes on a subject and examines the generalizations and shibboleths clinging to it, puncturing them with personal experience and his intellect—and with considerable research to back them up. . . . Throughout How to Be Normal, the voice is earnest and intense, often spiraling around a subject. . . . But as for the promise of comfort suggested by the title of this book, Mr. Christman has some disappointing news: ‘There is no normal to get back to anymore.'” —Richard Babcock, Wall Street Journal\nPhil Christman is one of the best cultural critics working today. Or, as a reviewer of his previous book, Midwest Futures, put it, "one of the most underappreciated writers of [his] generation." 
You may also know Phil from his columns in Commonweal and Plough, or his viral essay "What Is It Like To Be A Man?", the latter adapted in his new book, How to Be Normal.\nChristman’s second book includes essays on "How To Be White," "How to Be Religious," "How To Be Married," and more, in addition to new versions of the above. Find in it also brilliant analyses of middlebrow culture, bad movies, Mark Fisher, Christian fundamentalism, and more.\nWith exquisite attention to syntax and prose, the astoundingly well-read Christman pairs a deceptively breezy style with radical openness. In his witty, original hands, seemingly "normal" subjects are rendered exceptional, and exceptionally.

History

Americas

Review\n"Erudite riffs on race, religion, masculinity, and other contentious subjects...A crisp set of essays that bring big social and cultural debates to a human level." —Kirkus Reviews\n"A probing and provocative collection." —Publishers Weekly\n"Christman presents essays on a variety of topics ranging from race and masculinity to religion and pop culture, all written in the tone of a subversive self-help guide. Engaging a belles-lettristic negative capability, Christman takes on the big subjects while always remembering that the point of criticism is to more fully be a person, part of 'our little attempts that we make at building a home in this world.'" —Ed Simon, The Millions\n"In a host of grimly besieged arenas of public life, from religion and race to mass culture and masculinity, Christman charts a frank and fearless guide for the perplexed, the battered, the exhausted, and the outraged." —Chris Lehmann, The New Republic\n“Mr. Christman titles the collection and each of the essays with the 'How to' format, but he points out in an author’s note that this is not an advice manual. Rather, he takes on a subject and examines the generalizations and shibboleths clinging to it, puncturing them with personal experience and his intellect—and with considerable research to back them up. . . . Throughout How to Be Normal, the voice is earnest and intense, often spiraling around a subject. . . . But as for the promise of comfort suggested by the title of this book, Mr. Christman has some disappointing news: ‘There is no normal to get back to anymore.'” —Richard Babcock, Wall Street Journal\nPhil Christman is one of the best cultural critics working today. Or, as a reviewer of his previous book, Midwest Futures, put it, "one of the most underappreciated writers of [his] generation." 
You may also know Phil from his columns in Commonweal and Plough, or his viral essay "What Is It Like To Be A Man?", the latter adapted in his new book, How to Be Normal.\nChristman’s second book includes essays on "How To Be White," "How to Be Religious," "How To Be Married," and more, in addition to new versions of the above. Find in it also brilliant analyses of middlebrow culture, bad movies, Mark Fisher, Christian fundamentalism, and more.\nWith exquisite attention to syntax and prose, the astoundingly well-read Christman pairs a deceptively breezy style with radical openness. In his witty, original hands, seemingly "normal" subjects are rendered exceptional, and exceptionally.

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