Richard John Neuhaus

There are so many pieces to Pope Benedict’s visit to Turkey this week that one hardly knows where to begin. In almost all the media coverage, it was quite forgotten that this was, first of all, a pastoral and ecumenical visit. There is a very small Catholic community in Turkey that is as . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public SquareThere are little exchanges that stick in memory. It was a conversation many years ago with Eugene Carson Blake. He was then the oldline Protestant establishment’s main man in just about everything, beginning with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the National Council of . . . . Continue Reading »

Here, with thanks to Amy Welborn, a reflection to lift the heart and confirm the will . The author, Simon Barnes, is chief sportswriter for the (UK) Times : "So Eddie was born, and I have spent the subsequent five years living with him. Not living with Down’s syndrome: what a ridiculous . . . . Continue Reading »

There has been a lively discussion among the young folks in the office about the morality of going to see the hit movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan . I saw a couple of trailers for the film on television and admit that I laughed out loud before . . . . Continue Reading »

This is but an addendum to Robert Miller’s fine reflection on the meaning of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is not easy. It is a very deliberate and specific practice that takes some working at. To cite a recent instance, the revelation that German novelist Günter Grass¯lauded for years as the . . . . Continue Reading »

You will not be surprised to learn that I am solidly on Ross Douthat’s side in his exchanges with Damon Linker at the New Republic Online (registration required) and the American Experience . My personal interest aside¯or as much as I am capable of putting it aside¯this is one of the . . . . Continue Reading »

One of the encouraging developments following Pope Benedict’s lecture at Regensburg University on September 12 is the number of thinkers in the United States and Europe who, while making a point of their not being Catholics or Christians, said that Benedict had rendered a great service by . . . . Continue Reading »

Jewcentricity is a word that will probably not catch on, but Adam Garfinkle employs it to good effect in American Interest Online in trying to explain some European habits of mind, or mindlessness, as the case may be. He writes: Educated Europeans know that their own histories, far more deeply than . . . . Continue Reading »

Evangelicals have never forgotten, and for good reason they have never forgotten, that Washington Post story of a few years ago that described them as “poor, uneducated, and easily led.” The Post apologized for it, sort of, but the sentiment lives on in large sectors of the commenting . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public Square It is by no means certain, but it is more than just possible, that Pope Benedict’s September 12 lecture at the University of Regensburg and the controversy surrounding it will be referred to, five or twenty years from now, as “The Regensburg Moment.”As many commentators, . . . . Continue Reading »