Anna Sutherland

To continue preparing for Jean Bethke Elshtain’s Erasmus Lecture by revisiting her many contributions to First Things , I recommend her 1992 review of Susan Faludi’s book Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women . She deplores the anti-intellectual paranoia of the book and . . . . Continue Reading »

Messiah College history professor John Fea writes about human depravity and its implications for studying the past on The Anxious Bench : The historian Herbert Butterfield informed us that “if there is any region in which the bright empire of the theologians and the more murky territory of . . . . Continue Reading »

As readers likely know by now, the eminent University of Chicago professor and political philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain will deliver our annual Erasmus Lecture  on Monday, October 8. Her topic is the “Nature and Meaning of Loyalty.” I’ve been preparing for the event by . . . . Continue Reading »

Robert P. George yesterday wrote about the phone calls allegedly made by the group Catholics for Obama to ask voters questions like “How can you vote for a Mormon who does not believe in Jesus Christ?” The Obama campaign denies the charges, according to an editor’s note in . . . . Continue Reading »

The Family Scholars blog has recently hosted a long discussion on civility with many of its resident writers. (Here are early contributions from Barry Deutsch , Amy Ziettlow , Ralph Lewis , Elizabeth Marquardt , and  Fannie ; for others, visit the blog .) Their conversation spurred me to think . . . . Continue Reading »

Gertrude Himmelfarb applies the insights and categories of the Victorian great William James to today’s religious scene  in an interesting weekend piece for the Wall Street Journal . As she reports, in one widely reprinted 1896 lecture, James intended to respond to Harvard . . . . Continue Reading »

In a post highly relevant to James R. Rogers’ recent On the Square column “The Definition of ‘Evangelical,’”  Timothy Dalrymple joins the discussion over how to define who’s an Evangelical Christian. He mentions two prominent attempts at definitions that I . . . . Continue Reading »

New York—area readers may wish to attend an upcoming lecture by our own George Weigel entitled “The Fall of the Empty Shrine: The failure of secularism and the role of faith and reason in renewing the foundations of democracy.” The event, which is co-sponsored by the American . . . . Continue Reading »

In the same  Wilson Quarterly  issue I linked to last week ,  First Things’ own Wilfred M. McClay reflects on what the perennially relevant Alexis de Tocqueville can teach us today , especially on the subject of education. McClay reviews the genesis of  Democracy . . . . Continue Reading »

We’ve discussed drones on this blog before, generally agreeing that killing enemy combatants with unmanned drones can be morally legitimate but leery about their seemingly indiscriminate use. A new report called ” Living Under Drones” serves as further proof that our leeriness is justified. . . . . Continue Reading »