R.R. Reno is editor of First Things.

RSS Feed

Islam, Christianity, and Secularism

A number of friends have pushed and probed, wondering if I’m not being overly simplistic when I say that Islam is largely irrelevant to the future of America. First of all, I am being overly simplistic. Islam and America—these are extraordinarily complex cultural realities. When I wrote . . . . Continue Reading »

27 Aug 2010

A Weakness of Conservatism

As readers of my thoughts on Islam and American politics may have suspected, I’ve been beating my head against the wall lately, trying to understand why American conservatism allows itself to be ideologically outmaneuvered by liberalism, and this even as conservatism wins elections. But . . . . Continue Reading »

26 Aug 2010

Islam and America

Today I weighed in on the Ground Zero mosque controversy , making a case that it’s not a big deal. A major premise of my argument is that Islam is not all that much of a factor in America. It’s something many of us fail to see, because we misread the behavior of the liberal . . . . Continue Reading »

26 Aug 2010

A Creepy Feeling

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops has released the Labor Day Statement by Bishop William F. Murphy, the Chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development. No breaking news, just some well-meaning sentiments and reasonably sound observations. For example, Bishop Murphy . . . . Continue Reading »

25 Aug 2010

College and Conservatism

Last week Insider Higher Education offered a helpful summary of a new study that dug down a bit into the culture of higher education to see how conservative students survive and thrive . The study found that students at an elite liberal arts college tended to have positive experiences, even though . . . . Continue Reading »

23 Aug 2010

A New Appointment

King’s College is an undergraduate institution in Manhattan.  Revitalized by Campus Crusade a decade or so ago, it was moved to the Empire State Building. The college was meant to bring Christ to Babylon, and to bring Christian students into the hurley-burley of a global city. Today . . . . Continue Reading »

20 Aug 2010

The Need for Civility

R. J. Snell, philosophy professor at Eastern University, posted an interesting essay today on The Public Discourse: “ Universities and the Graciousness of Being .” In the main, Snell wants to draw attention to the important role that good manners play in social life. At a minimum, like . . . . Continue Reading »

20 Aug 2010

China and the Future

After the accountants tallied up their figures, Chinese GDP surpassed Japan’s in the second quarter of this year. No surprises there. The torrid growth of the Chinese economy over the last two decades has made this milestone inevitable. The population of China is ten times greater than that . . . . Continue Reading »

19 Aug 2010

What Art Says About Life

Cezanne, Matisse, Monet, Picasso—the impressionist and post-impressionist painters bring in the big crowds at the museums. Van Gogh posters have had a fifty-year run as best sellers. What explains the enduring popularity of the largely French art that, in its day, was seen as shocking and . . . . Continue Reading »

18 Aug 2010

Policing Theology

As is the case in so many other countries, the Australian government is revisiting the question of higher education. The United States isn’t all that different. We’re worried about how to finance our gigantic system, and we’re concerned about how to ensure that various . . . . Continue Reading »

17 Aug 2010