“I am lonely.” Like Joseph B. Soloveitchik in The Lonely Man of Faith, I am lonely. Not because “I am alone,” for I “enjoy the love and friendship of many … and yet, companionship and friendship do not alleviate the passional experience of loneliness which trails me constantly” … Continue Reading »
In 2005, following the death of Blessed John Paul II, I asked one of my closest friends”a Jesuit who has served the Church loyally for decades”who he thought would make a worthy successor. Stressing he would welcome anyone chosen, he remarked, “I hope it might be my Jesuit colleague in Argentina, Cardinal Bergoglio. Many of us believe he has the qualities of a saint” … Continue Reading »
Several years ago, I received a “personal” letter (above) from the Ku Klux Klan of Upstate South Carolina. A colleague of mine in my college’s Religion Department had asked me to conduct a model Seder for Passover for her students and had invited a reporter from the Spartanburg newspaper to cover the event. A week later, the letter arrived. I was not frightened or disturbed (unlike my poor mother in Illinois to whom I made the mistake of reading the letter. “Get out of South Carolina!” she pleaded), but I was unsettled… . Continue Reading »
In academia, Constantine is suddenly hot. Several major new biographies have appeared, joined by new editions of older volumes and a spate of monographs on aspects of Constantine’s empire and its aftermath. Academic conferences on Constantine have become a cottage industry… . Continue Reading »
The panhandler was at the I-470 exit at Blue Ridge Boulevard when I first saw him. That’s about 101st Street on Kansas City’s Southside. He looked bad. Unkempt, he was holding a makeshift sign with a typical message, and trying to make eye contact with people who did not want to make eye contact with him. I was in no position to stop and wave the usual dollar kept on hand for such encounters… . Continue Reading »
In the wake of Pope Francis’ virally circulated airplane interview, orthodox Catholic writers from every corner of the blogosphere have united in defense of our Holy Father, against the bizarre and ignorant statements of the popular media. Whether attacking the Times et al. for skewing the story to advance their own agenda, or complimenting the pope for using an unsuspecting press to help him broadcast Gospel truths, almost all such authors have agreed in insisting that there was nothing contrary to doctrine in the matter of our pontiff’s remarks. On this point, I certainly agree as well. “Judge not” is hardly foreign to Christianity… . Continue Reading »
The small oratory at Littlemore”dark but warm, dominated by red damask hangings that exude Victorian piety”is the room in which John Henry Newman was received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. Newman is most famous for that act, and that is why the Catholic Church celebrates his feast day today, on the anniversary of his reception, and not on the day of his death, as is customary. Those of us who have followed in his footsteps from evangelical Protestantism through Anglicanism into Catholicism revere him. For us he is a guide and patron who spurred us on and captures what we thought and felt with prose, intellect, and holiness to which we can only aspire… . Continue Reading »
From his present location in the communion of saints, Father John Courtney Murray, S.J., who died in 1967, is probably indifferent to the various ways his work on Catholicism and American democracy is misconstrued in the 21st century. But those who think that Murray still has something to teach Catholics about the American experiment in ordered liberty must regret that Murray’s thinking continues to be misrepresented in some Catholic quarters and misapplied in others… . Continue Reading »
Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, assassinated while celebrating mass in 1980, has long been an icon for the Latin American left. Now, with reports that his cause for canonization has been “unblocked,” he may be on his way to be declared a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church… . Continue Reading »
Natural evil is one of theology’s greatest challenges, but I have long thought it has a simple solution. Let me express it in four propositions: First, Satan is a fallen angel, which is indicated, however obliquely, by the so-called gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. Second, that cosmological event makes the world the site of a great struggle between good and evil. Evolution (not the theory, but the actual process), with its gambling on chance and seductive appeal to self-interest, is the product of that struggle. … Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
