The Editors

R. R. Reno on capitalism and conservatism : Freedom creates problems. It’s a good thing, often rightly encouraged, but it has costs. This is true of political freedom, as the Founders recognized, which is why they feared pure democracy. It’s also true of moral freedom: see the decline of . . . . Continue Reading »

Robert T. Miller replies to R. R. Reno on capitalism and economic freedom : The debate on economic issues between conservatives and liberals is not about whether the government should regulate the market or whether wealth should be redistributed. Rather, the debate between economic conservatives . . . . Continue Reading »

George Weigel on the radicalism of Pope Francis : “I wish to say to you frankly,” the pope continued, “that I prefer a thousand times an injured Church than a sick Church,” a risk-taking Church to a Church palsied by self-absorption. Thus the vision toward which this pope . . . . Continue Reading »

James R. Rogers on the changing religious identities of Protestants and Catholics : While strong Protestants haven’t gained in the overall population, despite gaining proportionally among self-identified Protestants, they also haven’t lost ground in the overall population during this . . . . Continue Reading »

William Doino Jr. reviews Rod Dreher’s The Little Way of Ruthie Leming : For all its idiosyncrasies and hardships, St. Francisville was a place where many people are born and die in the same place, alongside the same folks they grew up with. Those kind of social bonds, broad and deep, are . . . . Continue Reading »

Peter Leithart reviews Ephraim Radner’s A Brutal Unity : Radner traces the murderous divisiveness of Christianity back to Epiphanius’ fourth-century treatise “Refutation of all Heresies.” The “Epiphanian paradigm” treats intra-Christian discord as apostasy and . . . . Continue Reading »

George Weigel reviews the newest baseball movie : Now comes  42 , the long-awaited cinematic telling of the Jackie Robinson story, which I recently saw on a snowy April Sunday afternoon in the Twin Cities. I wouldn’t call it a great movie (like, for example,  The King’s Speech . . . . Continue Reading »

Elizabeth Scalia on the idea of American Catholicism : Russell Shaw argues that the present struggles of the Church to be who she is amid governmental mandates and the ascendant “state religion” of secular humanism are the legacy of Baltimore’s Cardinal James Gibbons and other early . . . . Continue Reading »

R. R. Reno on the triumph and the downsides of capitalism : The history of modern politics shows again and again that we can exercise political power to ameliorate and mitigate the social consequences of free market capitalism. This can only be done by limiting its powering motor, which is economic . . . . Continue Reading »

Micah Mattix analyzes the line “ She sang beyond the genius of the sea ”: Wallace Stevens was preoccupied with the sound of poetry, evident in part in the alliteration and assonance of this week’s line from “The Idea of Order at Key West.” In his 1936 essay “The . . . . Continue Reading »