The Public Square Some writers on the First Amendment, including this editor, have long made the argument that there is but one religion clause. The purpose of the clause is to protect the “free exercise” of religion, and the “no establishment” provision is in the service of that purpose . . . . Continue Reading »
Over the past decade, Father Thomas J. Reese, S.J., a fellow of the Woodstock Theological Center in Washington, has become perhaps the most dogged, and certainly the most prolific, Catholic bishop-watcher in the United States. Collecting and retailing stories about bishops has a long history, of . . . . Continue Reading »
This book has its flaws, especially with regard to Freudian thought, but its contributions to our understanding of how Freudian concepts were used to transform American culture are important and largely unknown. E. Fuller Torrey, a psychiatrist, focuses on the ways in which Freudian theory was used . . . . Continue Reading »
Of books and Dissertations about Reinhold Niebuhr, it seems, there is no end. Having committed one such dissertation myself a few years ago, I am in no position to complain. Of course the real truth is that dedicated Niebuhrians leap at any chance to return to the moral and intellectual universe of . . . . Continue Reading »
An eminent British scholar of Buddhism took occasion in a recent essay to observe that contemporary Western university students are more likely to be taught about Hinduism than about the variety of Christian denominations. He gave one ominous example: “What . . . do our teachers of Christianity . . . . Continue Reading »
Toward the end of Vatican Council II (1962-1965), John Courtney Murray, S.J., in the company of other clerics, concelebrated mass with Pope Paul VI. Like most other Americans who were in St. Peter’s at the time, I felt that it was a much-deserved and long-overdue public ecclesiastical . . . . Continue Reading »
The Book of Legends/Sefer Ha-Aggadah:Legends from the Talmud and Midrashedited by hayim nahman bialik and yehoshua hana ravnitzkyschocken, 897 pages, $75 Anthologies are frequently described as “treasure troves” of this or that. But The Book of Legends really is a treasure trove . . . . Continue Reading »
Slowly: out of that sleep that numbs the knife edge, I come home to a various world, to faces and voices, To a blur of angels at this keep, awaiting. Vague prophecies of life somewhat lasting, A testing of steadying heartbeat, of firm susperation. Such is the welcomed review of my waking, I, who . . . . Continue Reading »
“It is sometimes given to us, this lovely emptiness, and then the Holy Spirit can fill it . . . .” Madeleine L’Engle . . . and it happens, too, when words upon the printed page fall into place, and fit the moment and the heart and, by undivided Grace, what lies within, what lies . . . . Continue Reading »
With our cameras and crumpled clothes we wait for the bus. We rush to each “beauty spot” through narrow streets, observing signs whose alphabet we fail to comprehend. Pretty girls are scattered like rain. We pass students on bikes, old people stooped over bundles. The new “good life” of . . . . Continue Reading »
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