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Natural Law, Franckly Speaking Matthew Franck has been a friend, and I know he was seeking to be generous of spirit in his review of my new book (“The Lawful Truth,” October 2010). But he gives us a version of Carnac the Magnificent: Instead of pronouncing the answers and then announcing . . . . Continue Reading »

Policy Pollyanna Foreign-policy experts tend toward blindness to the moral aspects of what they analyze, and theologians are typically without expertise in geopolitics. George Weigel is one of the few people able to offer informed discussion of both morality and geopolitics, and he does so with his . . . . Continue Reading »

The Politics of Life My own take on abortion politics is somewhat different from Joseph Bottum’s (“The Signpost at the Crossroads” August/September 2010). I have yet to hear an explanation of how America, or any given state, would go about distinguishing between sought abortions that are . . . . Continue Reading »

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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