A Great Teacher and a Welcome Manifesto
Reluctant as I am to fiddle with the U.S. Constitution, I’m willing to consider an amendment banning any elementary school from opening before Labor Day. That’s the way things…
Aug/Sept 2026
Print Edition
Aug/Sept 2026 Print Edition
America’s Most Influential Journal of Religion and Public Life
Anti-Wokeness: An Obituary
Holding Things Together
So many streets around me are ugly. I do a lot of walking and jogging. I notice…
Ban the Books
Walk into a bookstore anywhere in the country. Chances are that, somewhere toward the front, you’ll see…
The Scandal of Jewish Belief
The Gospel of Matthew ends with this promise of Jesus to his disciples: “Behold, I am with…
The Sudden Death of the African Church
Total civilizational collapse is unusual. In the West, continuity exists between the Roman past and our contemporary…
Icarus Descending
Government’s Sex Abuse Hypocrisy Comes Due
I worked in senior staff positions in Catholic dioceses for twenty-seven years. For nearly all of them…
A Great Teacher and a Welcome Manifesto
Reluctant as I am to fiddle with the U.S. Constitution, I’m willing to consider an amendment banning…
The Monstering of Evangelicalism
I had been working in journalism for about two years when Donald Trump announced his candidacy in…
Wendell Berry’s Eternal Story
Ten years ago, an editor at Penguin approached me to ask if I would like to edit…
Ignorance and Conviction at Columbia
Darializa Avila Chevalier—upper Manhattan’s new congressional candidate, backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and endorsed…
Left to Our Own Devices
Hiding in most of our pockets is a shiny black mirror with a logo on the back…
The Founders and the Common Good
The dominant public philosophy among American elites is modern liberalism, often referred to merely as “liberalism.” Two…
To Live Fittingly
Why do the humanities face such a hostile climate? In part it’s because academics have excluded ordinary,…
Mad as Hell
In a simpler time, the internet was full of cats. Flooding message boards and YouTube with images…
Breaking the Mind
Philosopher James K. A. Smith suffered through a period of profound depression. He found solace and insight…
Centaur
The Etruscan centaur holds up his right hand,not palm outward as if to stop chariot trafficor solemnly…
A Celtic Skull in the Museum at La Tène
Two-thousand years and more untouched I burnedIn soil’s slow fire. On the beachAbove, ringed by thin, withered…
Asters
The asters bloom amid late-summer heat,Low-lying stars that will not linger longAnd bend their sprays beneath the…
The End of the University
Universities exist to provide students with the knowledge, skills, and culture that will prepare them for life,…
The Decline and Fall of the Christian College
Every one shall consider the main End of his life and studies, to know God and Jesus…
Why I’m Done with Notre Dame
I retired from the University of Notre Dame at the end of 2025. More accurately, I left.…
The Christian University: Eleven Theses
I am honored to join in the prayer and reflection marking the inauguration of a new president…
Keeping Your Faith in College
When we go off to college, we’re not yet adults but no longer children, and we’re often…
