Matthew J. Franck

Over at Public Discourse (published by the Witherspoon Institute, where I work), you can already see tomorrow morning’s article, the first of a three-part series by Greg Forster, titled ” Evangelicals and Politics: The Hundred Years’ War .”  I think it’s very . . . . Continue Reading »

The South Bend Tribune reports that 131 faculty of the University of Notre Dame have signed a letter calling on Fr. John Jenkins, the president of the university, to “issue a statement” that will “definitively distance Notre Dame” from remarks made in a homily by Bishop . . . . Continue Reading »

My morning reading has settled into some habitual grooves, and for a reliably thoughtful one or two articles a day, I go to FT’s ” On the Square ,” to Public Discourse , and to The Catholic Thing , where one of the regulars is Brad Miner.  Today Mr. Miner (we’ve . . . . Continue Reading »

This may fall into the category of blogging-when-provoked (always risky), or it may come down to a matter of de gustibus non est disputandum .  But the wild overhyping on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather wouldn’t provoke me if . . . . Continue Reading »

Sorry if that sounds like the beginning of a shaggy dog story.  In the study of political communication, one of the most fruitful concepts employed by scholars in the last two decades has been “framing theory,” which concerns the way in which a story, a person, a decision, an . . . . Continue Reading »

The Witherspoon Institute’s Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution, which I direct, is offering two seminars this summer for early-career faculty, and for graduate and law students. Church and State: Religion in the Young American Republic This seminar, held on the campus of the . . . . Continue Reading »

I have a number of friends who are huge admirers of the farmer-poet-essayist Wendell Berry.  Now comes word via the Chronicle of Higher Education that the National Endowment for the Humanities has invited Berry to give this year’s Jefferson Lecture , on April 23 in Washington.  . . . . Continue Reading »

Even such liberal stalwarts as E.J. Dionne and Michael Sean Winters can be heard to complain about the Obama administration’s HHS mandate that all employers—including all religious institutions but the most narrowly defined ones—include fully paid coverage for contraceptives . . . . Continue Reading »

I wrote about this last week , and only scratched the surface.  It’s this bad .  Why any parents of intelligent young people would desire a Vanderbilt education for them, while this nonsense goes on, is beyond me. . . . . Continue Reading »

Jason Hoyt of the national Christian fraternity Beta Upsilon Chi has the story of what’s happening at the prominent Nashville university.  Evidently inspired by the Supreme Court’s wrongheaded ruling in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez in 2010, the university’s . . . . Continue Reading »