Kevin Staley-Joyce

There’s a strangely nonchalant line at the beginning of yesterday’s New York Times profile of the thousandth US troop to die in Afghanistan: He was an irreverent teenager with a pregnant girlfriend when the idea first crossed his mind: Join the Army, raise a family. She had an abortion, . . . . Continue Reading »

Those of us who catch a glimpse of the Empire State Building each day—just about everyone in First Things ’ New York editorial office—can’t help but notice its nightly evolution, with a new color scheme illuminating the top third of the tower each evening. A billboard to the . . . . Continue Reading »

There must still be a few geniuses at The Onion —America’s finest news source, yes—and perhaps a few disaffected intellectuals as well. Mustering as much cynicism—but with humor—as the academic himself, a r ecent Onion musing on Noam Chomsky read: Describing himself as . . . . Continue Reading »

Two new polls on Catholicism’s favor in the United States have just been released, presenting mixed results. The first, conducted by ABC News and The Washington Post , finds that unfavorable views of the Catholic Church have risen by an astonishing 25 percentage points among Americans since . . . . Continue Reading »

Calvary Episcopal Church of Danvers, Massachusetts, has just announced it will begin offering a monthly worship service for dogs. Besides being driven to the service by Starbucks-jittered suburban elites in trademark Volvo station wagons, the canine faithful will enjoy the unique pleasure of being . . . . Continue Reading »

According to a  study released by researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark, the brain’s executive network—the portion of our neural circuitry devoted to complex problem solving and truth seeking—is less active during certain modes of religious experience, especially those . . . . Continue Reading »

Two Canadian parents aiming to exempt their children from a state-run religious education program are  seeking recourse to the Supreme Court of Canada. The Ethics and Religious Culture curriculum, developed under Jean Charest’s government, is mandatory in both public and private schools, . . . . Continue Reading »

After 160 years, St. Vincent’s Hospital, the last Catholic general hospital in New York City,  has shut its doors for good. As we’ve  said before —it’s a sad, sad thing. . . . . Continue Reading »

The occasional signs and wonders can, well, do wonders to keep faith alive. In some cases, they actually keep you alive. An Australian newspaper reported just recently that a man who attempted suicide at a notorious cliff in Sydney was saved from death by a rogue wave which—by at least one . . . . Continue Reading »

Located close to Lincoln Center and aligned with a row of handsome buildings on Central Park West, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church represents both the traditional and the novel in mainline Protestant Christianity. The church’s interior—with its stained glass, mosaics of saints, Gothic . . . . Continue Reading »