Tearing humans off the pedestal of exceptionalism is all the rage today among academics, philosophers, and other assorted members of the intelligentsia. The war against unique human worth¯of which many remain unaware¯is being mounted on many fronts: "Personhood Theory" in . . . . Continue Reading »
What are you doing looking here on the Fourth of July? Go away. Set off some firecrackers. Recite some patriotic speeches. Watch the rockets’ red glare. Read about how the Peterkin boys, Solomon John, and Agamemnon made their disaster of "fulminating paste" from iron-filings and . . . . Continue Reading »
I present to you a document of some forty pages entitled " Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road " prepared by a Vatican office known as the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant People, which is under the supervision of Cardinal Renato Martino. "The outcome of a great . . . . Continue Reading »
Although Jerry Falwell’s legacy will remain a contentious issue for some time to come, partisans on all sides agree that he helped launch the Reagan revolution by mobilizing disaffected evangelicals. As the New York Times put it after his death in May, the Moral Majority was the . . . . Continue Reading »
"Obscure" hardly begins to describe the obscurity of the German-American thinker Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (1888¯1973). Though never a household name, he was admired during his lifetime by W.H. Auden, who wrote a foreword to one of Rosenstock-Huessy’s books; Lewis Mumford; Harvey . . . . Continue Reading »
A recent issue of Horizons , the journal of the College Theology Society , a clubby American Catholic professional association, reminded me of the significant limitations of the current scene in academic theology in the United States.The issue (Vol. 34/1, Spring 2007) features a symposium on Fergus . . . . Continue Reading »
A pastoral colleague finds it “Orwellian.” He is describing the proposal before the church council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to appoint “racial justice monitors” for its meetings, according to an ELCA press release . “Racial justice . . . . Continue Reading »
It’s a strange day when I have to agree with Richard Dawkins against Frank Beckwith, but Beckwith’s argument against Dawkins in this space last week is, I think, mistaken.Beckwith recounts Dawkins’ criticism of a promising young scientist who gave up a career in geology because of . . . . Continue Reading »
Robert T. Miller is one of my favorite First Things contributors. So it is indeed an honor that he would think my post on Richard Dawkins worthy of critique .I am not going to quibble with Miller’s claim that there is a distinction between purpose and function, for I do not think it is . . . . Continue Reading »
David Brooks is a most congenial fellow and as bright as a freshly polished penny. We were both born in Canada, and he grew up in Stuyvesant Town here in New York, which is in my parish. We have given his wry and insightful cultural commentaries, such as Bobos in Paradise , major attention in First . . . . Continue Reading »