Plough Quarterly No. 36 - Money (What is money for?)

Main Description: This issue opens with the story of Melania and her real estate-magnate husband, who decide to divest themselves of their entire wealth. These early Christians, who sold off their many estates and freed eight thousand slaves, were only exceptional in the amount they gave away. Jesus, after all, had advised a rich man, “Go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor.” And he emphatically warned that you cannot serve two masters: you cannot serve God and money. What does that mean for Christians today, in a society and economy premised on the accumulation of capital? How can we resist and subvert the power of money?

On this theme:

- Clare Coffey looks at how multilevel marketing commodifies friendship.

- Sharon Rose Christner describes what happens when a Vatican palace becomes a homeless shelter.

- Alastair Roberts writes in praise of Mary of Bethany’s extravagant love.

- A photojournalist asks what’s left of the Cuban Revolution seventy years after it began.

- Jack Bell revisits William Cobbett’s spirited defense of the vanishing British commons.

- Maria Weiss finds pain and friendship in the forced community of a leper colony.

- Maureen Swinger reveals the joys and pitfalls of owning twenty-two cars (collectively).

- Robert Lockridge describes what he’s learned running a pay-as-you-can café.

Also in the issue:

- The winning poems in the 2023 Rhina Espaillat Poetry Award contest

- An excerpt from Eugene Vodolazkin’s new novel, A History of the Island

- Reviews of Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s Thin Places, Lydia Millet’s Dinosaurs, and Jennifer Banks’s Natality

- Readings on Christianity and money from Eberhard Arnold, Peter Riedemann, Nicolai Berdyaev, Basil of Caesarea, Maria Skobtsova, C. S. Lewis, and Dorothy Day

Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.