Various

THE UPWARD CURVE If readers agree with Joseph Bottum, as I do, that American print standards are in an absurd decline, they should also agree that this new format for First Things will go a long way toward bending that curve upward. It’s a classy design, with just enough good and prominent . . . . Continue Reading »

Surviving Obamacare Joseph Bottum (“Bad Medicine,” May 2010) is too sanguine in his thoughts about what happens next. The combination of more federal mandates, more promised subsidies, and tighter government controls will make health-care services more expensive, less responsive too the needs . . . . Continue Reading »

Uprooting Spirituality In his review of Rebecca Goldstein’s 36 Arguments for the Existence of God (“Lost in Space-Time,” April 2010), David P. Goldman calls most of her arguments “straw men.” It seems to me that Goldstein presents them in an ironic manner and that the book takes the . . . . Continue Reading »

We are servants of a disputed sovereignty. The psalmist declares, “God mounts his throne to shouts of joy.” Christ has ascended his throne, but his rule is challenged by rival thrones. For us who believe, St. Paul says it is the fact that Christ rules “far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion.” … Continue Reading »

The Heat Is On I’d like to add a point to William Anderson’s “Some Like It Warm” (February 2010). The belief held by those who are left of center that peer review is always reliable runs up against other leftist beliefs. One is that the criminal-justice system is not reliable. . . . . Continue Reading »

The Gestalt of the Book in Questio n I was disappointed to see”in Paul Griffith’s review, in the January 2010 issue, of Carlos Eire’s A Very Brief History of Eternity ”some unclarity about Eire’s own commitments to the Catholic Church. Although it is true that Eire does . . . . Continue Reading »

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1990 Liberal public opinion found it easier to accept the defections from the pro-Soviet cause than from the radical movement of the 1960s. —The Bad Old Daysby Paul Hollander,April 1990 Capitalism’s relentless erosion of proprietary institutions furnishes the clearest evidence of its . . . . Continue Reading »

A Protestant Education Thank you for the fine article by Jason Byassee and L. Gregory Jones (“Methodists & Microcredit,” November 2009), which demonstrated wonderfully the similarities between grassroots capitalism and a charismatic call to build holy faith communities. Although the . . . . Continue Reading »

The War Between the Sexless Mary Eberstadt (“What Does Woman Want?” October 2009) and the authors (Caitlyn Flanagan and Sandra Tsing Loh) whose articles she reviews seem to miss the entire purpose of sexual intercourse. Sexual intercourse is an outward expression of the exclusive love . . . . Continue Reading »