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My Four Years at St. John’s College
Though nothing can bring back the hourOf splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;We will grieve not, rather findStrength in what remains behind. —William Wordsworth, “Ode on...
Ukraine and the Limits of Dialogue
For months now, I have been receiving alarming, early-morning text messages from Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halyč, leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The texts are typically...
A Rudderless Odyssey
There is much to like about Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey. The movie is visually stunning; the set pieces, from the fall of Troy to the slaughter of the suitors, can...
Malta’s Answer to the Abortion Lobby
For almost a decade, abortion activists have had the small Mediterranean country of Malta in their crosshairs. Malta is the European Union’s last pro-life haven; abortion is illegal unless...
All Labor Is Labor
The Elizabethan commonplace comparing creative production to pregnancy and birth is baked into the English language. We “conceive” an idea, though some prove “abortive.” A new project or business...
The Marxist Who Understood Sex Better than the UMC
The United Methodist Church (UMC) has removed Asbury Theological Seminary from its list of institutions approved to train its ministers. Hardly a bastion of right-wing Protestant fundamentalism, Asbury has...
The Unfashionable Faith of Ann Widdecombe
Ann Widdecombe, Reform UK’s immigration and justice spokesperson and a former Conservative member of Parliament, was found dead in her home in Devon on July 9, in what police...
World Cup Blues, of a Sort
CRACOW. I usually find the quadrennial FIFA World Cup aggravating for the five reasons enumerated below, plus one other: My students here in the Tertio Millennio Seminar on the...
A Jewish Case Against the Naked Public Square
When people ask where I intern, I watch their faces carefully. I say: First Things, a journal of religion and public life founded by a Lutheran pastor who soon...
Are Autonomous Weapons Consistent with Human Rights?
What follows is a lightly edited version of the written testimony Camosy prepared for the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing on “Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain: Implications...
It’s Cool to Love America Again
The media would like you to know that the Great American State Fair, which took over the National Mall this month, was not, in fact, great. Snooty social media...
1776, Not 1789
America has just celebrated its 250th birthday amid a quiet but consequential confusion: a growing tendency to treat the American Revolution and the French Revolution as siblings—two chapters in...
Prisoners of Our Own Devices
To Arrive Where We Started:Belonging in the Modern World by ian marcus corbinyale university press, 200 pages, $32.50 Ian Marcus Corbin’s new book, To Arrive Where We Started, offers a...
The Holdfast Sanctity of Sigrid Undset
When I traveled to Norway for the first time, I was already a devoted reader of Sigrid Undset and in awe of her courage and character. A Nobel laureate...
How Trump Betrayed the Pro-Life Movement
Several weeks after the 2016 election, Marjorie Dannenfelser received a voicemail from President-Elect Donald J. Trump. Her organization, the Susan B. Anthony List, had knocked on over a million...