Public Justice
Charity and Justice: Asking Two Different Questions
An ethical inquiry into immediate care and shared responsibilities, using Christian sources and a hypothetical school-supply project to test both questions.
Faith, justice and our common life
Arguments worth weighing. Questions worth sharing. A place to think about the responsibilities of citizenship.
Decision
Public choices, considered carefully.
Deliberation
Conviction in conversation with difference.
Faith and Pluralism
When several groups share one kitchen, ask them before you remodel it
A fellowship hall kitchen often serves many groups, not only the congregation. A remodel should begin by asking each of them.
Foundations
The ideas and institutions beneath public life.
Institutions
Write a Decision Record People Can Use
A fictional equipment-service memo shows how to record authority, options, reasons, dissent, privacy limits, and review triggers after a decision.
Politics and Prose
Books and arguments for a wider view.
Books and Ideas
Read Civic Texts Without Surrendering Your Judgment
Use a civic classic and an invented tool-library proposal to separate claims, evidence, and judgment, with a precise annotation method for individual or group reading.
A longer conversation
Read new treatments of questions preserved in the historical archive, with links to the source records.
Browse historical topics →Latest commentaries
View the full index →
Institutions
Write a Decision Record People Can Use
A fictional equipment-service memo shows how to record authority, options, reasons, dissent, privacy limits, and review triggers after a decision.
Civic Practice
Hiring a contractor for the hall's cracked walk, without the favoritism
When a committee spends shared money on a cracked walk or wall, fair hiring matters as much as the concrete.
Faith and Pluralism
When several groups share one kitchen, ask them before you remodel it
A fellowship hall kitchen often serves many groups, not only the congregation. A remodel should begin by asking each of them.
Community Life
Before a bathroom remodel, ask who else will use the room
A bathroom remodel is often planned by the people paying for it, not by the relative or guest who will depend on the room most.
Community Life
Shared Spaces and the Work of Belonging
A stewardship proposal for a shared reading room, with fair booking choices, practical rules, ways to resolve competing uses, and clear privacy boundaries.
Civic Practice
Make Community Meetings Easier to Enter
A practical meeting plan covering invitations, private access requests, budgets, participation choices, technical failures, and follow-up before decisions.