May 2025

Letters
Two delightful essays in the March issue, by Nikolas Prassas (“Large Language Poetry,” March 2025) and Gary…
How to Commemorate 1776
Next year is America’s 250th anniversary, and President Trump has promised us a “spectacular birthday party.” The…
Why Homeschool?
My father used to quiz us at the kitchen table, my older brother and me, during dinner.…
Feminism Against Fertility
When Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, the boys crowed and the girls cried. At least…
The Right Has Forgotten Feeling
I'm not sure how I got here, into these pages. Lately I’ve found myself in a lot…
Leave Joy Alone
C S. Lewis has never been my favorite Christian writer. I admit this sheepishly, given his stature.…
How I Kicked My Phone Habit
About eighteen months ago, I decided I wanted a healthier relationship with my smartphone. My phone had…
Battle for Young Minds
If you happened to tune in to America’s most popular podcasts these last few months, you might’ve…
Pure Episcopalianism
It was in June 2022 that my wife and I started looking for a home in Washington,…
America’s New Grand Strategy
After the Cold War, the United States could imagine that its military was all-powerful. America seemed capable…
How Abortion Lost Its Cool
Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential election victory shocked many. The deplorables won the day, the elites were disgraced,…
The Love Society and Its Enemies
Written by Karl Popper after he fled Austria in the late 1930s, The Open Society and Its…
While We’re At It
H. Richard Niebuhr taught at Yale Divinity School for many decades. In 1953, he made the following…
Liberal Integralists
Eight years ago, Andrew Willard Jones’s Before Church and State was described in these pages as “the…
Endless Shuffle
”The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and…
Immaterial World
Spencer Klavan is a classicist who holds a doctorate in ancient Greek literature from Oxford University. Not…
Song of Thanksgiving
On the cover of Nicholas Chong’s new book, The Catholic Beethoven, the skies are blue. That in…
Briefly Noted
A Grand Slam for God:A Journey from Baseball Star to Catholic Priestby burke masterword on fire, 192…
Lift My Chin, Lord
Lift my chin, Lord,Say to me,“You are not whoYou feared to be,Not Hecate, quite,With howling sound,Torch held…
Spring Twilight After Penance
Let’s say you’ve just comeFrom confession. Late sunPours through the budding treesThat mark the brown creek washing Itself…
For an English Teacher
You died, but it was not your words that faltered. You’d husbanded the language all your life, And when…