Various

Ross Douthat’s summary of the state of the Catholic conversation (“Catholic Ideas and Catholic Realities,” August/September) demonstrates the author’s typical precision in observing his own intellectual communities. On multiple readings I can find nothing substantially to disagree with; and . . . . Continue Reading »

Richard Mouw, for twenty years president of ­Fuller Seminary and still on its faculty, updates us on his thinking about a matter long close to his heart: the disputed neo-Calvinist or ­Kuyperian doctrine of common grace. Conversational and personal in style, the book has hardly a paragraph without . . . . Continue Reading »

Mark Bauerlein’s account of the English department’s decline in “Truth, Reading, Decadence” (June/July) makes for good reading. It is true to my experience in the field of literary study and helps give the tragedy our discipline has undergone intelligible structure. For those unfamiliar with . . . . Continue Reading »

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I read R. R. Reno’s charitable words on Karl Barth with great interest (“Karl Barth,” May) and would like to offer my own remarks as a ­supplement. At the Protestant Theologicum in Tübingen (1974–5), I spent a year sharing an office with Reno’s mentor, Ronald Thiemann. Ron’s background . . . . Continue Reading »

Seder Night, the lengthy ­ritualistic meal of the first night of Passover, is considered one of the most important events in the Jewish calendar. Mark Gerson’s new work underscores—with great panache and enthusiasm—perhaps the most underappreciated facet of the ­evening: the . . . . Continue Reading »

John Finnis’s “Abortion Is Unconstitutional” (April) has already sent shockwaves through the pro-life movement and the broader abortion debate. The piece sparked a vigorous debate with prominent conservative scholar Ed Whelan. In the New York Times, Michelle Goldberg denounced what she . . . . Continue Reading »

Fujimura’s Art and Faith meditates on the necessity of art for spiritual flourishing. Pulling from a myriad of resources, Fujimura illustrates how artistic ­creation allows us to model ourselves after God, the first and greatest creator and artist, who­ created the world ex . . . . Continue Reading »

The only excuse I can imagine for David P. Goldman’s taking up the shopworn claim that T. S. Eliot was an anti-Semite (“T. S. Eliot and the Jews,” March) is that, having been repeated so many times before, it might as well be repeated again as one of the unexamined prejudices of our culture. . . . . Continue Reading »

Charles Dickens, according to his son Henry, “never made a point of his religious convictions,” which were “very strong and deep.” They were also liberal and rather loose. Although he sometimes attended Anglican services and was well-versed in Scripture, Dickens was not interested in . . . . Continue Reading »