May 2026

Number 363
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Letters

Letters—May 2026

Gratitude to Samuel D. James for his nuanced retrospective on purity culture, and especially for his closing…

Essays

Recovering the University’s Soul

Robert Barron

The contemporary university is widely acknowledged to be in crisis. Loss of public confidence, relentless tuition increases,…

How Science Killed Materialism

Michel-Yves Bolloré

At the beginning of the twentieth century, materialists could feel triumphant. The four preceding centuries had yielded…

The Savannah Enlightenment

John Byron Kuhner

In 1716, a remarkable commoner by the name of James Oglethorpe took a leave of absence from…

In Defense of Cultural Christianity

James R. Wood

More than two centuries ago, Søren Kierkegaard attacked the established church of his native Denmark. He denounced…

Opinion

Why Me?

Ephraim Radner

I visited a friend of mine a few years ago. He was a deeply faithful theologian, but without…

God and Man at MIT

Siddhu Pachipala

The pamphleteers are hard to miss. They stand in front of the big doors of Lobby 7,…

Faith-Based Failures

Matthew Schmitz

On January 24, 2025, Mukhtar Mohamed Shariff was sentenced to seventeen years in prison for his role…

Return of the Nobles

Liel Leibovitz

Here, perhaps, is the greatest problem we face these days: Everything is full. Saunter over to your…

Boomer–Zoomer Housing War

Carmel Richardson

When I heard the price the retired man was asking for his home, a full $80,000 over…

Reviews

The West Distorted

Sebastian Milbank

G. K. Chesterton’s novel The Flying Inn begins with a strange seaside encounter involving one Misysra Ammon,…

Ratzinger in the Whirlwind

Sam Zeno Conedera

Joseph Ratzinger did not fade into obscurity when he retired to a life of prayer inside the…

A Whole New World

Veronica Clarke

I remember wondering, one idle summer when I was a child, why God had made the world so…

Finding a Pulse 

Michael Hanby

Trueman’s new book, The Desecration of Man, should further cement his authority. It supplements, focuses, and in…

The Sinew of Diplomacy

Patrick Porter

The primal scene of A. Wess Mitchell’s formidable Great Power Diplomacy is a crisis meeting in Sparta…

The Public Square

Climbing and Death

R. R. Reno

During the last year or so, I’ve worked on a memoir. The topic is my youth spent…

Debates about Postliberalism

R. R. Reno

I tire of debates about postliberalism. So it was with reluctance that I turned to Zachary ­Chambers’s intervention,…

Catholic Bishops’ Empty Moralizing

R. R. Reno

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops made an ill-considered intervention in the legal battle over birthright…

While We’re At It

R. R. Reno

Leonid Radvinsky died on March 20. He was the billionaire majority owner of OnlyFans, an online…

Poetry

Godson 

Steven Knepper

I doubt you’ll be a simple kind of manbut listen to the song.  It’s a good plan.…

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place with Wifi

Rob Griffith

As waiters glide across the room,espresso steams beside my bookon the small, round table.The low purl of…

The No / The Yes 

J. S. Absher

Nothing terrifies more than the Noyour lover whispers through a closed door:You may die for all I…