Where’s the best place to do graduate study in theology? I’ve done some rankings in the past, first in 2006 and then again in 2009. A longer ranking with a more developed rationale appeared in the pages of First Things in 2010. Some friends prodded me recently: have I changed my mind? Yes and No. My criteria are as follows … Continue Reading »
When I started writing about the design and binding of Bibles several years ago, I anticipated an audience of three. Surprisingly, my “Bible Design Blog” struck a nerve with readers who were frustrated with the declining quality of Bibles today and wanted to discover some better options. While most of my readers buy their own Bibles, let’s face it: The best way to receive one is as a gift. If you want to give a Bible as a gift this Christmas season, here are some recommendations… . Continue Reading »
Is this a “Catholic moment”? Six of the nine Supreme Court justices are Catholic, the vice president and former vice presidential candidate are Catholic, and Catholic moral theology, specifically the Church’s opposition to contraception, has hit mainstream. In venues like the New York Times and the Huffington Post, as well as more traditional and conservative web sites, Catholic thinkers have weighed the proper approach to poverty, abortion, and marriage, pushing into matters”Is Paul Ryan a Randian? What is “intrinsic evil”?”normally found in footnotes… . Continue Reading »
Eighteenth-century British Jacobites wistfully toasted “the king over the water,” referring to exiled King James II, his successors, and the Jacobite hope for a Stuart restoration to the throne of the United Kingdom. Throughout the pontificate of John Paul II, the cardinal archbishop of Milan, Carlo Maria Martini, S.J., was a kind of “king over the water” for Catholics of the portside persuasion”the pope who should-have-been and might-yet-be… . Continue Reading »
Back in 1980 out in rural Nebraska I conducted my first Thanksgiving Day worship service. It was not a good week. Lucille had died the previous afternoon. I was at the hospital with her husband, her sisters, and her children when, at age forty-eight, she lost a three-year battle with cancer. For some little while before she died she had whispered the sursum corda: “Lift up your hearts.” … Continue Reading »
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 6:25 AM: In the palest light, I follow footprints left in the season’s first frost, just a few minutes behind the regulars. The church’s glaring overhead lights are softened by the flame-glow of a few dozen candles”real wax, seven-day candles that burn a constant supplication”and by the shimmer of one gloriously large and eye-catching Icon of the Crucifixion scene. I wait to stand my candle as a slope-shouldered older man first places his own and then remains a few moments in wonder before all that beauty… . Continue Reading »
Natural lawyers commonly cite a passage from the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans to show the existence of natural law to Christians. While I accept some version of natural law, natural lawyers often seem to want to derive much more from the text than it supports. The commonly quoted passage from the book of Romans is this … Continue Reading »
If there is one silver lining to President Obama’s re-election”an event that fills many with apprehension”it is that it’s provided a clarifying moment for American conservatism. For years, the conservative movement has been carried along by its “big tent” philosophy, which welcomes conservatives of various types. In the wake of Obama’s victory, however, these differences have been accentuated… . Continue Reading »
Eight years ago the European Parliament denied towering Italian intellectual Rocco Buttiglione a position as European Commissioner for Justice because of his faithful Catholicism. Asked in a hearing if he agreed with the Catholic Church’s teaching that homosexual acts are sinful, he said yes, he agreed with the teaching, but this would not prevent him from faithfully carrying out the laws of the European Union related to everyone including homosexuals. This was too much for the sexual left firmly ensconced in the European institutions, and Buttiglione was voted down… . Continue Reading »
My funk on election night was deepened by an email from a younger, liberal friend. Conservatives lost, she told me sternly, because they have become badly “tarnished” with “Latinos, young people, Asians, single women,” and “all key demos for the next twenty years.” Her blunt warning: “Fix that or keep losing.” … Continue Reading »
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