George Weigel

Even as history continues to unfold”and explode”in ancient Mesopotamia, the Iraq War has already proven itself the most consequential international political event of the post-Cold War period. It changed, and continues to change, the political, psychological, and perhaps even . . . . Continue Reading »

Paul J. Griffiths The intense debate in the United States since September 11 about the meaning, history, and contemporary applicability of just war theory”much of it conducted in the pages of First Things”has been instructive and for the most part at a high level of conceptual and ethical . . . . Continue Reading »

It is no secret that late 2002 and early 2003”the months just before an American-led coalition deposed the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq”were a difficult moment in the dialogue between the Holy See and the United States government, and between the leaders of the Church in Rome and many . . . . Continue Reading »

Go back in your mind’s eye to the fall of 1940, the fateful period that Winston Churchill called Britain’s “finest hour.” Having subdued the Low Countries and France, Adolf Hitler now turned his attention to the last remaining democratic power in Europe. Hermann Göring . . . . Continue Reading »

In Book Three of Tolstoy’s epic, War and Peace, the hero, Pierre Bezukhov, arrives at the battlefield of Borodino to find that the fog of war has descended, obscuring everything he had expected to be clear. There is no order, there are no familiar patterns of action, all is contingency. He could . . . . Continue Reading »

On October 31, 1958, Isaiah Berlin gave his inaugural lecture as Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford. Entitled “Two Concepts of Liberty,” it was, according to Michael Ignatieff, Berlin’s authorized biographer, “the most influential lecture he ever delivered.” . . . . Continue Reading »

History of Vatican II: The Mature Council-The Formation of the Council’s Identity - First Period and Intersession, October 1962-September 1963 Edited by Giuseppe Alberigo and Joseph A. Komonchak Orbis Books 654 pages. History of Vatican II: The Mature Council-2nd Period and Intersession, A . . . . Continue Reading »

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Sunday, March 20 It’s not quite Egeria’s Diary of a Pilgrimage, but Evelyn Waugh’s Helena is terrific reading, or rereading, on an overnight flight to the Holy Land: a resolutely gritty, profoundly anti-Gnostic rendering of Constantine’s mother and her search for the true Cross, . . . . Continue Reading »

As Time and other premillennial makers“of“lists have discovered in recent months, there is no lack of candidates for the position of emblematic figure of the twentieth century. In the world of politics alone, there are several plausible nominees on a slate that includes the admirable . . . . Continue Reading »