First Thoughts

​Francis at the United Nations

Francis and the dialectics of exclusion Continue Reading »

First Links — 9.25.15

Embracing Our Limits: The Lessons of Laudato Si'
Rowan Williams, Commonweal

How Marcuse Made Today’s Students Less Tolerant Than Their Parents
April Kelly-Woessner, Heterodox Academy

Religious Freedom Message: Pope Makes Surprise Stop at Little Sisters of the Poor
Staff, National Catholic Register

Loving Radically—A Little Like the Celtic Saints
Heather Walker Peterson, Humane Pursuits

Two Monks Invent Religious Iconography
Mallory Ortberg, Toast

The Political Evanescence of the Papal Visit

It is an unavoidable preoccupation of our political class to speak and write obsessively about the political impact of, well, everything. Pope Francis’s visit to the United States is a Very Big Thing to talk about in this respect. Whom will he afflict, and whom will he comfort? Will the Left chafe . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links — 9.24.15

Taking the Measure of Pope Francis
Leah Libresco, et alia, FiveThirtyEight

Speaking Truth
David Mills, Ethika Politika

A Walk on the Holy Side: Nun Helps Transgendered Find Christ
Argentine Catholic Information Agency, Aleteia

The Latest Victim's of Political Correctness? Gilbert and Sullivan
Matthew Schmitz, Acculturated

‘Hamilton' and the End of Irony
Alexandra Petri, Washington Post

A Response to Janet Smith's “Benign Reading” of Paragraph 137

On September 10, we published “An Appeal,” endorsed by a long list of fellow scholars. The Appeal sharply criticized paragraph 137 of the Instrumentum laboris for the upcoming Synod on the family. In her “A Benign Reading of a Confusing Paragraph,” Janet Smith offered a thoughtful . . . . Continue Reading »

What Francis Said—And Didn't Say—To Congress

It was a modest speech, one generous to the American experience but lacking in the sharpness this pontiff is sometimes capable of.  The repeated use of the term “dialogue” was irritating. It's a buzzword among today's technocrats. They use it as a softening word, one that signals that . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links — 9.23.15

Free to Start Again: The Message and Meaning of Yom Kippur
Jonathan Sacks, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Bible and its Translators
Sarah Brodsky, Washington Free Beacon

Watch the Austin Graduate School of Theology/First Things Lecture
Dr. Keith Stanglin, Christian Studies

The White House is More Afraid of Offending China's President than the Pope
Editorial Board, Washington Post

Where Does the Story End?
Michael Rennier, Dappled Things

Sex and Campus

The results of a survey of female college students came out this week, and the numbers are distressing. The Association of American Universities commissioned a “Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct,” focusing on “the incidence, prevalence and characteristics of . . . . Continue Reading »

Fiorina Stumbles Onto the Truth the Media Ignores

On her biggest stage yet, Fiorina deserves applause for forcefully raising Planned Parenthood’s treatment of the unborn and the associated political avoidance practiced by many in both parties. Nevertheless, Fiorina’s details were in fact a bit off, and her sympathizers (a group I readily put . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links — 8.22.15

Pope Francis: Woman Is God’s Strongest Ally in the Battle Against Evil
Diane Montagna, Aleteia

Why Rush Should Meet the Bunk
Rod Dreher, American Conservative

J. R. R. Tolkien and the Exorcism of the Tape Recorder
E. H. Kern, BookRiot

Tactical Thomism
Susannah Black, Radio Free Thulcandra

Pope Leaves Detailed Instructions for Taking Care of Holy Spirit While He Out of Town
Editors, Onion