In Light of the World , Benedict “speaks extensively on issues related to Israel and the Jewish world, confirming his unwavering personal commitment to both,” writes a Jerusalem Post writer, surveying his statements about Jewish issues in the book.
The New Criterion describes the NEH vs America , and offers Joseph Epstein’s analysis of Saul Bellow .
A rare opening of the Vatican library to see rare works that otherwise no one but scholars will ever see.
Southern Baptist theologian Russell Moore, a Mississippian, asks whether a southerner should display a picture of Robert E. Lee .
Speaking of Southern Baptists, the fall issue of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s journal asks how can we be sure the Bible is inerrant ? (It’s a large file.)
A Catholic college student tells about going to a school that is CINO (Catholic In Name Only).
Matthew Hanley looks at the hysterical reaction to the pope’s remark on condoms in light of the failure of the mainstream health establishment . “Benedict maintains that “not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants.” Dr. Fauci and the Public Health Establishment dare not say, even for health reasons, that some behaviors should be avoided entirely. For all practical purposes, theirs is a variation of Ivan Karamazov’s famous formulation: without God — and with faith in the strictly technical fix — all things are permitted.”
Cheryl Weinstein argues that ” America’s path to gay marriage started not with gay couples wanting to marry, but with heterosexuals who wanted new rules of engagement for themselves.”
Anne Barbeau Gardiner reviews the newest biography of G. K. Chesterton , which she calls “a milestone in Chesterton studies.” (I think this link is alive just for today.)
Anti-Christian leaders in India call Christianity “cultural AIDS ” and evangelization “religious terrorism.” Christians “enhance monoculture by destroying our belief system,” said one anti-Christian leader. “They did it in Europe in the first millennium. [In the] second millennium they destroyed the belief system of Africa. Third millennium, the Pope himself came and declared that I will convert Asia and India. It means they want to destroy [the] pluralistic belief system of India.”
A scholar offers a n interactive dialect map of America , letting users click on an area to hear how the people there talk.
A biographer describes the successful struggle of a Ponca Indian leader to prove to the federal government (which had stolen his people’s land and brutalized in the process) that his people were persons .
A mother otter teaches her pup to swim .
Thanks to Gregory Laughlin, James Altena, and the New Oxford Review for links.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…