Richard John Neuhaus

There is the ameliorative left and then there is the transformative left. The former wants to work for reform that is possible, while the latter will settle for nothing less than everything and therefore ends up with nothing. This is the argument of Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter in Nation of . . . . Continue Reading »

Cal Thomas, whose column runs neck-to-neck with George Will’s as the most widely syndicated in the country, enters a dissent from the current “Christmas wars.” Thomas doesn’t give a fig whether the salesperson in the mall wishes him “Merry Christmas” or . . . . Continue Reading »

If you believe some news accounts, it is all a grab for money and power. The subheading of the Washington Post ‘s story on the excommunication of a priest and six lay people in St. Louis reads, “Archbishop Demands Control of Catholic Parish’s Assets, Property.” Greedy, . . . . Continue Reading »

Over on Catholic World News, there is this fellow who calls himself Diogenes, aka Uncle Di. He is, how we shall put it, unsparing. There is, for instance, this : “Your Uncle Di fondly remembers those days of undergraduate study in cosmology and causality, parsing the tight packaging of St. . . . . Continue Reading »

Joshua Skinner is among those researching that troublesome Chesterton quote about those who do not believe in God ending up by believing not in nothing but in anything. He thinks we get pretty close to it in a Father Brown story, “The Miracle of Moon Crescent” in The Incredulity of . . . . Continue Reading »

Today is the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day of obligation for Catholics. It is an amazement how many people, including otherwise thoughtful Catholics, think the immaculate conception of Mary means that she was not conceived by the natural means of procreation. Immaculate . . . . Continue Reading »

Christoph Cardinal Schönborn kicked off quite a discussion with his New York Times essay on neo-Darwinism and Christian faith this past summer. In the forthcoming issue of F IRST T HINGS , he expands on the argument he is making. His article is titled “The Designs of Science.” For . . . . Continue Reading »

“When men stop believing in God they don’t believe in nothing; they believe in anything.” Umberto Eco said that observation is commonly attributed to G.K. Chesterton, and I flatly asserted in response that it is attributed to him because he wrote it. I may have been wrong about . . . . Continue Reading »

A good general rule for preachers is this: If a story does not serve the gospel, it will distract from the gospel. Too often, homiletical "illustrations" employed to illuminate the scriptural text displace the text. How often have you gone away remembering the cute story but forgetting . . . . Continue Reading »

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