Summarizing a central argument of his Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, Ross Douthat told Ken Myers in a recent interview, “A lot of the most influential theologies in American life today are theologies that take various worldly ends as their primary end.” Prosperity preachers turn seven-figure incomes and slick cars into sacramental marks of God’s favor. Oprah religion reduces God to a guarantor of “personal psychological well-being.” Nationalisms of the left and the right invoke God to sanctify policy agendas… . Continue Reading»
Fred Siegel has a piece in the latest issue of Commentary in which he argues that “highbrows” are responsible for “[killing] culture.” It’s an intriguing thesis, and one not without merit as it applies to the United States. Unfortunately, though, the essay turns on the misguided contention that the pre-World War II European elite articulated an argument that was fundamentally the same as (or, at best, a direct precursor to) the postwar left’s attack on middle-American kitsch… . Continue Reading»
“Established in 1972, the Jefferson Lecture is the highest honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual and public achievement in the humanities.” So says the website of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since few of us are such renaissance persons as to be acquainted with the work of all the Jefferson Lecturers as they make their annual appearances in Washington, the lecture itself is potentially a valuable introduction for those making their first acquaintance… . Continue Reading»
Having written favorably on Wendell Berry, and having edited a collection of essays on his work, I would like to respond to Matt Franck’s critique of Berry’s Jefferson Lecture. I share Matt’s disappointment with the lecture. I found it to be uncharacteristically long, at times redundant, and overall unbalanced in its treatment of corporations… . Continue Reading»
The prospect of “redecorating,” or any other form of “home improvement,” generally gets me thinking, quickly, about a lengthy research trip abroad. Yet I can, and recently did, spend several pleasant hours contemplating ceramics, furniture, and”would you believe it?”wallpaper. But not at Home Depot, I quickly add; rather, in a book”Pugin: A Gothic Passion, published in 1994 by Yale University Press in association with London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. … Continue Reading»
When Chuck Colson passed away last month, obituaries naturally remembered him first and foremost as the White House counsel brought down by his role in Watergate’s dirty tricks. But his evangelical conversion to Christ turned him into an inspired prison reformer, belying F. Scott Fitzgerald’s dictum that “there are no second acts in American lives.” He was the most significant, and certainly the most unusual, prison reformer of the past century. Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministries, and his broader legacy of penal reform, will live on, though the burden now falls to the living to complete his unfinished business… . Continue Reading»
Have you heard the news? Barack Obama is cool! He’s not just cool, he’s way cool; the coolest thing ever! Never having been “cool” myself (or desperate enough to seek its conferral upon me by people I always found to be rather sad trend-followers) I can only judge by past observation, but it seems to me that the first rule of being cool has always been that if you really are cool, then no one ever has to say it about you, because your “coolness” is as self-evident as the truth that all men are created equal… . Continue Reading»
Chuck Colson, who passed away last week, famously went to jail for crimes related to the Watergate scandal and, during his time in prison, discovered the healing mercy and love of Jesus Christ. Colson dedicated the remainder of his life to the redemption he found in Christ, seeking to communicate the good news of the Gospel in a variety of settings: through Prison Fellowship, a vast radio network, and innumerable books and lectures… . Continue Reading»
If I was Rick Santorum, this is the moment I would choose to endorse Mitt Romney for president. Why? Because Romney has just done something both highly presidential and deeply moral on the issue most associated with the former Pennsylvania senator’s run for the White House: life. In response to last week’s news that the blind Chinese lawyer and human rights activist Chen Guangcheng had escaped house arrest and been taken in by U.S. diplomatic staff in Beijing, Romney issued this statement … Continue Reading»
When Representative Paul Ryan said that his recently released budget proposal was developed in accord with his understanding of Catholic social doctrine, the liberal Catholic establishment reacted with outrage. Ryan was scheduled to talk at Georgetown, and the ever-reliable Fr. Thomas J. Reese, S.J., and others have organized a letter of protest. “Our problem with Representative Ryan,” Reese told reporters, “is that he claims his budget is based on Catholic social teaching. This is nonsense.” … Continue Reading»
