Four Things to Remember About the Pope’s Environment Letter

by Robert P. George

The Pope has no special knowledge, insight, or teaching authority pertaining to matters of empirical fact. . . . Continue Reading »

3 Jan 2015 0

The German Position

by Matthew Schmitz

What explains the new enthusiasm for cultural difference? Continue Reading »

22 Oct 2014 0

A Pastoral Failure

by Matthew Schmitz

I was recently accused of (actually, praised for, but it seemed to me an accusation) supporting “marriage equality”—a slogan that indicates whoever uses it fails to understand either of the terms it combines. The occasion for this slander was, rather ironically, a piece I had written rejecting calls for gay marriage. The piece was misread, I think, because I had positive things to say about gay people and about the love present in countless gay relationships. Apparently this fact was significant enough that there was no need to attend to my actual conclusion. Continue Reading »

14 Oct 2014 0

?Pope Francis and Weddings

by R. R. Reno

The New York Times titled its article, “In Weddings, Pope Looks Past Tradition.” The Wall Street Journal announced that the pope’s presiding over twenty weddings at St. Peter’s on Sunday indicates his desire for a more “open and inclusive church.” CBS News called the mass ceremony “progressive.” 
Continue Reading »

21 Sep 2014 0

On Memory and Reconciliation

by Dale M. Coulter

The pope’s apology to Pentecostals during his visit to the church pastored by Giovanni Traettino speaks to the importance of memory. As Augustine recounts in his Confessions, the memory is a vast storehouse of many chambers filled with countless images. Continue Reading »

7 Aug 2014 0

On Thinking with the Church

by Dale M. Coulter

Gerald McDermott has been prosecuting a case against a certain version of evangelical theology over the past few years (see here and here). His fundamental point is the need to recover the Great Tradition within Evangelicalism and thus to read scripture in and through the lens of the church spread out through time. To fail to read scripture in this way, according to McDermott, is to hold to nuda scriptura in which the interpretation of scripture is reduced to the application of current sensibilities that reinforce the autonomy of the late-modern individual. When personal interpretation trumps the tradition, McDermott wonders how one can ever move beyond a new kind of Babylonian captivity, the captivity of interpretation to a modern cultural milieu. Continue Reading »

27 May 2014 0

Pope Francis has a Secret: He’s Jennifer Lawrence

by B. D. McClay

As we absorb the news of Pope Francis’s latest escapade—he accidentally cursed in front of an adoring audience—we are faced with a difficult but unavoidable truth. And that truth is: Pope Francis and Jennifer Lawrence are the same person. Continue Reading »

4 Mar 2014 0

Why Papal Approval Ratings Are Absurd

by Matthew Schmitz

Approval ratings remain high for the Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the Vatican City State, Servant of the servants of God, . . . . Continue Reading »

12 Sep 2013 0