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A Gentler Christendom

From the June/July 2022 Print Edition

How should contemporary Christians react to the decline of their churches, the secularization of the culture, the final loss of Christendom? Perhaps, one important author has suggested, they should reconcile themselves to the new dispensation, accepting that the “modern age is not a sacral, but a . . . . Continue Reading »

The Shadow of Failure

From the June/July 2022 Print Edition

I am grateful to Edmund Waldstein for his kind response to my essay, and for his writings on these subjects generally. I am especially grateful in this case for his crisp elucidation of the Maritain–De Koninck debate and its implications for contemporary arguments, a subject whose subtleties I . . . . Continue Reading »

Lost and Saved on Television

From the May 2007 Print Edition

There was a time in American life, not so very long ago, when the only significant relation between religion and popular culture seemed to be the tedious symbiosis enjoyed by such envelope-pushing television producers as Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley and the conservative Christians who loved to . . . . Continue Reading »

Douthat: Reply to Bottum

From Web Exclusives

In his post on the midterm elections and their discontents, Jody Bottum argues that conservatives haven’t made support for the Iraq War a defining test of one’s conservatism, in the way that opposition to the war¯and indeed, war of almost any kind¯has become an abortion-style . . . . Continue Reading »

Douthat: The Dems’ Religion Problem

From Web Exclusives

Jody already remarked on the new Pew survey showing that while Americans are less inclined to call the GOP “friendly” to religion than they were two years ago (down from 55 to 47 percent), they’re much less likely to call the Democrats religion-friendly, with just 26 percent . . . . Continue Reading »

Douthat: Sex ed and abortion wars

From Web Exclusives

In Sunday’s Times , Judith Shulevitz reviews Kristin Luker’s new book on the sex-ed wars, When Sex Goes to School , which argues . . . well, here’s how Shulevitz puts it: Only toward the end of a 300-odd page book about sex education in America does Kristin Luker permit herself a . . . . Continue Reading »