Pope Francis Un ersatz: a phony. That’s how, the day after the papal election, Argentine journalist Horacio Verbitsky described the new pope in Página/12, a leading progressive paper in Buenos Aires. It’s a striking charge, one made in anger and with a cer

In an episode from the first season of HBO’s series Girls, Hannah Horvath—played by the show’s creator and chief writer, Lena Dunham—is having sex with her occasional lover Adam when Adam does something odd. The description I am about to give will strike some

Fighting Eugenics In “My Brittle Bones” (March), Philip C. Burcham makes the excellent point that decisions related to genetic illnesses are not medical decisions; they are social decisions. Recently our local community witnessed, via a carefully manipu

• We all gathered in the editor’s office when the white smoke appeared, setting his computer to the NBC website, otherwise known as the network on which George Weigel appears. As we waited, and it seemed to take forever, one junior fellow stood, the other per

Against Fairness by Stephen T. Asma Chicago, 224 pages, $22.50 Stephen Asma buries in the endnotes of Against Fairness the information that he is from Chicago, but I think it ought to be mentioned up front. His book is a counterintuitive defense of favori

“These stories are all about unsupervised children,” my oldest daughter observed years ago, when we were reading Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons books aloud, one after another, books in which—to offer a rough collective plot summary—some children mess a

Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept by Brent Nongbri Yale, 288 pages, $35 In Before Religion, Brent Nongbri makes the case that once there was no religion and then modern Westerners invented it. This claim will strike many as both preposterous—

The institutions of Conservative Judaism—its synagogues, its summer camps, its youth organizations, its sisterhoods and men’s organizations, its seminaries, its rabbinate—will live on. Conservative Judaism as a movement, defined as a significant number of peo

Menachem Begin: A Life by Avi Shilon translated by Danielle Zilberberg and Yoram Sharett Yale, 584 pages, $40 The early decades of Israeli politics were dominated by Labor Zionists, mainly secular Ashkenazis (Jews from central and eastern Europe) whose goa

The day I was granted the Sacrament of Confirmation and was admitted with full rights and privileges to the Church Eternal got off to a slow start, because the bishop was late. There had been a rain delay at the Mets game, but His Excellency couldn’t just lea

Angelina Jolie has gone public with her decision to have a preventative double mastectomy at age thirty-seven. She lost her mother young to cancer, and her doctors urged her to remove her breasts after she underwent testing that placed her in a high-risk cate

Americans have lost the art of honest debate. Perhaps better stated, we have thrown it away. Advocates on all sides of political and cultural spectrums cynically manipulate public opinion through focus group–tested obfuscating words and phrases rather than pe

From R.R. Reno’s “Public Square” in the May issue of First Things. Support First Things by subscribing here. I regret the need to report this, but I must. In the March issue we published “Homosexual Marriage, Parenting, and Adoption,” written by Gilles Ber

Until recent decades at least, nearly all Americans have believed in an unchanging God, “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” If God does not change, does God’s manner and rate of revelation change over time? Typically, those who have wrestled with the

Serial killer Kermit Gosnell was convicted in a case that most Americans have not been following. Why is that? How could it have been different? The answers to those questions could help conservative donors (even small donors) better reach more Americans.

As the Revised Standard Version renders the fourteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, Paul and Barnabas remind the proto-Christians of Antioch that it is only “through many tribulations” that we enter the Kingdom of God. The New American Bible translati

So Kermit Gosnell has cut a deal, and will not even face the formality of a death sentence. That might seem to render moot discussion of what he really deserved. But since late-term abortionists like him are still plying their trade across America, there will

What is most alarming about popular young adult novelist Cory Doctorow’s vision is the understanding of God that he proffers. Feeling the indifference of the universe does not plunge him into an abyss of meaninglessness, as one might think: It liberates him f

The problem with much Christian worship in the contemporary world, Catholic and Protestant alike, is not that it is too entertaining but that it is not entertaining enough. Worship characterized by upbeat rock music, stand-up comedy, beautiful people taking c

From the AP: A Republican House member wants President Barack Obama to make 2010 the year of the Bible. There's no sign that Obama will get the chance in the foreseeable future. Georgia Rep. Paul Broun's resolution would have no force of law if passed. And it

From GMA News: The Vatican said Saturday it will publish a new document for Chinese Catholics as a follow-up to a 2007 letter that Pope Benedict XVI addressed to that community. The document, written in a question-and-answer format like the Catechism of the

R.R. Reno interviews Maria McFadden Maffucci on her remembrance of Father Richard John Neuhaus and the “Rockford Raid,” which appeared in the April 2009 issue.

R.R. Reno interviews Midge Decter on her remembrance of Father Richard John Neuhaus, which appeared in the April 2009 edition.

R. R. Reno interviews John C. Green on his article “What Happened to the Values Voter?,” which appeared in the March 2009 issue.

R.R. Reno interviews Yuval Levin on his article “Biotech: What to Expect” which appeared in the March 2009 issue.

R.R. Reno interviews Joseph Bottum on his article “Abortion After Obama,” as well as Richard John Neuhaus' article, “The Pro-Life Movement as the Politics of the 1960s,” both of which appeared in the January 2009 issue.

R.R. Reno interviews Joseph Bottum on his article “Children’s Books, Lost and Found,” which appeared in the December 2008 issue.

R.R. Reno interviews Amy Julia Becker on her article “Babies Perfect and Imperfect,” which appeared in the November 2008 edition.

R. R. Reno interviews Gerald McDermott on his exchange with Bruce D. Porter entitled “Is Mormonism Christian?”, which appeared in the October 2008 issue.

R. R. Reno interviews Bruce D. Porter on his exchange “Is Mormonism Christian” with Gerald McDermott which appeared in the October 2008 issue.

R. R. Reno interviews Robert S. Miola on his review of Joseph Pearce's book “The Quest For Shakespeare: The Bard of Avon and the Church of Rome,” which appeared in the August/September 2008 issue.