Richard John Neuhaus

The first word from the cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Christians call them the Triduum Sacrum, the three most sacred days of the year, the three most sacred days of all time when time is truly told. Maundy Thursday, so called because that night before he was betrayed . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public Square Who will guard the guardians? That question, variously expressed, is among the oldest in political theory and practice. Jeremy Rabkin, professor of government at Cornell, has written an important book, Why Sovereignty Matters (1998), that addresses that old question in a way both . . . . Continue Reading »

We are born to die. Not that death is the purpose of our being born, but we are born toward death, and in each of our lives the work of dying is already underway. The work of dying well is, in largest part, the work of living well. Most of us are at ease in discussing what makes for a good life, . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public Square Some years ago, in October 1991, we published C. John Sommerville’s “How the News Makes Us Dumb,” and I still think it one of the most winsomely wise pieces we have run. Sommerville, professor of history at the University of Florida, has now expanded that essay . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public Square In the view of conservatives, liberals are in the saddle. In the view of liberals, conservatives are in the saddle, or at least threaten to take things over. There is no “us” without a “them,” and it’s hard to ginger up passion for our cause without believing that . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public Square The word-mavens—William Safire, for instance—routinely complain about the use of “intriguing” when “engaging,” “fascinating,” or just plain “interesting” would do as well. The complaint is justified. But intriguing is the right word to describe current . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public Square The British media let it all hang out for the funeral of Basil Cardinal Hume, Archbishop of Westminster. But then, as we learned from the lachrymose sensationalism surrounding Princess Di’s death, something dreadfully embarrassing seems to have happened to the nation of the . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public Square The U.S.-NATO attack on Serbia was a good occasion to go back and read Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia. A big book of more than a thousand pages, it was first published in 1941 and is available in Penguin paperback. Dame Rebecca . . . . Continue Reading »

Almost everybody agrees that progress is a good thing. But most self-evidently good things, when examined more closely, have a way of generating disagreements. And so it is with the idea of progress, of which the idea of moral progress is part. Thinkers arguing from the most diverse perspectives . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public Square This is the long promised reflection on what “the Clinton affair” does or does not mean for the state of the republic. It is of course an interim reflection, since people will be trying to sort this out for many years to come. But for now at least some of the dust has settled . . . . Continue Reading »