Now available on newsstands and online”take a look at the latest issue of First Things ! You’ll find it’s brimming with innovative ideas you’ve come to expect. Take, for instance, the in-depth case economist Timothy Reichert makes about how the phenomenon of contraception has hurt women in work, relationships, and personal happiness. Or Michael Wyschogrod’s novel argument for a monarchy in Israel. Or Joseph Bottum’s concern about the “Bad Medicine” of Obamacare. You’ll also find the latest work of George Weigel, Robert Louis Wilken, and Mary Ann Glendon. Get it while it’s hot! Continue Reading »
The doctrine of predestination is at the heart of the Reformed message, but almost every tradition has to wrestle with the thorny questions of divine and human agency, as have home-grown religious movements like Mormonism and Christian Science… . Continue Reading »
Nebraska has outlawed abortions after 20 weeks on the grounds that by then, the fetus has developed the structures necessary to feel pain. From the story: Gov. Dave Heineman of Nebraska signed a law on Tuesday banning most abortions 20 weeks after conception … Continue Reading »
A preacher is often faced with the burdensome task of confronting the discrepancy between the texts from Scripture assigned for the day and the headlines that have been blaring during the past week. For example, how does one reconcile the news of God’s love with the news of the earthquake in Haiti? … Continue Reading »
I’ve liked John Podhoretz ever since, years ago, he called to introduce himself and ask me to write something for him”on Thomas Mann’s novels, as it happens. I very gratefully learned, as much as I was able, to write literary reviews by churning them out for him while he was at the Weekly Standard… . Continue Reading »
Mark Chaves, professor of sociology at Duke University and director of the National Congregations Study, has this interesting chart detailing how broadly defined Christian groups engage politically. A close examination will show that the so-called Religious Right … Continue Reading »
On March 25, the New York Times published a now thoroughly discredited front-page story suggesting that Joseph Ratzinger, while prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had willfully impeded sanctions against a clerical sexual abuser in Milwaukee who had preyed on the deaf children in his care… . Continue Reading »
Over these past few weeks a flurry of stories have appeared in the media regarding clergy sexual abuse and its mishandling by Catholic bishops and even the pope himself. Much of this information is dated. The fact that these stories were triggered in part by an attorney with a long and lucrative financial history of litigating the Catholic community and were pressed with such enthusiasm by editors during Holy Week”and in particular on Good Friday”could hardly have been a coincidence… . Continue Reading »
In a 1932 letter Leo Strauss wrote, “I cannot believe and … therefore I search for a possibility to live without faith.” That search, which began in the 1920s, led him from contemporary theological debates and the modern liberal critique of religion to medieval Jewish and Islamic thinkers and back to Plato and Socrates, from whom Strauss learned that “raising the question regarding the right way of life”this alone is the right way of life.” … Continue Reading »
In a 1932 letter Leo Strauss wrote, “I cannot believe and … therefore I search for a possibility to live without faith.” That search, which began in the 1920s, led him from contemporary theological debates and the modern liberal critique of religion to medieval Jewish and Islamic thinkers and back to Plato and Socrates, from whom Strauss learned that “raising the question regarding the right way of life”this alone is the right way of life.” … Continue Reading »
