R. R. Reno

We’re wrapping up our spring fund raising campaign. If you responded to my letter to subscribers appealing for support, please accept my heartfelt thanks. If you did not”or if, God forbid, you’re not a subscriber and did not receive my letter”please consider making an electronic donation today. It’s easy. There’s a nifty “click to donate” button just to the right. We need your support… . Continue Reading »

The year is the 400th anniversary of the Authorized Version of the English-language Bible that often goes by the name of the monarch who commissioned the translation. It was a tremendous theological, scholarly, and literary achievement, producing the most influential book in the English language. . . . . Continue Reading »

Here’s an arresting statistic that economist Richard Vedder thinks goes a long way to explaining the rapid rise in college tuitions: 80 percent of faculty at the University of Texas at the flagship campus in Austin teach fewer than half the students. In view of the fact that faculty salaries make up the largest expense at the university, one simple change would reduce tuition. Get the 80 percent back into the classrooms… . Continue Reading »

What makes life worth living? For the most part Western society has settled on an individualistic answer: whatever I decide or desire. It’s judgmental”an act of cultural imperialism, as we’re taught to say at fancy colleges”to suggest that there’s a right answer to this question. Rather, we are told, people should be able to organize their lives around what they feel or think best. We’re happiest, the present-day liberal presumes, when we can make up our own minds about what makes life worth living”or even if life is worth living… . Continue Reading »

A year or so ago I got together with some college friends. Good guys—careers, families, some churchgoers, others not, all involved in their communities. For the most part bourgeois in the best sense. But a few were perplexed. They wanted to know why I had become a social conservative. I . . . . Continue Reading »

Here in New York, as you might expect, the news of Osama bin Laden’s death was mostly greeted with fist-pumping expressions of satisfaction. Some, however, have expressed dismay. As our executive editor David Mills noted on these electronic pages, not a few European commentators have denounced the killing of Osama bin Laden as yet another example the cowboy mentality in America that shoots first and asks questions later. What we should have done, they say, is arrest bin Laden and put him on trial… . Continue Reading »

I spent Easter in Omaha. The Great Vigil liturgy at St. Cecilia’s Cathedral was transcendent, with the music of Vittoria, Palestrina, and Byrd providing exquisite accents to contemporary plainsong. But it’s the beginning that always hits me in the gut. My heart beat faster with each urgent declamation of the Exsultet, the ancient hymn sung after the procession of the paschal candle that culminate: “This is the night when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave.” … Continue Reading »

Over at Public Discourse today, Matthew Franck provides a perceptive analysis of a recent episode of politically correct intimidation: ” Same-Sex Marriage and the Assault on Institutional Integrity .” A gay rights group put pressure on King & Spaulding, a prominent Atlanta law firm, to . . . . Continue Reading »

Of theology, that is. The Committee on Doctrine of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is hosting a conference in September, ” The Intellectual Tasks of the New Evangelization .” The purpose? “The Committee hopes this conference will provide an occasion to build . . . . Continue Reading »

On April 14, in Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Obama a three-judge panel from the U.S. Seventh Circuit overturned a lower court ruling that a 1998 statute designating the first Thursday in May as the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional. Meanwhile, earlier this month, in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, the Supreme Court handed down an important decision allowing an Arizona tax policy that ends up providing financial help to private schools, including religious ones, to continue… Continue Reading »