A Graceful and Elegant Beginning

The graceful and even elegant beginning of the state visit has only been made trying by the incessant banter of commentators who think themselves obliged to fill in every second of air time with streams of talk, occasionally informative, but mostly banal. “When I met the Holy Father . . . . . . . Continue Reading »

Modern Historians on Pope Benedict

Eamon Duffy of Cambridge University is one of the church’s great historians . He is also, at times, one of its most disappointing. The problem with Professor Duffy—maddening, to those who admire his books—is that he has no feel for contemporary Catholicism. As long as he is writing . . . . Continue Reading »

Dispelling Fear By Expelling Faith

Last week, Rick Santorum, former Senator of Pennsylvania, gave a rousing speech on faith in the public square : Three pictures hung in the home of my devoutly Catholic immigrant grandparents when I was a boy and I remember them well — Jesus, Pope Paul VI and John F. Kennedy. The . . . . Continue Reading »

Constitution Day Musings—Part 1

The experts at Georgetown are right to highlight the following excerpt from the opinion of the Court in PLANNED PARENTHOOD v. CASEY: 1. “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” . . . . Continue Reading »

Intellectuals at Work

Another day of double-offering in “On the Square”. First we have R. R. Reno’s regular article, this one titled Love Rather Than Theory and dealing with the difference between thinking things through and what the modern intellectual does. “The intellectual is an intellectual . . . . Continue Reading »

Why Aren’t Jews For Jesus?

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin explains why Jews do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah : From Judaism’s perspective, Jesus did not fulfill the messianic prophecies and therefore is not regarded as the Messiah. The best-known of the prophecies concerning the messianic days is that “Nation shall . . . . Continue Reading »

Guns, Elections, and Stuff

Voegelinian scholar, Grant Havers, has a new, insightful, and wonderfully written book on Lincoln here: http://press.umsystem.edu/fall2009/havers.htm . Please take note of the University of Missouri Press, they’re the publisher of Voegelin’s complete works and they publish a plethora of . . . . Continue Reading »

The Trees Speak Only to the Enlightened

I have been dipping into esoteric religious stuff, by accident. Normally it isn’t anything I mess with, beyond the dismal fancies of liberal Protestants in general and Lutherans in particular. I blame UFO Magazine . A recent cover caught my eye at the library. There is a connection, I learned, . . . . Continue Reading »