Matthew Schmitz

First Things is pleased to welcome our newest blog: Dr. Boli’s Celebrated Magazine . The blog, a light but frequently learned literary exercise, casts a wry eye on contemporary events in the language of a 19th century broadsheet man. Its editor, the fictional character H. Albertus Boli, . . . . Continue Reading »

Today is a good day to reread R.R. Reno’s explanation  of how we misremember the attacks. . . . . Continue Reading »

Jacob Sullum reports that Thomas Szasz, one of the most vigorous critics of the psychiatric profession, died over the weekend. Jeffrey Oliver explained the importance of Szasz career in the  New Atlantis : Nearly one hundred years after Eugen Bleuler invented the word “schizophrenia” . . . . Continue Reading »

In an article on Christian art at Ignitum Today , my colleague Anna Williams commends to her readers the band Scythian , a celtic-inflected group that treats religious themes. Now, I have nothing against Scythian, but there’s a lot of music—-even of music with religious . . . . Continue Reading »

Shulamith Firestone died this Tuesday at the age of 67, reports the  Times . Back in June, Patrick Deneen penned an “On the Square” about how Firestone’s thought is being rejected by some young women today. It amounts to a sort of intellectual obituary to read alongside the . . . . Continue Reading »

His office’s statement: Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, has accepted an invitation to deliver the closing prayer at next week’s Democratic National Convention. As was previously announced, he will also be offering the closing prayer at the Republican Convention on . . . . Continue Reading »

James Chastek offers a succinct explanation of the horror genre: One can make any number of horror-movie monsters by removing the limits from some natural desire: Alien is reproduction without regard for anything else; The Blob is pure and unlimited growth (with unlimited consumption as a . . . . Continue Reading »

Starting at the 4:50 mark of this film essay, Matt Zurcher identifies three kinds of baptism that serve as visual rhymes in P.T. Anderson’s great “There Will Be Blood.” Anderson will be coming out with ” The Master ” this fall, a film that looks to continue his . . . . Continue Reading »

Revivalist Todd Bentley  has been barred from the United Kingdom  because of his sometime use of physical violence—-including kicking and punching—-to heal. Bentley, who gained prominence after the “Lakeland Outporing,” a 100-day revival that drew 30,000 attendees . . . . Continue Reading »

Via the New York Times : An elderly woman stepped forward this week to claim responsibility for disfiguring a century-old “ecce homo” fresco of Jesus crowned with thorns, in Santuario de la Misericordia, a Roman Catholic church in Borja, near the city of Zaragoza. Ecce homo, or behold the . . . . Continue Reading »