Discernment

Beneath the loud declarations and performative certainty that saturate today’s public atmosphere lies a quieter ache—souls yearning for communities of wisdom, for companions seeking to know and live by the ways of God. Comment exists to serve this group with care and conviction, offering trustworthy tools to aid readers in their discernment of the times—and in their capacity to act faithfully within them.

But what is discernment, exactly? And how does one become a discerning person—someone able to perceive rightly, love well, and respond at the right moment? We live in a frenetic, fractured age that mistakes information for understanding, and reaction for wisdom. In the West, we are also caught in a growing narrative crossfire—over the fate of our civilization, the state of the earth, the nature of truth, even what it means to be a person. As the stakes rise, so too do appeals to ultimate authority—whether to God, to science, or to one’s own experience of pain. Many of these appeals are sincere.

And yet, truly discerning people—those marked by steadiness, humility, courage, and grace—seem increasingly rare. Discernment, once a sign of spiritual maturity, has become a lost art.

This issue of Comment is an attempt to recover it. What has dulled our senses? What practices and conditions might help us see again—clearly, wisely, lovingly? Which realms of life—public and private—most demand a renewal of discernment? And what would it take not to be submerged by the capricious crowd, but to become part of a truly discerning people?