Various

The Reformation and Churchly Scripture There is a tension in Protestant ecclesiology that Timothy George only hints at in his treatment of the “churchly context of reading Scripture” and in his dismissal of the Maritainian critique of Luther’s radical individualism (“Reading the . . . . Continue Reading »

MACINTYRE’S ECONOMICS Robert T. Miller first says that I am a great philosopher (“Waiting for St. Vladimir,” February) and then accuses me of being stupid enough to hold what he takes to be a set of obviously false propositions. On both counts he is mistaken, although I am more . . . . Continue Reading »

Conservative Liberalism or Liberal Conservatism? I am grateful to James Kalb for his thoughtful and respectful engagement with my newly published book The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order (“Squaring the Circle,” February). He credits me with posing some of the right questions . . . . Continue Reading »

Bearing Witness through marriage Liberal evangelical Ron Sider makes a strong case in favor of the ancient Christian and indeed natural understanding of marriage (“Bearing Better Witness,” December 2010). He attempts to “balance” his article by simultaneously chiding . . . . Continue Reading »

Natural Law, Franckly Speaking Matthew Franck has been a friend, and I know he was seeking to be generous of spirit in his review of my new book (“The Lawful Truth,” October 2010). But he gives us a version of Carnac the Magnificent: Instead of pronouncing the answers and then announcing . . . . Continue Reading »

Policy Pollyanna Foreign-policy experts tend toward blindness to the moral aspects of what they analyze, and theologians are typically without expertise in geopolitics. George Weigel is one of the few people able to offer informed discussion of both morality and geopolitics, and he does so with his . . . . Continue Reading »

The Politics of Life My own take on abortion politics is somewhat different from Joseph Bottum’s (“The Signpost at the Crossroads” August/September 2010). I have yet to hear an explanation of how America, or any given state, would go about distinguishing between sought abortions that . . . . Continue Reading »

THE UPWARD CURVE If readers agree with Joseph Bottum, as I do, that American print standards are in an absurd decline, they should also agree that this new format for First Things will go a long way toward bending that curve upward. It’s a classy design, with just enough good and prominent . . . . Continue Reading »

Surviving Obamacare Joseph Bottum (“Bad Medicine,” May 2010) is too sanguine in his thoughts about what happens next. The combination of more federal mandates, more promised subsidies, and tighter government controls will make health-care services more expensive, less responsive too the . . . . Continue Reading »

Uprooting Spirituality In his review of Rebecca Goldstein’s 36 Arguments for the Existence of God (“Lost in Space-Time,” April 2010), David P. Goldman calls most of her arguments “straw men.” It seems to me that Goldstein presents them in an ironic manner and that the book . . . . Continue Reading »