Matthew , what I find most fascinating about those Randinalia is how they reveal her irrationality. Her responses are not even remotely tracking the actual content of Lewis’ argument; they’re more like conditioned reflexes than reasoning. It’s clear that she perceives . . . . Continue Reading »
...In a word, alcohol is what protected me from growing up. That seems like such an obvious insight, so simple it borders on the banal, but until that moment I’d never really grasped the idea that growth was something you could choose, that adulthood might be less a chronological state than an . . . . Continue Reading »
Jesus : “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 25:13). Pew : “Roughly half (48%) of Christians in the U.S. say they believe that Christ will definitely (27%) or probably (20%) return to earth in the next 40 years.” . . . . Continue Reading »
During his oral argument before the Supreme Court, Ted Olson observed that marriage is a “fundamental right.” This is a confused statement. It’s true that marriage is very important, fundamental, in fact. It’s part of the DNA of society, and for most people the path in life . . . . Continue Reading »
The biggest difference between Samuel Taylor Coleridge and David Foster Wallace is that by the time cardiomyopathy took Coleridge’s life in 1834, at the age of sixty-one, the consensus was that he had died too late. It’s not that no one engaged in rueful speculation about the . . . . Continue Reading »
The higher ed press has been abuzz lately with a story out of Florida Atlantic University, which began with a student claiming that he had been “suspended” for his refusal to take part in a classroom exercise. The student, a Mormon, was enrolled in a course in intercultural . . . . Continue Reading »
In January, at Georgetown College in Kentucky, Wendell Berry made a speech declaring his support for gay marriage. In February, I wrote a summary and analysis of Berry’s speech for First Things. In the last couple of weeks, two things have happened that I should note in order to update my account . . . . Continue Reading »
At the Huffington Post , U-Texas grad student William Blake writes about a study he conducted on the impact of the justices’ religious views on Supreme Court decisions. (The study, published in the Political Research Quarterly , is here .) Although they are not as . . . . Continue Reading »
Maundy Thursday, like Palm Sunday, begins in joy and ends in sorrow. The music of Maundy Thursday usually recounts the events of the Last Supper, the foot-washing, the discourses found in the Gospel of John, the betrayal, and Jesus’ arrest. Orlando di Lasso’s “In Monte . . . . Continue Reading »
Sandro Magister writes : It is a widespread opinion, confirmed by numerous testimonies, that the intention of electing pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio grew substantially among the cardinals on the morning of Saturday, March 9, when the then-archbishop of Buenos Aires spoke at the second to last of the . . . . Continue Reading »
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