In an age of health care and wellness industries and near-religious pursuit of fitness and self-optimization, what does “health” mean for the chronically ill? For people with disabilities or mental health challenges or neurodiversity? For the aging and dying? This issue asks what it means to live well despite the limitations and frailties of our bodies, and what, beyond the scope of medicine, is needed for our flourishing.

On this theme: 

Aberdeen Livingstone learns when to battle, and when to accept, chronic illness.

Malcolm Guite defends the responsible use of pipe and pint.

David Zahl calls out the wellness industry’s false promise of optimization.

Abraham Nussbaum learns the limits of psychotherapy from his first patient.

Cristiano Dennani photographs survivors of the Bhopal chemical spill in India.

Heather M. Surls visits a tuberculosis hospital in Mafraq, Jordan.

Brewer Eberly considers direct primary care, an attempt to reset the doctor-patient relationship.

Devan Stahl considers what the wounds of the resurrected Christ mean for people with disabled bodies.

Sam Tomlin wishes church and school weren’t such hurdles for children with autism.

James Mumford finds the twelve steps of AA work when other approaches to addiction fail.

Other articles in this issue: 

Jessica T. Miskelly, monitoring ocean currents on an icebreaker off Antarctica, feels the planet breathe.

Kelsey Osgood visits a Jewish-Christian-Muslim interfaith center after October 7.

Terence Sweeney profiles a repentant slaveholder, Bartolomé de las Casas.

Plus: new poems by A. E. Stallings, short fiction by Narine Abgaryan, book reviews, and more.

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.