With cynicism about politics widespread, it’s good to have James Skillen’s seasoned, balanced reminder of The Good of Politics. A few excerpts.At the outset, Skillen questions the common separation of politics and culture: “can political really be distinguished as a realm separate . . . . Continue Reading »
Noah Smith thinks that drones are the new gunpowder.Guns and gunpowder revolutionized warfare. A barely trained peasant could take down a proud knight from a distance. Smith argues that the drone is about to replace the gunman.That means an upheaval in warfare. The Age of the Gun, he . . . . Continue Reading »
William Broad reports in the New York Timesthat budget cuts in federal science programs have created a crisis in research. Billionaires have stepped into the gap to fund projects that they deem important. This disturbs the scientific establishment,. Steven Edwards of the American . . . . Continue Reading »
I suggested in a post this past week that Jesus is the new Phinehaswhen he comes to judge the Balaamites of Pergamum (Revelation 2:14-16).I had in mind Numbers 25, where Phinehas arrests a plague that breaks out because Israelites are fornicating and committing idolatry with Moabite women who . . . . Continue Reading »
John Bergsma observes that the year of Jubilee was proclaimed with a trumpet blast on the day of atonement (The Jubilee from Leviticus to Qumran, 92), and draws this conclusion:Since other ancient Near Eastern festivals of the seventh month—such as the akîtu—combined reassertion of . . . . Continue Reading »
Why do so many bad guys and sinister places have names using the syllable “mor”? James Harbeck mentionsMoriarty, Voldemort, Mordor, and Piers Morgan, though he ultimately dismisses the last.The answer that immediately occurs is etymological: mor- is linked to death in Romance . . . . Continue Reading »
In the prim and sanitized West, we think of purity rules as superstitious and primitive. We have transcended such nonsense. Mary Douglas and other anthropologists have tried to convince us that we’re self-deluded, but leave that to the side. As Rose George reports, there are places . . . . Continue Reading »
Novelist Amin Malouf was born in Lebanon, and now lives in Paris. He’s a Melchite Christian. As he points out at the beginning of In the Name of Identity, those few markers only begin to spell out his complex of allegiances and loyalties.Malouf is not claiming to be unique. On the . . . . Continue Reading »
Responding to a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that Indian men spend only 19 minutes a day on housework, Chandrahas Choudhury rises up in witty defense of the Indian male.“Millions of Indian men do huge amounts of housework — but in single-man . . . . Continue Reading »
John Smart’s Tarantula’s Web, on the circle of intellectuals around John Hayward and TS Eliot is, according to Lachlan Mackinnon, an unrivaled “demonstration” of “just how ‘unpleasant’ it might have been ‘to meet Mr Eliot.”Hayward and . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
