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September 2026

September 29, 2026

Recovering Moral Vision Between Shame and Shamelessness

We tend to imagine moral growth as a kind of escape: getting out from under...

August 2026

August 04, 2026

Psalm 25 and the Fear of Being Put to Shame (Part 1)

Psalm 25 is a poignant prayer for people who live with the fear of shame....

November 2025

November 25, 2025

You’re Either a Louse or a Legend?

In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky’s protagonist, Raskolnikov, offers a chilling simplification of the human condition:...

March 2025

March 18, 2025

Weaponized Shame in Western Cultures

In Western culture today, shame has become a potent tool, often used in ways that...

March 04, 2025

Pride Economy: When Passion Becomes Workplace Exploitation

What is a Pride Economy? In Stolen Pride, Arlie Hochschild shares how powerful dynamics of...

November 2024

November 26, 2024

Honor and Shame in Shakespeare’s Othello

In this second post in the series, we look at ways that honor and shame...

November 12, 2024

Honor and Shame in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Over the years, I’ve tried showing how Western cultures care about honor and shame. These...

May 2023

May 30, 2023

Two More Wrong Ways to Handle Shame

People today are more aware of shame's presence and power. Unfortunately, we still struggle to...

May 23, 2023

Are You Ashamed of Being Wrong?

I ask students whether they’d like the secret to being a great pastor. No one...

December 2022

December 13, 2022

How Raising Support Raises Shame

I had no idea that support raising can evoke so much shame in people, me...

October 2022

October 29, 2022

Why did China Humiliate Hu Jintao?

My jaw dropped. I have never seen Chinese leaders act in such a way. However,...

August 2022

August 02, 2022

Two Bad Strategies for Dealing with Shame

People create strategies for dealing with shame. But not all of them are equally beneficial....

July 2022

July 26, 2022

Why do we have lingering shame?

I recall sitting in my car one day, pondering the question, “Why do I continue...

March 2022

March 29, 2022

Playing the Status Game in Heaven

As Christians, the question is not whether we will play but which game we will...

March 22, 2022

My review of Chiang Kai-Shek’s Politics of Shame

I recently read Grace Huang's Chiang Kai-Shek’s Politics of Shame: Leadership, Legacy, and National Identity...

February 2022

February 01, 2022

Can We improve How We Play Status Games? Here are 8 Ideas

Can we improve the way we play status games? Yes, we can! This post offers...

January 2022

January 25, 2022

The Insatiable Search for Status

How do status games practically affect our lives? Will Storr offers an array of answers....

January 18, 2022

Status Games are Inherently Groupish

Seeking status occurs among individuals; yet, status competitions also arise within communities and between communities

January 11, 2022

We all play the status game. How do you play?

A new book just became my favorite book on the topic of honor and shame....

December 2021

December 28, 2021

The Global Gospel now translated into Chinese

Many of you have read and love Werner Mischke's The Global Gospel. His book is...

October 2021

October 26, 2021

Honor and Shame in Vertical-Horizontal Individualism and Collectivism

In this post, we examine possible honor and shame implications of vertical and horizontal individualism...

September 2021

September 14, 2021

What’s the relationship between 4 types of shame?

In this post, I explain the interrelationship between 4 types of shame––shame as sensitivity, social,...

September 07, 2021

Jesus experienced shame, not low self-esteem

The difficulty is not that Ten Elshof uses “shame” in an odd, unprecedented way. Rather,...

August 2021

August 31, 2021

Flipping the Script on Shame and Shaming

Rather than insist that shame is toxic, we should work to understand when shame is...

July 2021

July 06, 2021

How failure distinguishes “good” and “bad” shame

We need to ask the question, “What distinguishes good and bad shame?” But haven’t researchers,...

June 2021

June 01, 2021

Shame is a Unique Solution to a Unique Problem

Here are unique features of shame, compared to guilt, that are both interesting and important....

May 2021

May 25, 2021

Distinguishing Guilt and Shame (Part 1)

People always ask, “What’s the difference between guilt and shame?” It seems that I’ve never...

March 2021

March 30, 2021

“Confucian Shame in Christian Thinking” webinar video now posted

This week, I led a webinar with China Source where I explain distinctive features of...

January 2021

January 26, 2021

Why Salvation Brings Shame

In this post, I show how the prophets relate shame and salvation in three distinct...

July 2020

July 28, 2020

Is Shame a Solution to Racism?

Christianity Today's article rejects the use of shame to combat racism. The writer says, “Guilt...