R.R. Reno is editor of First Things.

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So You Want to Get a PhD in the Humanities?

Since the middle ages and the rise of the universities as distinct institution, the academic life has been a ripe target for satire. I can’t say this video is as artful as send up of scholastic logic and disputation in The Battle of the Seven Arts by Henri d’Andeli, but has some funny . . . . Continue Reading »

29 Oct 2010

Priests and Politics

A friend recently wrote, expressing a worry that his parish priest sometimes takes up political issues too quickly and too freely. My friend is by no means a quietist. He’s a First Things sort of fellow, very committed to the significance of faith in the public square. One can’t read . . . . Continue Reading »

26 Oct 2010

Still More on Juan Williams

The decision by NPR to fire Juan Williams continues to churn the waters, and I find myself thinking more about the trajectory of American liberalism (and conservatism too). On the Guardian website, Michael Tomasky has a blog, and he steps up to defend the folks at NPR . As was the case in my . . . . Continue Reading »

25 Oct 2010

More on Juan Williams

Some of the comments made on my last posting have caused me to think further about the larger dynamics suggested by the circumstances surrounding Juan Williams’ dismissal. Here is the dynamic I see at work. When I was born, the idea-driven world (academic, media, and so forth) was dominated . . . . Continue Reading »

22 Oct 2010

Juan Williams Fired

I gasped when I read the story in The New York Times . The folks at National Public Radio fired Juan Williams, ostensibly because of his comments on “The O’Reilly Factor,” which were judged by NPR to be “inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined . . . . Continue Reading »

21 Oct 2010

Postmodernity, Faith, and the Arts

The latest issue of The City features an article by First Thoughts contributor Matthew Milliner: ” The Tale of Two Art Worlds .” Milliner recounts the trajectory of postmodern art criticism, which over recent decades has adopted a progressive political outlook that . . . . Continue Reading »

19 Oct 2010

The Authority of Tradition

In ” Marriage and the Law of Tradition ,” a new posting on Public Discourse, R. J. Snell recounts the reasons St. Thomas gives authority to tradition. St. Thomas viewed the laws of society (a notion that encompassed written laws as well as social norms) as subject to rational scrutiny. . . . . Continue Reading »

18 Oct 2010

The Importance of Spiritual Discipline

In the history of the church, one of the most famous conflicts was between St. Bernard (d.1153), the charismatic abbot of Clairvaux, and Peter Abelard (d.1143), the brilliant medieval logician and theologian. St. Bernard thought that Abelard’s new approach to theology, an approach that . . . . Continue Reading »

15 Oct 2010

Council of Europe Does the Right Thing

As C-FAM reports , representatives in the Council of Europe, the European legislative body that meets in Strasbourg, France, reversed an effort by abortion proponents. A resolution came before the Council that was designed to make it difficult for medical professionals to refuse to perform or . . . . Continue Reading »

14 Oct 2010

Who Says Logic Can’t Be Fun?

On his blog, Ed Feser offers some amusing versions of the informal fallacies , in this case very informal ones. They’re all worth quoting, so I will. Post doc, ergo propter doc : The delusion that a Ph.D. confers wisdom, or even basic competence. Example: “Of course  the medievals . . . . Continue Reading »

13 Oct 2010