R. R. Reno

A friend wrote to chastise me for failing to include fresh statistics that show a marked increase in the French fertility rate. Apparently women who did not have children in the twenties are now having babies, and this is pushing up rates that looked dire a decade ago. Check out this news report . . . . Continue Reading »

With fertility rates dipping to almost one child per woman in Spain and other European countries, it’s hard to even imagine the future. Who will work and pay all those retirement benefits to the current and larger generation of workers? How can societies with declining populations maintain a . . . . Continue Reading »

I’ve been working on a commentary on the book of Genesis, and the very first verse presents challenges. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The traditional rendering is on the outs these days. New translations shy away from the metaphysical atmosphere of an . . . . Continue Reading »

You can always count on Stanley Fish. He strikes a few sound blows¯and then all too soon he’s flailing away, sometimes doing more harm than good. Fish is like ice in good bourbon: pleasing at the outset, but after time the source of watery ruin.A recent article, “Professor, Do Your . . . . Continue Reading »

Nothing to Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes Knopf, 256 pages, $24.95 Death has many masks. He comes cruel with his sweeping scythe, cutting down men and women in their prime. He comes kind and compassionate as a nurse, closing the eyes of long-suffering patients. Death comes slowly and shyly . . . . Continue Reading »

As I’ve observed in a previous posting, brain science is a hot new area of research, and some of the experts are absolutely convinced that new knowledge about brain function will lead to big changes in how we view ourselves. Once we know that what seems to be free choice is, in fact, a . . . . Continue Reading »

Politics is an arena of conflict. I want a certain set of policies and laws. You want something different. We fight it out in public debate and in the electoral process. Welcome to the rough-and-tumble world of sound bites, negative advertising, and hardball tactics.It’s wrong to wring our . . . . Continue Reading »

In the immediate aftermath of Obama’s election, I had to talk a friend or two off the ledge. They were apocalyptic, foaming at the mouth and muttering about socialism and the Pelosi-ization of America. At one point I had to resort to insult in order to restore sanity: “You sound like a . . . . Continue Reading »

Geez, you write a piece on pointed musical assertions of cultural identity, and folks seem to take notice. Another friend wrote and directed me to a song by the Afrikaner folk and rock singer, Bok van Blerk. This one (not surprisingly) has generated controversy in South Africa, where liberal whites . . . . Continue Reading »

After reading my post on Show of Hands, Paul Allen, who teaches theology at Concordia University in Montreal, wrote and passed along a link to a Quebec group that sings an edgy protest song — a protest against cultural suicide, that is. Check it out. . . . . Continue Reading »