The Editors

William Doino Jr. on whether America is blessed by God : In 2008, Religion and Ethics Newsweekly released a survey on how Americans view their country’s relationship to God: “Sixty-one percent agree that America is a nation specially blessed by God,” it revealed, “and 59 percent . . . . Continue Reading »

Wesley J. Smith on our neurotic fear of suffering : Ironically, our many medical triumphs and the consequential receding of serious suffering from everyday experience created a concomitant terror of travail that threatens the morality of society. For example, when people actually did die in agony, . . . . Continue Reading »

Leroy Huizenga on the Bulverism of same-sex marriage supporters : The problem with making consent the sole criterion of the Good is that it’s merely a social convention. “Consent” is an idea forged in the wake of the widespread death of metaphysics and it thus lacks any ultimate . . . . Continue Reading »

George Weigel on the Church and the unions : The defense of nascent trade unionism in late-nineteenth-century America is a bright chapter in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. When a nervous Vatican was prepared to write off trade unions as the kind of “secret . . . . Continue Reading »

Elizabeth Scalia on evangelization and tolerance : There is a video going around the internet—it seems to arrive in my email box every other day from another Catholic offering it as evidence of Americans antipathy toward the church. In the video, which was taken in early August, some . . . . Continue Reading »

R.R. Reno on the Virgin Mary’s spiritual lessons :  When affirming the Blessed Virgin’s immaculate conception, a Catholic is not in any way denying Mary’s humanity, nor is he covertly turning her into a goddess of some sort. Instead, the dogma simply applies the saving merits . . . . Continue Reading »

Peter J. Leithart on preachers needing to be men of God : Once upon a time, preachers could grab attention because everyone believed they had something to say that everyone needed to hear. With sin and Satan abroad in the land, Puritan preachers and their congregants were convinced that only their . . . . Continue Reading »

Russell E. Saltzman ponders the question of why God creates : “What was God doing before creation?” is another stumper but here there are some answers—of a sort. Augustine flat declared it was impossible even to ask inasmuch as there never will be an answer, so there. I like . . . . Continue Reading »

George Weigel on five great motets : The Church’s liturgy has inspired great choral music for centuries. Unfortunately, that part of Catholicism’s cultural memory has been somewhat misplaced in recent years. One reason why is the widespread misapprehension among liturgists that . . . . Continue Reading »

James R. Rogers on N.T. Wright’s How God Became King : Theologian N.T. Wright’s most recent book,  How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels , squarely takes on this implication of American Evangelicalism’s “premillennial” theology. Yet as Wright relates . . . . Continue Reading »