In 1963, Lucius Cook, an eleven-year-old orphan, comes to live with a lawyer, Kenneth Crane, and his family at their stately Victorian home in the affluent suburbs of Hartford, Connecticut. Quiet and precocious, Lucius is in awe of his surroundings. He discovers he shares Mr. Crane’s creative passion for photography. The Crane’s clever daughter, Beatrice, keeps Lucius on his toes, while the lawyer’s stunning and aloof wife, Eleanor, captivates him. As time passes, his curiosity for Eleanor...

Recent research on the U.S. House of Representatives largely focuses on the effects of partisanship, but the strikingly less frequent studies of the Senate still tend to treat parties as secondary considerations in a chamber that gives its members far more individual leverage than congressmen have. In response to the recent increase in senatorial partisanship, Why Not Parties? corrects this imbalance with a series of original essays that focus exclusively on the effects of parties...

It is in the deepest darkness that light shines most brightly. For this reason, dystopian stories are often an effective channel to communicate the good news of the Gospel. Our worst failings illustrate the transformation of the Holy Spirit most clearly. We cling most tightly to hope in times of deepest despair.This collection of essays and first release short stories illustrates the journey dystopian stories take us on, highlighting the problem, the answer, and redemption.

When Michael Ward's Planet Narnia emerged a decade ago, myriad things were pulled into its orbit: The immense gravitational force altered the field of C.S. Lewis studies, to be sure, but the discovery's scope stretched far into the worlds of literary criticism, Christian apologetics, and the arts.Only now, after ten years under its influence, have we begun to consider the magnitude of Planet Narnia's effects, and perhaps it is best to begin such an index by cultivating a jovial atm...

Celebrating the Works of George MacDonaldGeorge MacDonald inspired the imaginative visions of C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, and so many others. He presents the reader with an enchanted world that is richer than the flattened world of materialism that defines reality for so many. Through this volume, we hope to invite the reader into the world of fantasy en route to discovering a true reality.Take a tour of the books of this classic Christian a...

What Makes a Superhero?Superheroes captivate our cultural imagination. From reading comic books in our childhood bedrooms to watching the latest blockbuster on the silver screen, we long to see the champion defeat the villain and ultimately rescue the world from certain destruction. Though the stories may be fantastical, our desires are not. Our hearts are drawn to superheroes because we want someone to triumph over evil and save the world. This issue of An Unexpec...

The imago Dei: Man as God's Image Bearers"Let us make man in our image," so begins the relationship between God and his image bearers, beings made in his own image. What does it mean to be God's image bearer? In this issue on the imago Dei, we explore the ways man reflects God's light.Contributors:Donald W. Catchings, Jr.: "Stained-glass Man," a poem on man's own image.Annie Crawford:...

G. K. Chesterton seemed to have something to say about almost anything. A cultural critic and writer of the highest degree, he utilized both wit and paradox as he sought to not only to challenge bad philosophy but promote the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.Although best known for classics such as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man, Chesterton was also a prolific poet, essayist, and storyteller. This volume is a celebration of Christmas, one of Chesterton's actions, as well as the...

Planting the Seeds of ImaginationHolly Ordway has established herself as one of the preeminent voices in the field of cultural apologetics. Her ability to engage with the imagination is clearly demonstrated through her own scholarly work, most recently the paradigm-shifting Tolkien's Modern Reading, but her influence was critical in the founding of An Unexpected Journal as well. This collection of essays, poetry, and stories demonstrates her wide-...

To many observers, Congress has become a deeply partisan institution where ideologically-distinct political parties do little more than engage in legislative trench warfare. A zero-sum, winner-take-all approach to congressional politics has replaced the bipartisan comity of past eras. If the parties cannot get everything they want in national policymaking, then they prefer gridlock and stalemate to compromise. Or, at least, that is the conventional wisdom.In The Limits of Party

Local government is the hidden leviathan of American politics: it accounts for nearly a tenth of gross domestic product, it collects nearly as much in taxes as the federal government, and its decisions have an enormous impact on Americans' daily lives. Yet political scientists have few explanations for how people vote in local elections, particularly in the smaller cities, towns, and suburbs where most Americans live. Drawing on a wide variety of data sources and case studies, this book of...

Political science scholar James M. Curry explores the inner workings of Congress's House of Representatives in this thought-provoking analysis.The 2009 financial stimulus bill ran to more than 1,100 pages, yet it wasn't even given to Congress in its final form until thirteen hours before debate was set to begin, and it was passed twenty-eight hours later. How are representatives expected to digest so much information in such a short time? The answer? They aren't.