First Thoughts

Five Ways the Church Can Help Married and Engaged Couples

Sitting at a high-top table in Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, just a few blocks away from Pope Francis and the World Meeting of Families, a young priest friend leaned in and asked me what I wish had been different about my marriage prep. “Having been through it recently, what would you . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links — 10.20.15

Saints, Accidentally
Julia Powers, Fare Forward

Benedict and Nothing
Rod Dreher, American Conservative

Love, Dad
David Desrosiers, City Journal

Holy Foolery
Ken Kalfus, New Yorker

Finding The Words for Faith: 
Christian Wiman is America's Most Important Christian Writer
Matthew Sitman, The Dish

First Links — 10.19.15

Confessions of a New Confessor
Fr. Gabriel Torretta, OP, Ethika Politika

Legalized Assisted Suicide Moves Us Scarily Close to Real-Life Horror Story
Russell Shaw, Aleteia

Playboy Goes Respectable: With Nudity Ubiquitous, a Porn Pioneer Covers Up
Matthew Schmitz, National Review

The Powerful, Unlikely Appeal of Modern Witchcraft—Even for a Skeptic
Alex Mar, NY Mag

A Mother Under Wraps
Eve Tushnet, American Conservative

The Value of First Things: Three Communications

I like First Things because it’s smart.” That’s what one journalist wrote to me awhile back. Before that, another one told me of a group of journalists and editors who pay close attention to . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links — 10.16.15

Mind the Gap: Neuroscience, Transhumanism, and Human Nature
William E. Carroll, Public Discourse

Discovering the Earliest Known Draft of the King James Bible
Jeffrey Alan Miller, Times Literary Supplement

Jafar Panahi's Remarkable Taxi
Richard Brody, New Yorker

Music, Memory, and the Death of St. Stan's
Rod Dreher, American Conservative

Michel Houellebecq, Casually Provocative
Rachel Donadio, New York Times

The Craft of Christian Wiman

In light of our upcoming poetry event on October 25, here's an introduction to Christian Wiman's verse.

What We've Been Reading—10.16.15

I am reading The Blondelian Synthesis: A Study of the Influence of German Philosophical Sources on the Formation of Blondel's Method and Thought by John McNeil. It's a really fine, detailed scholarly study of the influence of Spinoza, Kant, Schelling and Hegel on Blondel. I was enjoying it so much I googled John McNeil to find out if he wrote anything else! Continue Reading »

Q and A for People Who Hate the Benedict Option

A one-act play.

First Links — 10.15.15

Sluttery and Shakespeare
B. D. McClay, Hedgehog Review

If You're Not Paranoid, You're Crazy
Walter Kirn, Atlantic

Glory and Vainglory
Charlie Clark, Fare Forward

Camille Paglia's Ambiguous Critical Legacy
Stephen Eide, National Association of Scholars

In Which Three Adults Discuss The Once and Future King Seriously and At Length
Johannah King-Slutzky And Joe Howley, Toast

Civil Society, Church, and State

Civil society does not represent an effort to “fix” something, whether it be the overweening state or the corrosive market. To think that it does is to miss the point.
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