Dear Readers:
On May 1, 2012, the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis debuted Religion & Politics, an online magazine that would, its mission statement promised, “feature articles from scholars and journalists” reflecting “a range of views, rather than promoting a specific political perspective.” The magazine would “honor frank and respectful debate” and “[take] the long view, providing historical context, critical analysis, and thorough research with compelling writing.”
For more than a decade, the magazine did just that, becoming an indispensable guide to the complex, important, and—to use the word of our current moment—weird American religious and political scene. It must have been some sort of cruel, divine trick (if you believe in Providence) that the magazine went on hiatus in May 2023, just as it would have become more indispensable than ever. Since then, there has been a war prompted by a mass terror attack in Israel, a rise in antisemitism and in Islamophobia in the United States, a raft of state-level fights over abortion, escalating conflict between Catholic traditionalists and progressives, religiously inflected debates over declining birth rates, and a presidential campaign whose four nominees, presidential and vice-presidential, have roots in at least six religious traditions: Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Hindu, Dutch Reformed, and evangelical Protestant. Oh—and one of them is married to a Jew.
It thus seems a pretty good time, you might agree, to re-start the magazine, and to broaden its vision. Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera will continue the work of its predecessor, publishing excellent writing about American religion and politics. We will publish writers from inside the academy and outside, and besides writing we will offer audio stories, and video, and photo essays. You will also be able to find the vast archive of articles published by this magazine’s predecessor. As for that Et Cetera in our new title: it’s to open space for writing or other art that is not obviously about religion or politics, but which on deeper inspection has something to teach us about religion or politics, or about the messy, intriguing space where they interact.
We will double our publication schedule, from weekly to twice-weekly, with new content appearing on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and sometimes more often). Our principal goal remains, in the words of the original mission statement, to take “the long view, providing historical context, critical analysis, and thorough research”—but many of our pieces will be newsy, addressing current events.
In publishing, one often talks about comparative titles, or “comps” (“This book is for anyone who loved Peyton Place, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and The Da Vinci Code”). If asked for comps for Arc, I would say, “This magazine is for anyone who subscribes to (and may get around to reading her issues of) The New York Review of Books, reads America or The Christian Century or First Things, laments the demise of Books & Culture, can name a favorite episode of This American Life, has a religious or spiritual practice, wishes he had the time to audit courses at the local college, enjoys the photography of Gillian Laub or Joel Sternfeld, reads the novels of Walker Percy or Philip Roth or Zadie Smith, watched Ramy, or listens to BBC radio’s Desert Island Discs.”
But really, this magazine is for anyone who can take exception without taking offense. The polarization of our country has had ruinous effects on our political life, our religious life, and indeed our journalism. Magazines that once published a diverse mix have retreated to their corners, either because their editors believe there is no wisdom coming from the other corner or because that’s what their readers think. We dissent. Arc will publish smart, elegant writing about religion and politics, etc. Much of it will strive for objectivity. Some pieces will clearly have a point of view or reflect an ideological commitment (and will run in the Opinion section). The editors will not care what that point of view is, so long as the piece is good. Angry readers can bang out a letter to the editor. We’d love to hear from you.
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Sincerely,
Mark Oppenheimer
Editor