R. R. Reno

Dear Readers and Friends, Our end-of-the year fund drive is well underway, … Continue Reading »

Over at the New York Times “Room for Debate” page, Tim Shah and Tom Farr observe that our liberal counterparts are often tempted to define democratic culture as, well, liberals talking the way liberals talk . Drawing from Barack Obama’s meditations on the role of faith in public . . . . Continue Reading »

You can imagine my surprise this Christmas weekend when I discovered an essay on ancient and medieval spiritual theology in the Sunday Book Review section of the New York Times . In “The Noonday Demons, and Ours,” Brandeis English professor John Plotz reminds us that temptations toward . . . . Continue Reading »

I owe George Pell, the Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney, and our readers an apology for subjecting him and you to a dreary and bilious rant. George Weigel recently wrote an appreciated column about Cardinal Pell, one of the most articulate spokesmen for the Christian faith in the English-speaking world. Our readers weighed in with their usual insight and intelligence, but someone whose moniker is “Voiceless Victim” made defamatory and false remarks regarding the Cardinal… . Continue Reading »

Patrick Reilly and Rick Garnett mix it up over how best to respond to the aggressive way that Kathleen Sebelius at the Department of Health and Human Services has crafted regulations that stipulate what employers must include in the health insurance policies they provide. The long and the . . . . Continue Reading »

The rise of Newt Gingrich is extraordinary: a card-carrying member of the permanent governing class in Washington embraced by the conservative base of the Republican Party. I would have never imagined it possible. But these are remarkable, even desperate times. Many Republican Party voters feel that when it comes to government spending we have reached a now-or-never moment… . Continue Reading »

A friend wrote me today, saying, “When I was studying philosophy in graduate school I never imagined that I would live to see a thoughtful profile in the New York Times on Alvin Plantinga, let alone a respectful discussion of his new book on religion and science and the renaissance of . . . . Continue Reading »

A fortnight ago I made the case that the social democratic project in the West is under stress and may come unraveled. This does not mean I think it was a mistake. On the contrary, it was a brilliant achievement in its day. During the dark years of the Great Depression neither democracy nor free market capitalism seemed likely to survive. Fascism and Communism presented themselves as the only truly modern approaches to political and economic life, and their followers strutted, arrogantly confident that the future was theirs… . Continue Reading »

Rush-hour traffic emerged from the Battery Tunnel and roared up West Street on that gray, overcast afternoon as I made my way through the narrow, temporary passageways that snake around partially constructed buildings and deep foundation pits. My ticket for the National September 11 Memorial at the . . . . Continue Reading »

The current Eurozone crisis may end up as a defining moment in post-War European, and indeed American, history. Most of my leftist friends regarded the financial crisis of 2008 as a “market failure” that vindicated their views about the evils of capitalism. The debt crisis in Europe offers no such consolations to modern liberals, who may now be facing their Waterloo. That’s because it is very hard to ignore that the Eurozone crisis concerns sovereign debt. Greek bonds have become toxic because of decades of political decisions. Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian bonds may go the same way, and for the same reasons… . Continue Reading »