Michael Gerson’s latest column bemoans the death of historical meaning in our personal romantic narrative. It’s true that the therapeutic historicism that still seems to undergird a lot of popular culture — people telling their stories to one another — is actually being . . . . Continue Reading »
Be sure to check out Elizabeth Scalia’s On the Square article today, to which the majority of commenting readers thus far, whether agreeing with her points or not, have exclaimed the same response: Wow . . . . . Continue Reading »
It was my privilege to meet Rev. Dr. Mark Durie yesterday. Durie, a noted linguist and Australian Anglican Priest gave a lecture at The Hudson Institute titled “Hate Speech Laws, Islamic Blasphemy Strictures, and Freedom of Speech: The Case of Australia.” A brief description of Dr. . . . . Continue Reading »
In comments below on my post about Yuval Levin’s book, Imagining the Future , Michael Peterson asks : “Will someone, somewhere, define human dignity?” Not me, at least not in this post . . . but here’s an account of what needs to happen first. One of the best passages in . . . . Continue Reading »
Stanley reminds us that curiosity isn’t a virtue. For Pascal, it’s nothing more than the vanity of beings in love with their own capabilities. It distracts us from the duties that should flow from love of God and each other. Curiosity can easily morph into love of diversity or losing . . . . Continue Reading »
The city council of Camden, a London borough, tells a Catholic parish it can’t use faith-based vocabulary to advertise talks on God and climate change : St Francis is a saint normally associated with peaceful, eremetic living and an overwhelming empathy for the animal kingdom. He is invoked in . . . . Continue Reading »
From the latest Barna Update : From the early 1990s through 1999 just 5% of the Senior Pastors of Protestant churches were female. Since that time the proportion has slowly but steadily risen, doubling to 10% in 2009. Not surprisingly, a large share of the woman in the pastorate – 58% – . . . . Continue Reading »
A Spanish reader wrote a furious rebuttal to an old post about the growing antipathy Spaniards show towards Jews. I argued that as Spain became less Christian, it also became more hostile to Jews, and tha the Spanish left hates Jews for the same reason it hates Christianity.The Spanish reader took . . . . Continue Reading »
Normally I don’t quote myself, but this item from my “Inner Workings” blog at Asia Times might be of interest to First Things readers.Gaming the collapse of the dollar reserve system remains a favorite pastime of forex and commodity traders. Japan’s new prime minister Yukio . . . . Continue Reading »
Is there a line between transparency and compiling an enemies list? See this Washington Times exclusive: White House Collects Web Users’ Data Without Notice . In the wake of last month’s health-care email fiasco, one might wonder what the people in the administration were . . . . Continue Reading »
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