Anna Sutherland

The summer issue of the Wilson Quarterly  contains a fascinating piece by Stanford anthropology professor Tanya Marie Luhrmann on our changing understanding of mental illness. (You may recognize her name from her recent book  When God Talks Back , which Peter Berger  reviewed in . . . . Continue Reading »

Shlomo Zuckier presents an interesting variety of Jewish perspectives on brain death at Jewish Ideas Daily.  A brief definition before jumping in: Brain death occurs when a person’s brain activity, including that of the brain stem (which controls the respiratory and cardiovascular . . . . Continue Reading »

In the  Weekly Standard , Joseph Epstein reviews the latest eulogy for and defense of the liberal arts:  College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be by Andrew Delbanco. The book covers some familiar ground: professors’ emphasis on research over teaching, the domination of science over . . . . Continue Reading »

Dennis Barlow, protagonist of Evelyn Waugh’s 1948 novel The Loved One , is an employee of Happier Hunting Ground, which provides funeral services and burial grounds for pets. When Arthur—-the pet Sealyham (terrier) of Walter and Theodora Heinkel—-dies, Dennis sells the Heinkels . . . . Continue Reading »

The PBS program “Religion and Ethics Newsweekly” recently featured a segment on novelist and Catholic deacon Ron Hansen: Watch Catholic Writer Ron Hansen on PBS. See more from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. Hansen says writing is “a witness to what God is doing in the world. . . . . Continue Reading »

Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, the Christian whose conversion from Islam caused him to receive a death sentence for apostasy, was released from prison this weekend. According to CNN , a trial court in Iran acquitted him of apostasy and instead charged him with evangelizing Muslims, then . . . . Continue Reading »

Via Rod Dreher , columnist and former First Things contributor David Goldman (“Spengler”) contrasts the benedictions delivered by rabbis at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions: One difference between the two addresses is the fact that the whole Republican convention heard . . . . Continue Reading »

This summer, a group of scientists at a conference on “Consciousness in Human and Non-Human Animals” issued a statement  (PDF) declaring: Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious . . . . Continue Reading »

In addition to the upcoming events hosted by  St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary and the Society of Catholic Social Scientists , here is yet another fall event that our New York—area readers may wish to attend: John Lennox will deliver a lecture entitled “Does . . . . Continue Reading »

As Katie Infantine explained in her post on Bill Nye’s viral video last week, there are multiple types of creationism, distinguished by varying attitudes towards evolution and rival interpretations of Genesis. A recent piece in Christianity Today  explores these differing schools through . . . . Continue Reading »