A Shanksville Meditation
by George WeigelThe men and women of Flight 93 who chose not to flinch in the face of wickedness affirmed the dignity of human life. Continue Reading »
Wanted: A Catholic Chaim Potok
by George WeigelTo the Israelites belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the law-giving, the worship, and the promises; theirs were the patriarchs, and from them came the Messiah. Continue Reading »
Thirty Years at First Things
by R. R. RenoThis is our 300th number, marking thirty years of publication. In early 1989, Richard John Neuhaus had no inkling that he was about to found First Things. A Lutheran pastor noted for his incisive religious and political commentaries, he was busy running the Center on Religion and Society. The Center . . . . Continue Reading »
Saint and Scribe
by Robert RoyalLessons in Hope: My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul IIby george weigelbasic, 368 pages, $32 Czesław Miłosz once said that, in terms of moral grandeur and personal presence, St. John Paul II could have been one of Shakespeare’s kings. No less a judge than Joseph Ratzinger noted that it was . . . . Continue Reading »
The Washington Post and the Church of Me
by George WeigelThe idea of freedom in the Church of Me was neatly captured by that great moral philosopher, Frank Sinatra, when he sang, “I did it my way.” Underwriting that self-centered (indeed, selfish) concept of freedom is the idea that the human person is just a twitching bundle of desires, the satisfaction of which is what we mean by “human rights.” Continue Reading »
An Epistolary Romp through Catholicism
by George WeigelIn 2003, Elizabeth Maguire, publisher of Basic Books, made a proposal: I should write Letters to a Young Catholic as part of a series she was doing that included volumes like Letters to a Young Contrarian, Letters to a Young Chef, Letters to a Young Golfer, Letters to a Young Lawyer, and so forth. . . . . Continue Reading »
The Making of a Misleading Metaphor
by Kenneth L. Woodward
The sturdiest storyline in the coverage of the canonization of two popes last Sunday was a narrative that claimed that Pope Francis yoked the two in a single ceremony because he wanted to unite the conservative and progressing wings of the Catholic Church—as represented by John XXIII (favored by progressives) and John Paul II (ditto by conservatives). That was the narrative in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and among several Catholic pundits who really should have known better. . . . Continue Reading»
Podcast Transcript: George Weigel Discusses John Paul II: Truths about Living and Truths about Dying, Part Two
by Gayle TrotterThe following is a transcript of part two of Gayle Trotter’s podcast interview with George Weigel. Gayle talks with Weigel about The End and the Beginning, the newly released second part of his biography of John Paul II. Weigel, the author of fifteen books and a weekly . . . . Continue Reading »
George Weigel Discusses Pope John Paul II: Truths about Living and Truths about Dying
by Gayle TrotterGayle talks with George Weigel about The End and the Beginning, the newly released second part of his biography of John Paul II. Weigel, the author of fifteen books and a weekly syndicated column, is a Roman Catholic theologian and Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public . . . . Continue Reading »
Intimidating Intelligence Dims the Brights
by Gayle TrotterIn an anything-but-apologetic apologia, Mary Eberstadt challenges the many spokesmen (and they are almost all men) for the New Atheism in her satire, The Loser Letters. Reminiscent of Ted Turner’s infamous comment that Christianity is a religion for losers, the Loser in this book is . . . . Continue Reading »
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