launching liberalism: on lockean political philosophy by michael zuckert university press of kansas, 392 pages, $29.95 Paraphrasing the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was One. And the Word brought forth a world.” Can the words of man be equally univocal, and have . . . . Continue Reading »
“At last.” I breathed a sigh of gratitude upon my first reading of Bishop Wilton Gregory’s presidential address at the November meeting of the bishops conference. At last they are no longer jumping through media hoops and giving the impression of scurrying about like scared executives in . . . . Continue Reading »
The Limits of Globalization M. A. Casey ( “How to Think About Globalization,” October 2002) accurately portrays the secular elite’s inability to appreciate the depth of influence that religious cultures maintain over the actions of individuals, including those who were responsible for the . . . . Continue Reading »
Recently I witnessed a spectacle unlike anything I have seen in twenty years: a mass wedding celebrated by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. On April 27, 2002, in the ballroom of a large hotel on the fringe of America’s capital, I watched as Moon formalized the wedding vows of—or so he . . . . Continue Reading »
Several months on, we can begin to appreciate the full importance of the Supreme Court’s June 27, 2002 decision upholding the Cleveland school voucher program (Zelman v. Simmons-Harris). Anxious parents and children in Cleveland now possess a constitutionally sanctioned means to escape the . . . . Continue Reading »
In the long and arduous fight leading up to Roe v. Wade, the one thing feminists were most passionate about was their belief that unrestricted access to abortion was indispensable to achieving gender equality. Betty Friedan in 1972 promised that legalizing abortion would make women whole. Advocacy . . . . Continue Reading »
Chesterton was wrong, for that other vision stood in the wings. But, writing in 1908, how could he have predicted that parents would one day pay minds so modest as these for the opportunity to teach their children that they might not exist, that the answer to the question “Are we?” is not . . . . Continue Reading »
Readers of First Things should by now be well-acquainted with the heated national debate—in part inspired by these very pages—over the role and legitimacy of the modern Supreme Court, armed with the power of judicial review, in a country that proclaims itself to be . . . . Continue Reading »
The great bell tolls midnight stirring echoes: emperors, martyrs, prophets in chains. Above Rome’s Seven Hills life and death still wrestle in a match already won. The last toll rolls like a tide through Bernini’s columns, over the ramparts, and disappears. And for just an instant I am at the . . . . Continue Reading »