Plough Quarterly Magazine

Plough Quarterly is an innovative magazine that shares stories, ideas, and cultural insights aimed at inspiring both faith and action. Additionally, we provide new perspectives and insights every day on our website.

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The Library of Convicts

3 weeks ago | plough.com | Dan Grote

In the federal prison system, all inmates are required to hold a job. Unfortunately, on any given day, at most prisons, the number of able-bodied inmates outnumbers, often greatly, the actual number of jobs available. As a result, many of my fellow prisoners are “employed” only on paper. Now, I am originally from Chicago, a pioneer in the field of “no-show” jobs, so this doesn’t shock me.
Stanley Hauerwas’s Provocations

2 months ago | plough.com | Tish Harrison Warren

This essay is the introduction to Jesus Changes Everything: A New World Made Possible by Stanley Hauerwas (Plough, March 2025). Stanley Hauerwas feels larger than life. He’s funny. He’s insightful. He grew up a blue-collar kid in small-town Texas, which lends a grit and plainspokenness to his theological work that keeps us all on the hook.
The Eye by Christian Wiman

2 months ago | plough.com | Christian Wiman

Read Among the monks was one who kept apart. A gifted pray-er, they said of him, who sensed my faith was mostly faith in art. A man of fluent, fasted absencesthat from his tongue would come as scalding psalms,then yearlong silences of solid God. A keeper of the ancient ways, they said,(which I took to mean insane) who gleanedbetween the hapless captive and the called;and that no richer privilege could befalla muddled soul than to receive his blessing.
The Work of the Poet

2 months ago | plough.com | Christian Wiman

This interview was conducted by Plough’s Joy Clarkson on January 24, 2025. Plough: You’ve written more than a handful of books of poetry. What is the work of the poet? Christian Wiman: That depends on the poet. But if there’s a unifying task it is to enable and advance consciousness. R. P.
Finding Playmates in a Country with Few Children

2 months ago | plough.com | Gaetano Masciullo

A gray October weekend. My daughter Miriam and I venture outside, stepping into the quiet calm of our small town in the Po Valley of Italy. The air is damp, and fog wraps around the houses and fields, softening every outline. The few figures moving through the town appear like shadows, enveloped in a surreal stillness. The sound of our steps, small and slow, is the only note breaking the silence. As always, Miriam notices every detail.
The Anabaptist Community Bible

Feb 3, 2025 | plough.com | Bonnie Kristian

Five centuries ago, the Radical Reformation began. On January 21, 1525, the city council of Zurich, Switzerland, forbade advocacy and organization around believer’s baptism. That night, a group gathered anyway, secretly assembling in defiance of the government and baptizing one another as they understood the Scriptures to require.
Where Is the Kingdom of Heaven?

Jan 18, 2025 | plough.com | Dorothy L. Sayers

“The kingdom of heaven,” said the Lord Christ, “is among you.” But what, precisely, is the kingdom of heaven? You cannot point to existing specimens, saying, “Lo, here!” or “Lo, there!” You can only experience it. But what is it like, so that when we experience it we may recognize it? Well, it is a change, like being born again and re-learning everything from the start. It is secret, living power – like yeast. It is something that grows, like seed.
Does Teaching Literature and Writing Have a Future?

Dec 2, 2024 | plough.com | Phil Christman

To wake up one morning and learn that one’s job might soon be “disrupted,” or outright eliminated, by the emergence of an overhyped new technology that excites rich people is – let’s start here – a pretty common experience by now. It puts you in good company.
Freedom of Speech Under Threat

Dec 2, 2024 | plough.com | Paul Coleman |Elyssa Koren

Just before dawn on August 19, 2022, police surrounded the home of Bishop Rolando Álvarez, the Catholic prelate of Matagalpa, a city in central Nicaragua. Without obtaining a warrant, they arrested the bishop and seven other members of the Catholic Church. For the fifteen days before his arrest, he had been confined to his house and unable to leave, even to celebrate Mass in the cathedral just down the road. The charges that the government brought against the bishop were serious.
We’re Alone Together

Dec 2, 2024 | plough.com | Caitrin Keiper |Edwidge Danticat’s

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read,” wrote James Baldwin. This quote in Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat’s new essay collection We’re Alone captures the dual meaning of the title: the isolation and despair of the oppressed who believe no one is coming to help them, and the intimacy between author and reader, alone together on the page.