Stephen M. Barr

Seeking ideas for presents this year, we asked several of our well-read friends and contributors for recommendations of a few wise, or fun, or disturbing books that every First Things reader should know”limited only by the request that the lists not include the Bible, Shakespeare, or volumes by . . . . Continue Reading »

The Historicity of Nature: Essays on Science and Theology by Wolfhart Pannenberg Templeton, 272 pages, $29.95 Wolfhart Pannenberg, one of the great figures of German Protestant theology, turns eighty this year. To mark the occasion, the Templeton Foundation Press has published a selection of his . . . . Continue Reading »

Recently I undertook to explain on the First Things website what the Large Hadron Collider ( LHC ) is all about. This rap song made by some particle physicists at CERN (the European science center where the LHC is) says the same things in a slightly different way . . . . . Continue Reading »

There was an excellent discussion on Delaware public television on the subject of Joe Biden, Catholic teaching on abortion, and Catholic voters. The three panelists were Prof. Robert T. Miller of Villanova University School of Law, Fr. Leonard Klein of the Catholic diocese of Wilmington, and Prof. . . . . Continue Reading »

Amanda posted yesterday an excerpt from a book entitled A Discourse of the Married and Single Life: Wherein by Discovering the Misery of One, is Plainly Declared the Felicity of the Other . This made me think back twenty-six years to my wedding reception. My wife and I and our families and the . . . . Continue Reading »

While in Seoul, South Korea this summer, I had the opportunity to attend Saturday evening Mass at Myongdong Cathedral with a young French physicist friend. I couldn’t understand a word—it was entirely in Korean—but I was deeply moved. There were no rich vestments, incense, Gregorian . . . . Continue Reading »

As many of you know, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) turned on yesterday in Geneva. So maybe I should say a little about it, since this is the kind of physics I do for a living. The LHC is a very big deal for physics. It is likely to make the first major breakthrough in particle physics in over . . . . Continue Reading »

Despite Jody’s observations , I think McCain was absolutely right not to spend a lot time talking about abortion and related issues in his acceptance speech. Consider: (a) You’ve got to get possession of the bully pulpit before giving the sermons. (b) Those on both sides for whom the . . . . Continue Reading »

I was surfing the television a few nights ago and came across something on EWTN that really irked me. It was an embarrassingly stupid show called “I was a Teenage Darwinist.” It featured some mountebank striding up and down in front of an audience, wisecracking and sneering at Darwinism . . . . Continue Reading »

It seems to me that the Catholic bishops are missing a golden teaching opportunity. Bishops are rightly concerned that for them to publicly warn or chastise politicians because of their voting records on abortion will be misunderstood as politically motivated. All sorts of issues get dragged into . . . . Continue Reading »