At the heart of what these bishops and others have called a “merciful” path is a frenzied desire for happiness and for the avoidance of pain and suffering, supposing that these people have suffered enough. This stands in direct contrast to the Scriptures, the Fathers, and the saints, whose premise is that suffering is not something to be avoided at all costs—one can learn to live through it. Continue Reading »
Learning lessons from Molly Hughes’s rollicking chronicles of Victorian family life. Continue Reading »
Nat Hentoff's lived a full life writing not only about jazz, but about the principles of a free society. Those topics may seem incongruous, but for Hentoff they were always interrelated. Continue Reading »
Will believers be freer to be believers under Trump than they have been for the past twenty-five years? Continue Reading »
Atheists have long been a vocal minority in America, their relations with the dominant Protestant culture defined by consistent, unresolved antagonism, unexpected ideological affinities and interdependencies, and the back-and-forth movement of individuals between atheism and belief. Continue Reading »
More than seven decades have passed since philosophy held court on the world-historic stage, in the cafes and jazz halls of wartime Paris. For those who lament the decline of the “public intellectual,” this period richly serves the needs of nostalgia, conjuring chic melancholy, debates conducted in a tobacco haze, and the evergreen romance of La Résistance. Continue Reading »
“A man will give his life for a mystery, but not for a question mark.” Immediately after Vatican II, the North American College was a house of question marks—and worse-than-question-marks. The Catholic Church in America paid, and is paying, a heavy price for that season of deep confusion. Continue Reading »
Istanbul is a history of the people who lived in and around the city walls. Madden’s narrative is driven by conquests and construction. It is punctuated by earthquakes, fires, and plagues, and shot through with religious fervor and political intrigue. Continue Reading »
The spirit of the liturgy suggests that we do not become ourselves until we join the symphony. Continue Reading »
The preaching of the Gospel as a sacramental event is at the heart of Reformation theology. Preaching is also at the heart of Reformation faith—preaching as an indispensable means of grace and a sure sign of the true church. Continue Reading »
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