Not so long ago, Weekend America aired a story on National Public Radio about a fairly new community known as the Church of Brunch . Flannery O’Connor would have appreciated it. In typical NPR fashion, the piece immediately drew me in, as the narrator began telling the story of a congregation . . . . Continue Reading »
Back in December, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Bishop Stanislaw Wielgus to be the metropolitan-archbishop of Warsaw. News reports soon appeared that, from the 1960s through the early 1990s, Wielgus had collaborated with the communist secret police in Poland. Wielgus denied the allegations, and the . . . . Continue Reading »
For those who love Poland and admire the vitality of Catholic faith in that country, developments surrounding the withdrawal of Stanislaw Wielgus as Archbishop of Warsaw are cause for deep sadness. The post below by Robert Miller is also sharply critical of the Holy See’s role in this unhappy . . . . Continue Reading »
After printing an evenhanded op-ed on neurology and the paranormal (registration required), the New York Times carries a curious story about science and free will . "Free will does exist, but it’s a perception, not a power or a driving force," says neurological researcher Mark . . . . Continue Reading »
A junior fellowship at First Things is an intellectually gratifying experience for a young writer or scholar interested in religion and culture. Take my word for it: I’ve worked at First Things for two years, first as a junior fellow and now as an assistant editor. In addition to finding . . . . Continue Reading »
Mark C. Taylor of Williams College is among the most nimble of nimble minds perched on the cutting edge of whatever, just possibly, might be the next big thing. His many books over the years on religion, philosophy, economics, architecture, and whatever have in common a neophiliac’s . . . . Continue Reading »
Speaking to the St. Thomas More Society of Philadelphia last spring, Fr. Neuhaus said, "When it is not necessary for the bishops to speak on a particular subject, it is necessary that they not speak on that subject." As with everything Fr. Neuhaus says, there is a lot of truth in that.I . . . . Continue Reading »
Elizabeth Fox-Genovese died yesterday, slipping away at age sixty-five after a long illness.A professor at Emory University and a member of the First Things editorial board, she was a well-regarded scholar and a successful author, at home in both the academic world and the public sphere. But she was . . . . Continue Reading »
With stunning abruptness we’re jostled from the Christmas Mass (the Christ Mass) to the feast of St. Stephen, proto-martyr. And then on to the slaughter of the Holy Innocents. It is an antidote to the sentimentality that inevitably attends devotion to the baby Jesus. A sentimentality, let it . . . . Continue Reading »
Are lawyers intellectuals? They’re smart, certainly, as a class, and they work primarily with their minds. But, then, engineers are also smart, and engineers aren’t intellectuals¯at least, according to the old two-cultures distinction that C.P. Snow bemoaned back in the 1950s .For . . . . Continue Reading »
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