The Whole Person Revolution

We're finite beings with infinite potentialities. Every decision we make adds yet another stroke of paint to the artwork of our lives. So how do we know we're painting   with purpose? Joining Anne is Steven Lawson, the creator of the  Monk Manual ,   who has designed a planner   that regularly prompts users to prepare, act, and reflect according to their core principles. What if productivity isn't...

Why is it that as human beings we so often see our limits as the enemy of the good life, and not as a helpful frame? Whether we're chafing against 24-hour days, the betrayals of our bodies, our inevitable mortality, or the caps on our relational and psychological energy, it just seems like modern life tempts us to believe that finitude is a weakness to be overcome … perhaps even a sin. But what if...

Comment  is hardly alone in the effort to restore the human. Various philosophical streams have long been animated by the same telos. The question is: Do the differences in priors matter when it comes to working together towards re-humanizing every inch of our common life? Joining Anne to explore this question is the founder of Rehumanize International ,  Aimee Murphy, whose personal journey prope...

We live in a time when the truth of the present has little authority while the truth of history is emerging in unprecedented fullness. This presents a quandary for the person of integrity: How does one keep growing without succumbing to the violence of one-way redemption? Michelle Browder is an artist, activist and guide based out of Montgomery, Alabama who is creating a new way to confront the pa...

In a uniquely concentrated period of public injustice, from 2020-2021, a community of women found voice in the poetic lines of Psalm 37. Following David's lead, they reflected on their experiences of heartache and oppression with raw openness and hopeful expectation.  Voices of Lament  is a rich compilation of these stories that will move you to wail with them, and to gain a fuller picture of Chri...

How does a society ensure equal and active participation of its members when there is a voice gap between workers and corporations? We start by acknowledging our interdependence and striving to provide mechanisms to amplify workers' voices. Ensuring collective power not only makes better employees but better civics. Policy expert Chris Griswold helps us rediscover the relevance of mutual cooperati...

What does it look like to prioritize friendship in an organizational context? Laity Lodge is an ecumenical retreat center in the Texas hill country that welcomes wayfarers into unique journeys of encounter and revelation — with God, with one another, with themselves, with expanding, new paradigms. In this episode, Lodge director Steven Purcell and the president of the HE Butt Foundation that overs...

How can we nurture relationships across time, political factions, and the ever-evolving opinions we as human beings invariably have? Bible teacher Beth Moore has had to become familiar with the deeper levels of discernment required to navigate turbulent waters with courage and steadfastness. From new social media friends to long-lasting deep bonds, she reflects here on the unexpected joy that come...

How much does cultural and familial history shape our relationships and inflect our vocations? Best friends Otis Pickett and DeSean Dyson reflect on their respective journeys as historians and educators in the American South, sharing insights on civil religion, hospitality, and the gift of sustaining a friendship through thick and thin. 

It can feel strange to think about applying the logic of do's and don'ts to the gift of friendship. But as we are fond of saying at Comment , beauty blooms in framed spaces. Mack McCarter understands this frame's physics from the ground up, having founded one of the most holistic social fabric repairers in the country, Community Renewal International. Here are his reflections on friendship and the...

Does a healthy marriage have to have friendship at its core? How do rings of relationships, institutions and communities around a marriage support that most intimate of covenants? Humanities greats Mark Schwehn of Valparaiso University and Leon Kass of Shalem College (formerly of the University of Chicago) reminisce about teaching college students on these questions, truths they discovered in thei...

Friendship is foundational to the good life. But in a mobile and globalized world, how can we nurture deep relationships across distance? Might our friendships offer the rootedness that our roving hearts long for? On today's episode, guest Joy Clarkson shares the practical wisdom that has guided her own enduring friendships both near and far.

Co-founders are a known relationship in the realm of start-ups and institution-building. But less studied is the dynamic of friendship between those who are building something that intends to have cultural impact and last beyond a generation. Today's episode digs into that deeper, less transactional realm, as the co-founders of Cardus, Michael Van Pelt and Ray Pennings, reflect on their 20+ years...

The natural world is one thing we all share. Yet our relationship with creation is as fraught with divisions and political bickering as anything else in our divided times. How might we think through our approach to climate change and other environmental challenges? What obligations do various social spheres have to care for the environment? How might those be balanced in a way that does not do irr...

It's been a tough season for experts. Distrusted by the public if not politicized by the craven, those trained to master a specific domain in service of common goods seem all too divested of their authority; every earned discovery is now subject to the culture war. What is going on? Are any of these dynamics legit? Dr. Francis Collins has lived these questions his whole career, though perhaps no m...

Since the pandemic, there's been more clashing between the family and other spheres. Is there a way to move forward without segmenting our society still further? Educational historian Susan Wise Bauer and religious freedom lawyer Angela Wu Howard - both of them also mothers, serious Christians and generous citizens - explore the pathways.

This spring, Comment is celebrating the civic health that blossoms when we understand distinct spheres of action and the particularities of what each sphere is for . But let's be honest: Sometimes boundaries aren't all they're cracked up to be. They can oppress a people group, numb creativity, flatline the glory of human moral reasoning and sometimes even sow more evil than could the most bombasti...

Comment is   getting re-acquainted with the traditional spheres this season, things like the family, education, church, and the workplace. But are these kinds of institutional commitments really all that shape a person? Where do scenes fall?   Think of unique subcultures, a city scene, a musical or sports scene. Might scenes like these be more powerful than the traditional spheres today, at least...

Most of us have accepted the skills that a fractured age requires. But what would it take to reknit our disparate selves into wholeness? Might a re-thickening of the boundaries of our civic spheres paradoxically help? Join Anne in exploring these tensions with April Lawson, Director of Debates and Public Discourse at Braver Angels, and Brandon Vaidyanathan, chair of the sociology department at the...

Must we fight one another in every domain of life? Are turbocharged symbols the only way to assert one's voice in a pluralist republic? David French and Jonathan Rauch are two political observers who have thought long and hard about these questions, and they join Anne today to shed light on how we got to this flat state of affairs, and also how we can get out. Yuval Levin: How to Curb the Culture...

As we wrap up this season's explorations of the gift logic, it seemed appropriate to zoom out to the tradition that has animated this conversation from the very beginning: Christian humanism. A rich if unfinished tradition that at once informs  Comment 's editorial lens and animates our broader work as an ecosystem-builder,  we  wish to tell a story of Christian humanism that cares for the full fl...

Rajan Mathews of Nyack College and Dave Hillis of Leadership Foundations each lead institutions that put the primacy of relationship over and above the allure of efficiency. What are the challenges in preserving this commitment in higher education and the social service sector today? What yet fortifies their call?

What might happen if our criminal justice system ventured into a different set of moral risks? Are those who have been imprisoned for their crimes worthy of a culture of trust? APAC, a revolutionary Brazilian prison system, is making a bet that natural beauty, community, work and trust might just re-awaken prisoners' innate dignity and tap into freedom's high call (less its license). In this episo...

We tend to hear "entrepreneur" nowadays and think Silicon Valley, privilege, a preference for tech jargon over and above the humane and the commonplace. But what if its local flowering is worth a second look? Might entrepreneurship as a way of creative response be the embodiment of the gift logic par excellence? Rising Tide Capital is making just this bet, and this episode with co-founder Alex For...

Composer and singer-songwriter Alana Levandoski grew up on the Canadian prairies with an awareness of her own reliance on the gifts of the land, giving her an "ecological perspective" on her artistic vocation. "There's a huge difference between seeing something as free and seeing something as a gift," she says. For Levandoski, embracing the interdependence of a gift economy has allowed her to witn...