R. R. Reno

I recently had a very interesting conversation with Wheaton art historian and First Things writer Mathew Milliner. Matt has been trying to think about how to understand artistic creativity in relation to cultural authority. T.S. Eliot is an obvious place to start. His famous essay, “Tradition . . . . Continue Reading »

Mark Anthony Signorelli and Nikos Salingaros are nothing if not clear and forceful: artistic modernism is a anti-tradition of anti-art oriented toward domination rather than beauty. Here is a particularly trenchant set of observations about architectural modernism from ” The Tyranny of . . . . Continue Reading »

In the August/September issue of First Things, I wrote briefly about New York’s Nanny-in-chief, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and his proposal to regulate the size of sugary drinks for sale in Gotham. Many commentators chortled. I’ve found myself thinking his efforts serious, and a sign of our times. Our neo-bourgeois elites feel the need to impose their order on the lower classes… . Continue Reading »

The ever useful Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has released a new survey . The focus falls on attitudes toward the recent push by the Catholic Bishops to highlight the threats posed to religious liberty. Results aren’t too surprising. If you’re a Catholic and have heard about the . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public . . . . Continue Reading »

The Catholic World Report has posted a wide-ranging interview with New Criterion editor Roger Kimball. Kimball’s new book, The Fortunes of Permanence , collects his recent essays of literary, artistic, and cultural criticism. This interview reflects quite well what I’d call . . . . Continue Reading »

New York isn’t quite as extreme as Paris, but the city gets noticeably emptier at the end of July and into August. It’s almost quiet and peaceful. OK, not almost, but certainly less crowded and frenetic. And therefore friendlier to the idea of settling down to read a book, which is no doubt why last night a friend asked me for some recommendations… . Continue Reading »

Professor Robert George at Princeton has been one of the most articulate spokesmen for the view of marriage as a union of one man and one woman. He has demonstrated the absurdity of liberal claims that there is no rational basis for objecting to same-sex marriage. Today on Public Discourse he has . . . . Continue Reading »

In The Chronicle of Higher Education , Russell Jacoby has some reflections on the state of conservative intellectual life , which he regards as moribund. No news here. It’s long been a conceit of the Left that conservatives are dumb, and if not dumb, then deranged, or paranoid, or racist, or . . . . Continue Reading »

What is it about our elite culture that is so fixated on contraception? Over at Public Discourse , Greg Pfundstein and Meghan Grizzle report on the latest decision by the Gates Foundation to put more than $4 billion behind efforts to expand the use of contraceptives worldwide. As they point out, . . . . Continue Reading »