Another voice has joined the fray in the aftermath of the Pope’s much-discussed interview. Pope Francis “is not a radical. He is something more interesting and unexpected both inside the church and out: a radical traditionalist,” claims Mary Eberstadt in Time . Eberstadt—a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, author of a number of books, and frequent contributor to First Things —offers a defense of Francis’ pragmatic realism and lauds his wise approach. Francis’ response, she argues, is practical without compromising principle; the Pope encourages us to reach out with “bigger nets” and to draw all men and women closer to truth in love.
Mary Eberstadt is a friend of the journal and gave a talk on her most recent book, How the West Really Lost Faith in God , this spring at office. ( Here is an interview she gave explaining and defending this book’s central points.) Read some of her more recent First Things articles here:
The Weight of Smut (2010)
For those of you who have an online subscription: Revolving Revolution (2013)
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
