Matthew Schmitz

Today the staff is occupied by a discussion of last night’s Erasmus Lecture—-delivered by Jean Bethke Elshtain on the subject 0f loyalty—-with friends of the magazine including Wilfred McClay, Michael Walzer, Paul Griffiths, Robert Jenson, and George Weigel. Blogging, therefore, . . . . Continue Reading »

A  First Things commenter has just been sentenced to forty-one months in federal prison for a comment he left on our site in 2010: Theodore Shulman, a pro-choice activist who in 2010 threatened to kill several pro-life leaders, has been sentenced to 41 months in federal prison. Shulman, 51, . . . . Continue Reading »

Edward Skidelsky summarizes Philippa Foot’s argument against the common opposition between what is and what ought to be in an interview with the  Browser : MacIntyre thinks that the notion of virtue has to be detached from Aristotle’s original ‘metaphysical biology’ as he . . . . Continue Reading »

From De Profundis: A sentimentalist is simply one who wants to have the luxury of an emotion without paying for it. We think we can have our emotions for nothing. We cannot. Even the finest and most self-sacrificing emotions have to be paid for. Strangely enough, that is what makes them fine. . . . . Continue Reading »

New York-area readers may be interested to know that St. Catherine of Siena church in NYC will be hosting the Amphion String Quartet this Friday at 8 PM .  The program will feature Wolf’s Italian Serenade in G Major, Haydn’s String Quartet in D Major, Op. 71, No. 2, . . . . Continue Reading »

Matthew Boudway, a former editor at First Things who is now one of the best if not, frustratingly, one of the most prolific writers for  Commonweal , has the best take I’ve yet seen on the recent death of Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm: Hobsbawm described himself as a “Tory . . . . Continue Reading »

Mumford & Sons is out with their new album Babel, which is already being greeted by the same negative reactions from critics—and eager embrace from fans—that met their first. Many conservatives and Christians see the critical savaging of Mumford as another instance of media bias—the . . . . Continue Reading »

Robert P. George has already noted the sad passing of Eugene Genovese earlier this week. Genovese played a large role in the life of the magazine, with his wife, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, serving on our advisory council. Here’s Richard John Neuhaus writing in his “Public Square” . . . . Continue Reading »

Helen Rittelmeyer digs up a quotation from Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s letters that should appeal to our readers: My impression of Republicans, after living among them as an interested and sympathetic observer for almost two years, [is that] as a group you have almost no confidence that any . . . . Continue Reading »

In a 2004  Christianity Today cover story that helped introduce “emergent Christianity” to the Evangelical mainstream,  CT  editor Andy Crouch expressed hope that Brian McLaren’s project would not prove to be a revival of liberal Christianity: It’s not that . . . . Continue Reading »