Ephraim Radner

The Canadian government, with its leaders, functionaries, and even its medical acolytes, may well deserve to be charged with crimes against humanity. I am not speaking about crimes done against indigenous peoples, a different area of moral and judicial concern. I have in mind another set of crimes, . . . . Continue Reading »

We are no better than our ancestors. I firmly believe this, although apparently many others do not. My disagreement with prevailing opinion concerns more than current academic arrogance and anachronism with respect to our ancestors. I’m opposed to the sweeping trends of popular attitude and public . . . . Continue Reading »

“This is the main road God takes to come to us: our recognition of our own ignorance.” So said Stephen of Muret, a medieval hermit and purported founder of the Grandmontine order of monks that disappeared in the eighteenth century. The idea that wisdom comes from admitting our own ignorance was . . . . Continue Reading »

July’s was probably the last recognizable assembly of the Lambeth Conference we shall see in this generation (and perhaps the next). No longer will “all” the bishops of the Anglican Communion gather, but only some, and only from some places. No longer will the deliberation of the Communion’s . . . . Continue Reading »

When I was twenty-four, I spent several weeks sleeping on the floor of the Brussels Salvation Army, waiting to start a French course. I was on my way to mission work in Burundi. I shared a room with a half dozen other men from various backgrounds. One, named Gershom, was a Romanian Jew, who had . . . . Continue Reading »

There has been a spate of reports on disappearing churches, waning faith, changing religious attitudes, and the ways in which COVID has affected the religious landscape. The numbers reported are probably accurate; there probably are fewer people going to church these days, with the number decreasing . . . . Continue Reading »

Toward the end of his short life, Anton Chekhov penned one of his shortest stories, “The Student.” Debates over Chekhov’s own faith continue; however, no one doubts that at the root of his soul sprang a human compassion that was without peer. He knew how to “weep with those who weep” (Rom. . . . . Continue Reading »

A recent letter signed by leading English church leaders implies that encouraging people to live the sexual lives ordered by their biological sex is a form of oppression. This strikes me as completely misconceived. Continue Reading »

Bad reviews killed the poet Keats, so the story goes. Even though the tale has been debunked, it remains popularly repeated. We enjoy the éclat of unjust criticism, especially of the famous, even as we relish pitying the weakness of the oversensitive. The great film director Akira . . . . Continue Reading »

Our society is confused about children. We allow their destruction in the womb and their manufacture in the laboratory, a contradictory denial and affirmation of their inestimable value that tells us a great deal about our strange times. In our cold calculus, we allow that children are necessary to . . . . Continue Reading »