R. R. Reno

In a commentary published by The Chronicle of Higher Education , David House looks back and assesses the influence of Pope John Paul II’s apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae . House takes an optimistic view, reading the last couple of decades as a muted, but . . . . Continue Reading »

We are not meant to leave things as they are; God commanded Adam and Eve to till and keep the garden and exercise dominion. Society and the soul need to be subjected to a constant, cultivating scrutiny: Are we living as we should? … Continue Reading »

Third World anti-colonialism as the key to the policies and decisions of the Obama administration? After reading the Forbes cover story by Dinesh D’Souza, “ How Obama Thinks ,” I found myself scratching my head. In D’Souza’s account, the interpretive key to the Obama . . . . Continue Reading »

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As September 11 passed, I found myself thinking about the Ground Zero mosque, and the bizarre on-again, off-again story of planned Koran burning in Florida. Why, I found myself wondering, have these stories come to the fore? I’m more and more convinced that these strange episodes—as well . . . . Continue Reading »

Today the Church remembers St. John Chrysostom, a great preacher and leader in the early Church. Made Archbishop of Constantinople in 398, he was impolitic enough to denounce the opulence, hypocrisy, and debauchery of the imperial court, earning him banishment in 403. While I was writing a . . . . Continue Reading »

Yesterday I posted some thoughts about a recently published history of the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. A friend chided me for ending my analysis with what he took to be a dismissive parting shot that does to progressive Catholic theology what the progressives tend to do to the . . . . Continue Reading »

Nearly fifty years have past, but the legacy of the Second Vatican Council (it ended in November 1965) still remains a matter of debate. Not surprisingly, studies of the history often become advocacy. The American Catholic Revolution: How the Sixties Changed the Church Forever, by Mark S. Massa, S. J., is no exception. Dean of the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, Fr. Massa hangs his history on the old caricatures that have dominated liberal interpretations of modern Catholic history for decades… . Continue Reading »

William Carroll, one of the most subtle Thomists currently thinking about science, metaphysics, and faith, has put up a characteristically clear and lucid analysis of Stephen Hawking’s claim that modern physics has shown that we don’t need God to get the universe going. As Carroll . . . . Continue Reading »

In a long posting at Public Discourse, ” The Mosque’s Lesson in Loyalty ,” Carson Holloway provides helpful analysis of the legitimate human impulse to love one’s own. Beginning with family and clan, radiating outward to neighborhood, community, and nation, we have a native impulse toward . . . . Continue Reading »