Richard John Neuhaus

Those sixteen words have taken a terrible beating in the past fifty years. For most of our history, they occasioned little controversy. That was when our culture and our polity seemed to be on more or less amicable terms. There are several possible datings of the change, but I think we can settle . . . . Continue Reading »

Judge William H. Pryor is on U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. I count him a friend and we had dinner last week when I was in Birmingham, Alabama. The Democrats gave him a very hard time when he was nominated by President Bush and he had to serve under a recess appointment until . . . . Continue Reading »

We’ve been having this little back and forth on whether Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, is a wimp on abortion. Herewith a viewpoint worthy of consideration sent by Prof. Tim Perry, who teaches theology at Providence College: Stephen Harper is, in my view, a political realist on . . . . Continue Reading »

A while back, I had some favorable things to say about Stephen Harper , the Conservative prime minister of Canada. This elicited howls of protest: “How could you! Harper is pro-abortion!” As it happens, Harper has challenged the Canadian political class on a number of . . . . Continue Reading »

In this Sunday’s New York Times , Paul Berman has a thoughtful review of two books , one about I.F. Stone and another that is a collection of Stone’s journalism. "Izzy" Stone, who died in 1989, is still a hero of the left¯an icon, as it is said. I.F. Stone’s Weekly . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public Square The Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama, is a remarkable place. It very much reflects the vision of Timothy George, its founding and present dean, a Baptist of Calvinist proclivities who believes that evangelical Protestantism should be fully engaged in the quest for . . . . Continue Reading »

I see the Tablet , a British Catholic magazine, has this article by Ian Markham (registration required) of Hartford Theological Seminary in which he claims that I have said there are 100 million radical Muslims (best described, as I explain in a forthcoming issue of First Things , as Jihadists) bent . . . . Continue Reading »

You recall those awful years of John Paul II’s authoritarian and repressive pontificate when the ailing pontiff, taking advice only from a cabal of right-wing intimates and yes men, turned the Catholic Church into a one-man show. Surely you remember. Writers such as Malcolm Moore, John . . . . Continue Reading »

Herewith a potpourri of reflections on the Regensburg lecture by Pope Benedict and reactions to it, intermixed with a bit of my own commentary. As many commentators, Muslim and other, do not know because they manifestly have not read the lecture, it was not chiefly about Islam. It was a considered . . . . Continue Reading »

No, not that Ronald Dworkin, the legal philosopher at New York University. This Ronald Dworkin is a medical doctor and political philosopher who has written an informative and provocative book, Artificial Happiness: The Dark Side of the New Happy Class . He and I discussed his book at an event at . . . . Continue Reading »