I went in search of Dixie, and discovered that I could find only traces of it. On a ten-day driving trip in late May with my wife through the lower South—Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, the Florida panhandle, Georgia—I encountered little of the Deep South of my cultural . . . . Continue Reading »
We have all witnessed the transforming power of hope—the focus and sustenance hope provides when strength and reason fail to pull us through a difficult situation. Facing tragedy and loss, hope is often the only thing standing between us and the void. Life-threatening illnesses or injuries . . . . Continue Reading »
So, will there be further installments of this running commentary, Scandal Time IV through XIV, ad infinitum? Maybe not. After the Dallas meeting of bishops, some believe that while the fire is not extinguished, it appears to be contained. Dallas was about many things—there were moving, even . . . . Continue Reading »
Less than a year after the attack of September 11, Americans have just about succeeded in absorbing the war on terror into their daily routine. In the home, the classroom, and the workplace, normalcy has returned. For most of us, the day said to have changed everything has changed remarkably . . . . Continue Reading »
Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society . By David Sloan Wilson. University of Chicago Press. 260 pp. $25. This is a lucid and entertaining addition to the long list of recent books on what evolutionary theory can tell us about religion. Its author teaches biology and . . . . Continue Reading »
Stephen Toulmin’s Return to Reason provides an occasion to reflect on the remarkable fact that our faith in reason is currently on the decline—and that our professors are taking the lead in killing it. Of course that part of reasoning that involves the ability to calculate and create is . . . . Continue Reading »
While his professional work is primarily in elementary particle physics, Steven Weinberg became widely known to the general public with the publication of a book on cosmology, The First Three Minutes (1977), which presented a lucid and fascinating story of the early development of the universe with . . . . Continue Reading »
The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration—a somewhat mistitled, often uneven, but extremely provocative book—marks the arrival of a bold new voice in the American race relations debate. It belongs to Carol M. Swain, a professor at Vanderbilt University Law . . . . Continue Reading »
The ongoing debate about Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli) and his actions (or lack of actions) in response to the Holocaust has gained intensity over the past few years. Books defending the pontiff by Ronald J. Rychlak, Pierre Blet, Margherita Marchione, and Ralph McInerny have been matched by . . . . Continue Reading »
I’m grateful for what I’ve learned from the letters to First Things about my exchange with George Weigel on the adventures of the U.S. in Afghanistan. These letters show that the questions raised in that exchange are lively; for that we should all be grateful. To Father Oakes (whose prose is as . . . . Continue Reading »
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