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  1. Church

Millennial Religion and the Sovereign Self

Claiming to speak for an entire generation to which she admittedly does not entirely belong, Rachel Held Evans tells us why Millennials are leaving the church. A sample of the reasons she cites: Armed with the latest surveys, along with personal testimonies from friends and readers, I explain how . . . . Continue Reading »

Tragic Worship

The problem with much Christian worship in the contemporary world, Catholic and Protestant alike, is not that it is too entertaining but that it is not entertaining enough. Worship characterized by upbeat rock music, stand-up comedy, beautiful people taking center stage, and a certain amount of . . . . Continue Reading »

The Language of Addiction Takes Over

There was a period, shortly before the Bolshevik Revolution, when the history of the Russian temperance movement became thoroughly intertwined with the history of Russian social reform in general. “The history of the Russian temperance movement” may sound like a world’s-shortest-book joke, . . . . Continue Reading »

More Manent

From the City Journal, this time, a full essay, with a title that says it all “City, Empire, Church, Nation.”    Here’s a taste: During the premodern era, competing political forms—the city, the empire, and the Church—checked one another, so it was necessary to . . . . Continue Reading »

We’re just like Oprah

Some people have been hurt in the local church. For some people it’s just a rote activity, as Oprah admits, which she learned as a child. Some of us are much smarter than our local church can bear, and some cannot stand how smart the church thinks it is. Worse still for others: it will simply be completely useless. Continue Reading »

What Is Anglicanism?

Few would deny that the Anglican Communion is in crisis. The nature of that crisis, however, remains a question. Is it about sexuality? Is it a crisis of authority who has it and who doesn’t? Have Anglicans lost their commitment to the via media , epitomized by the Elizabethan Settlement, which . . . . Continue Reading »

Sacred Spaces & Other Places

A Sense pf the Sacred: Theological Foundations of Christian Architecture and Artby R. Kevin SeasoltzContinuum, 394 pages, $29.95Heavenly City: The Architectural Tradition of Catholic Chicagoby Denis R. McNamaraLiturgy Training, 160 pages, $59.95It’s no secret that the state of contemporary . . . . Continue Reading »

The Church's Way of Speaking

When St. Augustine abandoned the teaching of rhetoric in Milan to enroll for baptism, he asked St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, what to read in the Scriptures “to make me readier and fitter to receive so great a grace”? Ambrose told him to read the prophet Isaiah. Augustine took his advice, . . . . Continue Reading »

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