Dissenting Catholics in the public square seem to unite around at least two principles. One is their dogged pursuit of the appearance of ideological consistency. However grave the division between their public and private beliefs, persuading the public of their supposed unity of mind is a priority often pursued with rhetorical acrobatics… . Continue Reading »
Woody Allen’s Whatever Works, a serious contender for worst movie of 2009, is noteworthy mostly as a disastrous attempt to channel Allen’s humor through the caustic verbiage of the increasingly unfunny Larry David. But the problem is deeper than casting… . Continue Reading »
March 2010 signifies First Things’ 20th Anniversary. To celebrate, we’ve compiled a cross-section of the magazine’s highlights from the last two decades. We had an embarrassment of riches to choose from, a reminder to all of us of the lasting significance of the magazine’s achievements. Please join us in celebrating, and enjoy the 20th Anniversary Issue, available on newsstands and online today… . Continue Reading »
In a New York Times column today, Mark Oppenheimer reviews the controversy surrounding former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen’s efforts to square waterboarding with Catholic moral doctrine. Mr. Thiessen has some ill-informed views, and Mr. Oppenheimer seems to have failed to do his homework… . Continue Reading »
First Things : How did you get involved in the magazine? Where and when did you meet Fr. Neuhaus? George Weigel: I first met Father Neuhaus in May 1978, in New York, when I was arranging a conference on international human rights in Seattle, where I then lived and worked. We quickly became fast . . . . Continue Reading »
First Things : So I think the first thing we would like to know is what it was that brought you to New York in the first place and how you met Father Neuhaus and your background. James Nuechterlein: In the early ’60s, he was then Pastor Neuhaus of St. John the Evangelist in Brooklyn, and I . . . . Continue Reading »
Recently it was observed that novelist Anne Tyler “writes about middle-class people trying to endure life in Baltimore.” Tell me about it. The snow that came earlier this month”and came, and came”never left because we Baltimorons (as we like to call ourselves”but don’t you try) are inept at clearing it away… . Continue Reading »
In the Wall Street Journal, Michel Gurfinkiel reviews the new book by Frederick Brown, For the Soul of France”an account of nineteenth-century France, in all its glory and all its disaster. As Gurfinkiel remarks, from 1830 to 1905 … Continue Reading »
Our nation has begun a modest surge in Afghanistan, ostensibly as a prelude to substantial withdrawal of ground forces from that country, if not from Southwest Asia altogether. The decision to surge seems to be based upon two key assumptions… . Continue Reading »
In a 1967 lecture on the “cruciform character of history,” Dartmouth professor Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy”the anniversary of whose death is today”observed … Continue Reading »
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