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Buying the Jesus Legend

After you’ve bought this . . . and this . . . and this . . . and this thingee . . . definitely buy this . In The Jesus Legend, Doctors Paul Rhodes Eddy, professor of biblical and theological studies at Bethel University, and Gregory A. Boyd, senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, . . . . Continue Reading »

Nativity Scenes

Nativity scenes set the tone of Christmas. There are placid olive-wood ones, arranged in hushed stillness amid pine sprigs and juniper. There are bejeweled rainbow ones, frozen on hills of cotton batting and glinting merrily in the candlelight. There are illuminated plastic figures, the size of . . . . Continue Reading »

Hail, O Gardener of the Gardener of Life!

True devotion to Mary, as Fr. Neuhaus recently reminded us , always points us to Christ. Like most converts to Catholicism or Orthodoxy, Marian devotion has taken some getting used to for me. I therefore found Frederica Mathewes-Green’s The Lost Gospel of Mary: The Mother of Jesus in Three . . . . Continue Reading »

Britain is a Catholic Country

First, I want to follow Jody in congratulating Tony Blair, who has been a good friend to this nation, on his conversion to Catholicism. I am also happy to congratulate Mr. Blair’s country, the United Kingdom, on its conversion to Catholicism. Yes, you read that correctly. What I mean is that, . . . . Continue Reading »

And a Very Merry Gulag to You

Let me see if I understand the T-shirt on the right correctly: Don’t buy that Christmas gift and thereby perpetuate the consumerist mentality. Do obliterate the lumpenproletariat, terrorize the masses, and establish a one-party dictatorship. All by Christmas morning? I went out and bought 11 . . . . Continue Reading »

RE: Tears, Idle Tears

Well, Jody, you should, indeed, let the Sussex Carol console you for the Georgetown Hoyas’ defeat by the Memphis Tigers. But I’m afraid that all I can add is: Go Tigers! (The teams of the college I attended amount, as one friend put it, to a really great library. So, living here in . . . . Continue Reading »

Christmas Trees and Cemeteries

Our beloved editor here at First Things has written on many topics, yet on no two has he expounded in greater depth and at greater length than Christmas and death . Apparently many residents of the Great State of California have decided to combine the two. Scholars who study this sort of thing . . . . Continue Reading »

Mary Ann Glendon Confirmed

Mary Ann Glendon resigned last month from the board of First Things in order, she said, to clear herself of all commitments before beginning work for the U.S. government. It seemed an unreasonable trade to me—I mean, an ambassador rather than a First Things board member?—but she decided . . . . Continue Reading »

First Thoughts on Tony Blair’s Catholicism

The lead item on the BBC news website has been the reception of Tony Blair into full communion with the Catholic Church. The move had long been expected: His wife and children were already Catholic, he had been attending Catholic services (but not taking communion) for some time, and his last . . . . Continue Reading »

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