The Editors

Elizabeth Scalia on the first rule of being cool : Coolness does not need anyone to define it, but allow me to try. The quality of “coolness” contains within it an attitude of discrete detachment, which is not the same as aloofness. It suggests an intellect attuned to a different . . . . Continue Reading »

R.R. Reno on Paul Ryan and the angry Catholic Left : When Representative Paul Ryan said that his recently released budget proposal was developed in accord with his understanding of Catholic social doctrine, the liberal Catholic establishment reacted with outrage. Ryan was scheduled to talk at . . . . Continue Reading »

James R. Rogers on debt, gift, and sacrifice in the Hunger Games : The book, The Hunger Games , is of course better than the movie. The book’s story moves with the internal dialogue of the teen protagonist, Katniss. In contrast, the film’s story moves along through events external to . . . . Continue Reading »

Russell E. Saltzman on the high cost of weddings : The percentages, based only on this man’s intuition, are the proper numbers to use ascertaining what people spend on a wedding, the ninety-nine being relative to the one. Weddings for the ninety-nine percent, well, they are cheap. Inexpensive . . . . Continue Reading »

George Weigel on Rosa DeLauro, CNS, and the disoriented Catholic Left : One does wonder, sometimes, just what goes on at Catholic News Service (CNS), an agency that wouldn’t exist were it not for the U.S. bishops and the bishops’ conference. This past April 16, CNS distributed a lengthy . . . . Continue Reading »

Mark Misulia reviews Jesse Bering’s The Belief Instinct : Bering argues that our proto-human ancestors were unselfconsciously “impulsive, hedonistic, and uninhibited.” But sooner or later humans recognized that they were capable of and subject to judgment. In time, the reproductive . . . . Continue Reading »

William Doino Jr. on the serenity of Vatican II : The progressive left sees the Council as an open-ended innovation whose revolutionary promise has yet to be fulfilled. The traditionalist right views it with deep suspicion and is sometimes heard to say (if not openly, at least sotto voce) that the . . . . Continue Reading »

Peter J. Leithart on messages at the movies : Like many Christian filmmakers, the Erwins can’t resist “preaching” moments. Sure, non-Christian films can be plenty preachy, but preachiness is a disease to which evangelical filmmakers are especially susceptible. The nurse’s scene . . . . Continue Reading »

Matthew Cantirino on Sergius Bulgakov’s religious materialism : Sergius Bulgakov, widely regarded as the greatest Orthodox theologian of the twentieth century (calling him the von Balthasar of the East would not be wide of the mark), was the kind of religious thinker only that century could . . . . Continue Reading »

George Weigel on Philip II, China, and the great Catholic “what-if” : History being linear, “What if . . . .?” is an unanswerable question—but always a fascinating one. What if George Washington had failed in New York in the early days of the American revolution and the . . . . Continue Reading »