released 7/18/2025

Literary critic Alan Jacobs discusses his book of essays entitled Wayfaring: Essays Pleasant and Unpleasant (Eerdmans, 2010) and what he thinks is special about the essay as a literary form. For Jacobs, it’s about telling the story of how the mind journeys through a topic or experience, reflecting the dips and turns and unexpected curves on the way to the conclusion. Jacobs sees great potential in this form for Christians because of the way the form corresponds to the navigation and journey of a Christian life, but observes that Christians have not, in recent years, embraced it. Perhaps it is because of the way the essay seems to be less ambitious and more humble than an epic poem or a grand novel, or perhaps it is because the best essays are, though containing a true arc, are finally indeterminate because the journey has not ended. He continues his observations about the essay by highlighting what some of his favorite essayists are able to do through their essays and how they do it. A segment of this interview was first published on Volume 105 of the Journal.

48 minutes

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