Last week, scientists in the U.K. announced a “dramatic” step forward into understanding and treating Alzheimer’s. Researchers infected mice with prion disease and then experimented with methods to ameliorate the effects. They discovered a drug compound that stopped “the disease in its tracks,” restoring normal behaviors and preventing memory loss. If the knowledge gained by using mice can be applied to humans, one scientist believes, it will “be judged in history as a turning point” in the fight against Alzheimer’s… . Continue Reading»
Some Republican donors, consultants, and lobbyists are deeply unhappy with the government shutdown and debt ceiling strategy being pursued by Tea Party-affiliated conservatives like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. Their fear”that it is damaging the Republican party and threatening the economy while having no hope of achieving its original goal of defunding Obamacare”is probably correct. But things are worse yet, for the tactical error of the Tea Party Republicans is only one such mistake made by Republicans in the aftermath of the disastrous 2012 election… . Continue Reading»
I am grateful to my friend John Cavadini for his searching review of Evangelical Catholicism. Despite employing a slightly jarring method (erect straw man; concede that straw man is, in fact, straw man; suggest that author should have “blocked” the possibility of anyone erecting straw man), Cavadini raises important questions about the relationship between Christology and ecclesiology that will help clarify the theological architecture and missionary imperative of the evangelical Catholic project, which has been embraced by Pope Francis in his first months as Bishop of Rome… . Continue Reading»
I doubt that Pope Francis has heard of Ernie Banks, the Hall of Fame shortstop. But like “Mr. Cub,” whose love for baseball led him to exclaim “Let’s play two!” before Sunday doubleheaders in the 1950s, the pope from the end of the world seems to think that papal canonizations are better in tandem: hence the Sept. 30 announcement that Blessed John XXIII and Blessed John Paul II will be canonized together on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 27, 2014… . Continue Reading»
The great Jerry Seinfeld once observed that a man doesn’t care what’s on TV. He only cares what else is on TV. (Seinfeld late-night re-runs being displaced by Modern Family, by the way, is a sure sign of decline.) This seems to me to describe a prevalent attitude towards continuing revelation among many who consider themselves “thoughtful” Latter-day Saints. We forever have our thumb on the channel-change button of ultimate moral-religious truth just in case we might have to change our minds, just as we did in 1890 on plural marriage and 1978 on ordination of black members… . Continue Reading»
I have never been able to take the idea of pacifism seriously. I have friends I deeply love who call themselves pacifists, but I also have friends who believe in socialism or think that evolution can create life out of nothing more than random genetic mutations combined with a mysterious force called natural selection. I do not think my socialist or Darwinian friends are mentally deluded or morally culpable, but I do think they are seriously wrong… . Continue Reading»
“I am lonely.” Like Joseph B. Soloveitchik in The Lonely Man of Faith, I am lonely. Not because “I am alone,” for I “enjoy the love and friendship of many … and yet, companionship and friendship do not alleviate the passional experience of loneliness which trails me constantly” … Continue Reading»
In 2005, following the death of Blessed John Paul II, I asked one of my closest friends”a Jesuit who has served the Church loyally for decades”who he thought would make a worthy successor. Stressing he would welcome anyone chosen, he remarked, “I hope it might be my Jesuit colleague in Argentina, Cardinal Bergoglio. Many of us believe he has the qualities of a saint” … Continue Reading»
Several years ago, I received a “personal” letter (above) from the Ku Klux Klan of Upstate South Carolina. A colleague of mine in my college’s Religion Department had asked me to conduct a model Seder for Passover for her students and had invited a reporter from the Spartanburg newspaper to cover the event. A week later, the letter arrived. I was not frightened or disturbed (unlike my poor mother in Illinois to whom I made the mistake of reading the letter. “Get out of South Carolina!” she pleaded), but I was unsettled… . Continue Reading»
In academia, Constantine is suddenly hot. Several major new biographies have appeared, joined by new editions of older volumes and a spate of monographs on aspects of Constantine’s empire and its aftermath. Academic conferences on Constantine have become a cottage industry… . Continue Reading»
