Richard John Neuhaus

The third day of Christmas and my true love sent to me . . . As it happens, I didn’t get anything. Except the posting below by Michael Novak, which I commend to your attention. This is also the day of Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist. My parish in Brooklyn was St. John the Evangelist, which . . . . Continue Reading »

The 16th century Reformation claim was that the doctrine of justification is the article by which the Church stands or falls. The Joint Declaration between the Lutheran World Federation and the Vatican, plus the statement by Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT), “The Gift of . . . . Continue Reading »

This is the second day of Christmas, and also the day of St. Stephen, proto-martyr. Never mind that the traditional twelve days of Christmas have been tossed into a cocked hat by our venerable betters in cone hats who decided that Epiphany, January 6, is to be observed on the nearest Sunday. This . . . . Continue Reading »

While the ACLU and Americans United for a Naked Public Square were holding a press conference that was described as a “victory party,” others were more carefully reading the court decision in the Dover, Pennsylvania, case about Intelligent Design. There is, for instance, this by William . . . . Continue Reading »

There is the ameliorative left and then there is the transformative left. The former wants to work for reform that is possible, while the latter will settle for nothing less than everything and therefore ends up with nothing. This is the argument of Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter in Nation of . . . . Continue Reading »

Cal Thomas, whose column runs neck-to-neck with George Will’s as the most widely syndicated in the country, enters a dissent from the current “Christmas wars.” Thomas doesn’t give a fig whether the salesperson in the mall wishes him “Merry Christmas” or . . . . Continue Reading »

If you believe some news accounts, it is all a grab for money and power. The subheading of the Washington Post ‘s story on the excommunication of a priest and six lay people in St. Louis reads, “Archbishop Demands Control of Catholic Parish’s Assets, Property.” Greedy, . . . . Continue Reading »

Over on Catholic World News, there is this fellow who calls himself Diogenes, aka Uncle Di. He is, how we shall put it, unsparing. There is, for instance, this : “Your Uncle Di fondly remembers those days of undergraduate study in cosmology and causality, parsing the tight packaging of St. . . . . Continue Reading »

Joshua Skinner is among those researching that troublesome Chesterton quote about those who do not believe in God ending up by believing not in nothing but in anything. He thinks we get pretty close to it in a Father Brown story, “The Miracle of Moon Crescent” in The Incredulity of . . . . Continue Reading »

Christoph Cardinal Schönborn kicked off quite a discussion with his New York Times essay on neo-Darwinism and Christian faith this past summer. In the forthcoming issue of F IRST T HINGS , he expands on the argument he is making. His article is titled “The Designs of Science.” For . . . . Continue Reading »