Richard John Neuhaus

Herewith a peek at a forthcoming installment of "The Public Square" in First Things . Darwin’s Conservatives: The Misguided Quest is a vigorous polemic by John G. West of the Discovery Institute . Dr. West properly takes to task prominent conservatives such as George Will and Charles . . . . Continue Reading »

Herewith an item from "The Public Square" in a forthcoming issue of First Things : It has been almost fifty years since C.P. Snow fixed the world’s attention on the way in which there are "two cultures," with scientists living in one and humanists in the other. Snow’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Taoiseach . I’ve been listening to the way the Irish pronounce it, and you’re safe in going with "T-shirt." It is, of course, the title of the prime minister of the Republic of Ireland, who for the last decade has been Bertie Ahern. He’s in the country, as Irish prime . . . . Continue Reading »

Talk about "criminalizing political differences" is again rife in the wake of the conviction of Scooter Libby. I very much wish it were not so, but the phrase is all too accurate. Prosecutors bring one set of charges and, when they don’t hold up, then actually prosecute . . . . Continue Reading »

I see that Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali has made it to the bestseller lists. Hirsi Ali, it will be recalled, is the Muslim from Somalia who sought refuge in the Netherlands and took up the cudgels against Jihadism, and indeed against Islam, which she believes is inseparable from Jihadism. As a . . . . Continue Reading »

A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion by catherine l. albanese yale university press, 640 pages, $40 If one is looking for a fascinating tour of the many sideshows of the carnival that is religion in America, Catherine L. Albanese is the guide you want. . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public Square Body Worlds is an “educational” exhibition that has been touring major U.S. cities the past couple of years. I was surprised to read that a bishop whom I admire had given it his imprimatur, so to speak, in his diocesan newspaper. I asked him about it and he said he had . . . . Continue Reading »

Whatever the merits or demerits of Craig Raine’s new biography, T.S. Eliot , and Terry Eagleton thinks the latter far outweigh the former , it does raise once again the question of Eliot’s alleged misogyny and anti-Semitism. Eagleton thinks that question is settled, and not in . . . . Continue Reading »

One detects in some quarters a sense of inevitability about momentous changes in the ordering¯or disordering, as the case may be¯of society. Forty years, one may be inclined to think, is not a long time in the history of a culture and its foundational institutions. Forty years ago in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Some Muslims in America are unhappy with us. And apparently they know something I don’t. This from The American Muslim : "The most extreme and most sophisticated example of patronizing intolerance in contemporary America, because it most starkly illustrates the reversal of truth and . . . . Continue Reading »