January 2021
America’s Most Influential Journal of Religion and Public Life
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Becket and His Critics
The late philosopher Roger Scruton once told a Guardian journalist that he thought he had been “too…
Beyond the Grave
The idea that one can report on one’s own death is paradoxical, if not preposterous. As Epicurus…
Pessimism of the West
Western civilization exerts unprecedented influence. Science commands the intellectual loyalty of elites around the world. Western strands…
The Diseasing of Judgment
Students clamor for “safe spaces.” Protesters smash windows and political leaders insist on saying that it’s important…
The Road to Revolution
The classic theory of revolution was formulated by Alexis de Tocqueville, who observed in The Ancien Régime…
Clean Hands
From the 1940s until his death in 1986, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein was the most prominent authority on…
L’affaire Voltaire
Americans know little of Voltaire. French high-schoolers, by contrast, know him the way we once knew Thoreau…
Letters
Political Christianity I appreciated Sohrab Ahmari’s generous review of my book Live Not by Lies (“Resist in…
Magdalena
M agdalena loves potatoes. Doesn’t matter what kind. Red, yellow, Idaho, Irish, boiled, baked, or mashed. French-fried…
The Shema
I recently read an interview with a writer who is, like me, in her mid-eighties. I was…
Yoga: It’s About You
The word “yoga” has long had many meanings. In the 1899 Monier-Williams Sanskrit dictionary, it is defined…
Anti-American Exceptionalism
To Begin the World Over Again:How the American Revolution Devastated the Globeby matthew lockwood yale, 512 pages,…
Briefly Noted
The Oxford Illustrated History of the Bookedited by james raven oxford, 480 pages, $39.95 This handsomely produced…
Bring Back the Body
What It Means to Be Human:The Case for the Body in Public Bioethicsby o. carter snead harvard,…
Papa Don’t Preach
The Lying Life of Adultsby elena ferrante translated by ann goldsteineuropa editions, 336 pages, $26 For about…
Quite Contrary
Here’s the Story:A Memoirby mary mcaleese sandycove, 416 pages, £20 Mary McAleese is known to some as…
Rethinking Religious Freedom
Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me:Why Governments Discriminate Against Religious Minoritiesby jonathan fox cambridge, 292…
A Priest Ponders, On His Anniversary
Another year has passed. Does your first Mass seemlike yesterday? Such bliss, so rapturous, mustneeds spring forth…
Cáer’s Dream
In dream, she fished with silk of swans,Baited her hooks of hammered bronze With rainbow strips of…
Christmas Sonnet
My oldest son worked hard to rake the leavesInto a corner of our yard. Proud to proveWhat…
The Exile of a Moment
Clouds like ice broken on the surface of a lake,Shifting forms of Pangaea that gravitate towards the…
This Blue
The way the light of youfinds me through the hot,bright unnamable blue, that square of ancient glassin…
