The scene at the final hole at the Masters Golf Tournament—Ben Crenshaw weeping for joy, bent over, head in hands, while his caddy Carl Jackson comforts him. In that image many of us noticed something almost lost, nearly extinct, in American manners—the gratitude of a pious man who loves his game. Among professional sports, golf … Read more
It’s a pity we teach metaphysics to students before they have children. There is nothing like the happy presence of a son or daughter to make us thankful for life, and to God for giving it. While delighting in our children, how easy it is to grasp the all-important distinction between essence and existence, between … Read more
Beauty has no trouble finding an audience. Truth and goodness pass by incognito while heads turn paying homage to the handsome passerby. Over a century ago Baudelaire’s poetry reminded us that through beauty we can move toward God or the devil. These days we need to be reminded that our hunger for beauty can make … Read more
Ash Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court: The justices are hearing arguments over the University of Virginia’s refusal to fund the Christian student magazine Wide Awake. As debate focuses on the nature of religious speech, Justice David Souter remarks, “It seems to me it is one thing to recruit people to one’s organization and another … Read more
A number of people have suggested to me that the name Crisis should be changed. They worry about the magazine having a negative image. Beyond merely criticizing the present state of affairs, they feel the magazine should appear more forward-looking: the name Crisis doesn’t sound like a magazine showing the way toward a Catholicism for … Read more
Why the present fascination with angels? Does it forecast a spiritual awakening? The signs seem ambiguous. Some aspects of this revival resemble just another romp around the playground of the modern sensibility, with its constant seesawing between abstraction and sentiment. The angels filling the shelves of your local bookstore look less like terrible messengers from … Read more
I am surprised by people who do not recognize the dangers of multiculturalism. They don’t seem to understand that there is much more at stake than “learning about other cultures.” Neither do they see the harm being done to American education and to the future of our culture. How did this happen? No doubt multiculturalists … Read more
The war of words continues. First we were told that Christian political activists, both Protestant and Catholic, comprise the “religious right,” and now we are told they are not “Christians” at all. The initial imprudence of Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders, widely criticized at first for her bigotry, is being echoed by others as the November … Read more
The New York Times celebrated the eve of the Cairo Conference with one of the saddest pictures I have ever seen. The scene is a medical clinic in Karachi, Pakistan; four young women are seen lying side-by-side at a 90-degree angle across two beds, the paint visibly peeling from the metal headboards. The patients wear … Read more
Readers of Crisis may already be familiar with the name Marion Montgomery. For many years his articles have appeared regularly in Modern Age, Hillsdale Review, This World, and Chronicles, and Crisis recently published his comment on “De-construction and Eric Voegelin” (June 1988). But the growth of Montgomery’s reputation has been spurred by the publication in … Read more