Those of us who are citizens of liberal democratic regimes do not refer to those who govern as “rulers.” It is our boast that we rule ourselves. We prefer to speak of those who govern as public servants, but the extraordinary prestige and trappings attached t

Trent: What Happened at the Council by John W. O’Malley Harvard, 352 pages, $27.95 Professor John O’Malley ends his clear and accessible, and also very scholarly, analysis of the Council of Trent and its proceedings hoping that he has dispelled “a few of

In 1919, Davidson Black—today chiefly remembered as a colleague of Teilhard de Chardin—was made a professor in the Peking Union Medical College, an institution principally endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation. His American benefactors had given him his post

Homeschooling in America: Capturing and Assessing the Movement by Joseph Murphy Corwin, 200 pages, $34.95 The Year of Learning Dangerously: Adventures in Homeschooling by Quinn Cummings Perigee, 240 pages, $23.95 I’m tempted to compare homeschooling

America is under attack in the pages of First Things. In a recent article Notre Dame professor Patrick Deneen tells us that America is founded on a philosophy of “unsustainable liberalism.” Implicit in the ideas of the American founding, he argues, are certai

In God’s Shadow: Politics in the Hebrew Bible by Michael Walzer Yale, 256 pages, $28 In the Bible, argues Michael Walzer, God casts a shadow over human politics, making it hard to see that human beings are at work. The Pentateuch’s different law codes, for

Anyone who tries to evaluate the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar faces not only the sheer size of his work and his vast erudition but his great subtlety. To add to these difficulties, what he says in one book or passage he will often balance and qualify la

• This will be, we should warn you, a Catholic-heavy “While We’re At It.” But then popes don’t resign every day. • First, a word from New York. A friend who works in a New York City agency tells us that its employees have been told not to call anyone “home

It is Spring and the young Are all falling in love. It is Spring and the tongue Of the poet is free. Now Winter is shut Like a snake in a box With the shriek of the owl And the yelp of the fox. Now Winter withdraws To his palace of bones, With a clanging of

Wendell Berry’s recent self-described “general declaration” in support of “homosexual marriage” shocked many, fans and critics alike. Berry, who once wrote that marriage “cannot be altered to suit convenience or circumstance” and has long argued that marriage

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

Last week in this space R. R. Reno set out to challenge the foundational beliefs of economic conservatives. They must, he said, come to grasp what the postmodern left already sees: that current economic and regulatory conditions are such that market forces an

We are becoming a society in which “choice” and self-defined identities trump once-common values and traditional beliefs. But contrary to the rhetoric of its defenders, this shift is not a simple advance for freedom. The privileging of “choice” above all else

Thirty-four. That is the percentage of 2012 voters who, according to exit polls, believed Mitt Romney’s policies would primarily benefit the middle class. Fifty-three percent responded that Romney’s policies would primarily favor the wealthy. Things, though,

There are only a few lingering pink and red “marriage equality” profile pictures in my Facebook newsfeed. The magnitude of that campaign, however, was enormous. Approximately 2.7 million more Facebook users updated their profile pictures on Tuesday, March 26,

It was a brief greeting to former colleagues. But if you read Pope Francis’ recent letter to the Argentine bishops’ conference closely, you get a glimpse of the man, his convictions, and his vision. First, the man: Jorge Mario Bergoglio has remained very m

Like many countries, the United States of America is thick with laws supporting marriage. These laws compel citizens and governments to support marriage financially and respect a whole range of related rights and privileges. What justifies these measures? The

Protestants with a strong religious identity continue to increase as Catholics with a strong religious identity continue to decline, according to a March study by the Pew Research Center. The proportion of Catholics reporting strong religious affiliation decl

“American Pietà” is considered one of the iconic photographs of 9/11. You’ve seen it: the photo depicts five men, amid the dust and rubble that enveloped the World Trade Center that day, carrying the dead body of Fr. Mychal Judge out of the ruins. Judge, a F

Beautifully written and unforgettably told, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming is a memoir about Rod Dreher’s younger sister and the extraordinary impact she had upon her family and community. Subtitled “A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Li