featured today
commonplaces
“. . . Our intellects stammer and boggle when they try to reach the truth about Divine things, not because the other world is a reflection of ours, but because ours is a reflection, and how pale a reflection, of the other. That was what our Lord wanted us to see when he turned our metaphors, even, inside out for us, as you may read in St. John. The water in Jacob's well isn't real water; the real water is the living fountain of grace which he will unseal for the woman of Samaria, if she will only stop to listen. The vine that grows on yonder wall is not a real vine; the only real Vine is his own mystical body. The things we see and touch are only the shadows cast by eternal truth. What marvel if we, to whom shadow is substance, cannot raise our minds to contemplate the substance by which the shadow is cast? . . .”
The Hidden Stream, chapter 4, "Our Knowledge of God by Analogy" (1953)
Editor's Picks
25.3 — May/June 2012
Calls for Freedom, Democracy & Secularism End Up with None of the Above by Hunter Baker
25.5 — Sept/Oct 2012
Sherlock Holmes, Umberto Eco & the Search for Meaning by Louis Markos
From the Editor
December 11, 2020
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
fight or flight conference videos (see all)
from the archives on religious liberty (26 articles)

27.3—May/June 2014
Religious Freedom & Why It Matters
Working in the Spirit of John Leland by Robert P. George
from the archives on philosophy (47 articles)
current columns
Illuminations
on Christian hymns
34.1 — January/February 2021
33.6 — November/December 2020
33.5 — September/October 2020
From Heavenly Harmony
on classical music
34.1 — January/February 2021
33.6 — November/December 2020
33.5 — September/October 2020
on works of Christian art
34.1 — January/February 2021
33.6 — November/December 2020
33.5 — September/October 2020
The Archdukes Albert and Isabella Visiting the Collection of Pierre Roose
Mortal Remains
on theology and culture
34.1 — January/February 2021
33.6 — November/December 2020
33.5 — September/October 2020
As It Is Written . . .
on the bible and theology
34.1 — January/February 2021
33.6 — November/December 2020
33.5 — September/October 2020
past columns
Book Returns
Touchstone looks back at recent "classics"
(2005-2009)
19.7 — September 2006
22.3 — April 2009
Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
18.10 — December 2005
The Leading Edge
on intelligent design & culture
(2001–2013)
19.7 — September 2006
23.6 — November/December 2010
16.2 — March 2003
Contours of Culture
on books & the spirit of the age
(2009-2014)
24.5 — Sept/Oct 2011
22.8 — November/December 2009
Todd Gitlin's Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives
24.4 — July/August 2011
The Matter at Hand
on events of the day
(2002–2005)
15.5 — June 2002
17.7 — September 2004
15.4 — May 2002
Practical Christianity
pondering the Christian life
(1993–2004)
11.1 — January/February 1998
17.10 — December 2004
17.1 — January/February 2004
Interviews
Touchstone interviews with persons of interest
22.8 — November/December 2009
An Interview with Bishop Göran Beijer of the Mission Province of the Church of Sweden
14.4 — May 2001
Archbishop Janis Vanags on Finding & Keeping the Faith in Post-Soviet Latvia
book reviews
32.2 — March/April, 2019
Wake-Up Call
The Apocalypse: Warning, Hope & Consolation
by Michael D. O'Brien
A review by Jeffrey Wald
32.2 — March/April, 2019
The Aura of Science
Flight from the Absolute: Cynical Observations on the Postmodern West, Volume II
by Paul Gosselin
A review by Louis Markos
32.4 — July/August, 2019
Then They Will Come for Us
Then They Came For Me: Martin Niemöller, The Pastor Who Defied the Nazis by Matthew D. Hockenos
A review by J. Daryl Charles
32.2 — March/April, 2019
Shortfall
Deeper Magic: The Theology Behind the Writings of C. S. Lewis by Donald T. Williams
A review by S. M. Hutchens
Touchstone is published by
All content The Fellowship of St. James — 2020. All rights reserved.
Returns, refunds, and privacy policy.