In the Wake of Heroic Theology

In 1997 Avery Dulles was asked by Commonweal magazine to respond to a disputed question: “How Catholic is the Catholic Theological Society of America?” The impetus was Cardinal Bernard Law’s charge that the CTSA, the largest and most prestigious association of Catholic theologians in the United States, had become little more than a “wasteland” of dissent against official Church teachings. Continue Reading »

Onwards! Ever Onwards!

Via Julian , I see that Yglesias has spun a narrative : For the past 65-70 years—and especially for the past 30 years since the end of the civil rights argument—American politics has been dominated by controversy over the size and scope of the welfare state. Today, that argument is . . . . Continue Reading »

Americans Don’t Get Religion

Rod Dreher is concerned about certain trends in law enforcement . He quotes Reul Marc Gerecht saying: For the FBI, religion remains a much too sensitive subject, much more so than the threatening ideologies of yesteryear. Imagine if Maj. Hasan had been an officer during the Cold War, regularly . . . . Continue Reading »

Nu-Paganism Watch

Exciting news from the Bayside City Council elections : the Queens Tribune reported that a conservative Republican was running a strong race in the 19th district and had a chance to win in the overwhelmingly Democratic city. But this was a conservative Republican with a difference: Dan Halloran is . . . . Continue Reading »

Politics without Politics

I was very privileged to be able to attend a lecture by Alasdair MacIntyre at Catholic University here in DC over the weekend. The topic was “Ends and Endings”, and the speech was a delightfully rambling overview of the connections between teleology and literature, ethics and . . . . Continue Reading »

Why do they want marriage?

One used to see a great deal more of this kind of rhetoric : Instead of applying its impressive muscle to creating an alternative to this hoary, unsecular, historically sexist, and needlessly restrictive institution, the movement instead opted to perpetuate it. If the status quo could be expanded . . . . Continue Reading »

Some Public Theology Thickets

In trundling along on my path toward understanding how theological, cultural, social, and political conservatism are interrelated yet distinct things, I revisited a fine Heritage lecture by one James Ceaser called "Creed Versus Culture." There is no way to do justice to the whole lecture . . . . Continue Reading »