R.R. Reno is editor of First Things.

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Universities and the Left

The recent unpleasantness at Princeton brought to mind Villanova professor Robert Maranto’s musing about the ideological tilt of academia, ” As A Republican, I’m on the Fringe .” It’s a familiar story. There are far more liberals and Marxists in the professoriate than . . . . Continue Reading »

17 Dec 2007

Nostalgia

I’ve recently been re-reading Emerson, and I find myself longing for the return of a more sincere hypocrisy. . . . . Continue Reading »

13 Dec 2007

More On Pascal’s Rule

Robert Miller rightly points out that science is consequential. It matters whether or not my doctor understands the nature of sickness and has at his disposal some strategies for cure. But Pascal’s Rule does not say that science is inconsequential. His Rule only points out that questions that . . . . Continue Reading »

12 Dec 2007

Pascal’s Rule

Pascal once wrote, in so many words, that the certainty of our knowledge is inversely proportional to its significance. The truths of physics give us no words to say to a friend dying of cancer. Evolutionary biology cannot console us at the graveside. . . . . Continue Reading »

12 Dec 2007

Pork Sign

In his post J. Bottum has drawn attention to what can only be called a poor-sign of the times. Or is that a sign of poor times? . . . . Continue Reading »

11 Dec 2007

Mall Horror Story

Omaha, my adopted hometown, was in the news last week. A nineteen-year-old went into a mall and shot a dozen people, killing eight, and then himself. A few days later I had dinner with an Israeli friend. “Suicide bombers I understand,” he told me. “They kill innocent people, but . . . . Continue Reading »

11 Dec 2007

The Secular Left?

Why is it a commonplace to speak in terms of the religious right and secular left? Surely there has been a secular right: Ayn Rand, Friedrich Hayek, supply-siders, libertarians, and so forth. And there has been a Christian Left: Walter Rauschenbusch, Dorothy Day, and of course the Democratic . . . . Continue Reading »

11 Dec 2007