Editors

I just finished reading Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance by Ian Buruma. Ian Buruma is Dutch, and after the 2005 murder of Theo van Gogh by a young Islamist, the journalist spent many months back in his home country investigating the roots of the crime.

This week, for my sins, I read The Power of Positive Thinking and The Art of the Deal. I won't list my sins here, but you can tell by the penance that they are great. Norman Vincent Peale does not lay any great stress on sin in The Power of Positive Thinking. For him, it is more important to improve one's attitude, to think positively, than to say domine, non sum dignus.

I'm going to break protocol and tell you about what I've been watching. But what I've been watching happens to be hyper-hypertextual: Rodney Ascher's Room 237 is a geeked-out documentary about a prestige horror film, reminding us how prestige can precipitate (or arise from? or consist of?) a fever of discourse. Continue Reading »

What is the role of the priest in today's Catholic schools? How do the Fathers of the Church speak to us today? This and more in our events roundup.

Take the train to Brussels, walk across the Warendepark, and into the Berlaymont building. This is the home of the European Commission. Depending on which entomologist you consult, it is either the cocoon from which a new Europe will emerge or the center of a vast spider-web of regulation that is choking the continent.

Continue Reading »

How God Messed Up My Happy Atheist Life
Nicole Cliffe, Christianity Today

Philosophy and Art Criticism
Kate Havard, Claremont Review of Books

Vatican Liturgy Chief Urges Priests to Celebrate Mass Facing East
Staff, Catholic Herald

An Elite Faith
Bill McMorris, Washington Free Breacon

The Enduring Legacy of The Twilight Zone
Brian Murray, New Atlantis

Why I Didn’t Attend My Notre Dame Graduation
Alexandra DeSanctis, Ethika Politika

The Case for Banning Pornography
Matthew Schmitz, Washington Post

Movies on Marriage: The Lobster vs. Love and Friendship
Tim Markatos, Acculturated

The Convict-Bourgeois
Eve Tushnet, University Bookman

Do you want to see your writing on the First Things website? If you are currently enrolled in college, a graduate program, or seminary, be sure to enter our second annual Student Essay Contest by June 15.

The Geeks Can't Defeat Death
David Mills, Aleteia

Catholic Archdiocese to Offer 12 Weeks Paid Parental Leave
David Gibson, Religion News Service

Desire, Deicide, and Atonement: René Girard and St. Thomas Aquinas
Edmund Waldstein, O. Cist., Sancrucensis

Europe's Cheesy Musical Proxy War
Ivan Plis, National Interest

Secret History of Bioluminescence
Ferris Jabr, Hakai

Your Brain Does Not Process Information and it is not a Computer
Robert Epstein, Aeon

This is How Fascism Comes to America
Robert Kagan, Washington Post

Lewis on Tolkien: “Only Needs A Smack or So”
Jonathan McDonald, Dappled Things

The Meaning of Food
Ian Sansom, Times Literary Supplement

Is It Time for a US Christian Democracy Party?
Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Aleteia

The Sisters Who Treat the Untreatable
Gillian Laub and Brooke Jarvis, New York Times

Romeo and Juliet gets Local Twist in Gaza Performance
Fares Akram, Times of Israel

The Brotherhood of Moses the Black
Katie Zavadski, Daily Beast

Video: Why Poetry Matters
Dana Gioia, C-Span

Neil DeGrasse Tyson is a Black Hole, Sucking the Fun out of the Universe
Sam Kriss, Wired

A Young Priest Sets the Record Straight for the Catholic Left
Fr. Kyle Doustou, Liturgy Guy

Death by GPS
Greg Milner, Ars Technica

The Little Sisters of the Poor Just Beat the Obama Administration at the Supreme Court
David French, National Review

After reading the list of demands that black students at Oberlin College issued to the Oberlin leadership awhile back, I needed a quick antidote, which I found in the Port Huron Statement of 1962. Continue Reading »