June 18, 2018
by Regis Nicoll
The recent spate of suicides by the rich and famous is a symptom of our growing sense of gloom. We enjoy social, technological, and economic conditions that would have been considered utopian less than a century ago. Yet, unhappiness, and even depression, are at record levels. Why? In his impressively researched book, The Progress Paradox, [...]
August 31, 2017
by Tom Venzor
Recently, some American activists have ignited a movement to usher in an urgent iconoclasm of vile symbols of culture and history, such as the removal of statues bearing the likeness of General Robert E. Lee, inter alia. Whether these symbols ought to fall is an important question, and more astute thinkers have written on the [...]
May 23, 2017
by Anthony Esolen
Father, I must confess: I have made comments on social media. There is at least one thing that social media illuminate, and that is the unwillingness or the incapacity of people to reason. I attribute it in part to “critical thinking,” which turns otherwise intelligent people into perpetual sophomores, ready to play what they think [...]
May 16, 2016
by James Kalb
I noted last month that living well is difficult apart from a definite and well-developed tradition of life. Otherwise we simply won't know what we're doing, and we'll have to make up everything as we go along without any idea of ultimate results or significance, or of what we might be missing. Such claims for the necessity [...]
March 23, 2016
by John Horvat II
At a certain point in modern times, it was decided that God, the Creator of heaven and earth, should stay out of the business of running the world he created. Supposedly, men could do it much better without him. All this was done, mind you, with a certain amount of tact and propriety so as [...]
February 17, 2016
by Deacon Michael Quinlan
The controversy over a Super Bowl ad for a snack chip that allegedly “humanized,” of all things, a pre-born human being highlights the deliberate rejection of reality of the “abortion rights” objectors. On its face, as others have noted, the controversy exposes the pernicious obfuscation that a fetus is nothing more than a “meaningless blob [...]
December 31, 2015
by R. Jared Staudt
We are beginning the Year of the Lord 2016. The marking of the dawn of a new year is no secular holiday, because time and history have been drawn into the coming of God into the world. We keep track of our time as either BC (Before Christ) or AD (Anno Domini) to demonstrate that [...]
December 16, 2015
by David Byrne
The Greeks invented philosophy. They gave us Herodotus, the father of history, too. Their philosophy of history was cyclical, meaning they believed history had highs and lows, but lacked purpose. The Christian intellectual tradition first proposed that history moves in a linear fashion, corresponds with progress, and culminates with a utopian end point. Modern day [...]
October 21, 2015
by John M. Grondelski
I recently stumbled upon a rare treasure: the Apocalypse Tapestry of Angers, France. Displayed in a special wing of a local chateau, the 400 foot long, double-wide fourteenth-century tapestry depicts more than 70 scenes from the Book of Revelation, the New Testament’s last book. Comprehensive depictions of the Apocalypse are not too common, so I [...]
March 12, 2015
by Paul Kengor
Three homosexual men have "married" each other in Thailand in what is being billed as the world’s first three-way same-sex "marriage." This was, of course, inevitable. It’s inevitable in every country that redefines marriage as anything but one man and one woman. When the culture’s only standard for “marriage” is that the parties love each [...]
August 11, 2014
by Joseph Pearce
Is civilization worth defending? Should we aim to conform to it so that we can be considered civilized? Should we aim to bring our children up according to its norms so that they can also be considered civilized? Should we try to make our country and our world as civilized as possible? The chances are [...]
February 13, 2014
by K. V. Turley
Each generation gets a cinematic Frankenstein made in its own image. Now, as I, Frankenstein is released, we have ours. On a wet night, I stood in line and bought a ticket, almost 200 years after Mary Shelley had created her work of fiction, one that has re-incarnated in the cinematic age to become a [...]
September 27, 2013
by Bruce Frohnen
“The earth belongs always to the living generation.” These are not Thomas Jefferson’s most famous words, but they are quite famous among students of politics. They have been used for generations to justify radical political change. And, like the soaring rhetoric of the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, these Jeffersonian words have gained him [...]
June 11, 2013
by James Kalb
Is the world getting better or worse? It’s an important question, since the value of current social policy depends on the answer. Ordinary people tend to see current tendencies as a problem, but opinion leaders are more likely to discredit the past in favor of youth, novelty, and progress. With that in mind, mainstream public [...]
May 10, 2012
by Christopher Shannon
I am a long-time reader and admirer of the work of Wendell Berry. On April 23, I was privileged to be among those in attendance at the Kennedy Center to hear his 2012 Jefferson Lecture. With Berry nearing the end of his career, I had not expected to hear anything particularly new from him that [...]
April 25, 2012
by Michael Cook
With the celebraton of his 85th birthday, this makes Benedict XVI, the sovereign of the Vatican City State, the eighth oldest world leader. Although insiders say that Benedict is slowing down, he lives at a pace which would kill younger men: a relentless succession of trips in Italy, trips overseas, daily speeches, a multitude of [...]
March 29, 2012
by Anthony Esolen
I have long thought that the term “progressive” was a dodge, because no one could tell me exactly where we were supposed to be headed and why. It seemed to me that the term was teleological but without a telos, as if someone were to practice archery without a target, or shoot a basketball without [...]
October 1, 1987
by Robert A. Goldwin
The Constitution of the United States was the world's first written national constitution. In 1787 it was the only one; now approximately 160 nations have written constitutions — more than half of them less than 15 years old. What accounts for the remarkable stability and longevity of our Constitution? Its durability can probably be best [...]
November 1, 1986
by Michael Novak
Since no one else seems outraged, let me raise a small voice against the cruel method of torture that is being practiced in South Africa. It is not often shown in all its horror on TV. It is called "the necklace," and it is symptomatic of troubles ahead. Suppose that you were trying to be [...]
October 1, 1986
by Ralph McInerny
A generic thing to be said in favor of the recent pastoral letters of our bishops, those published and those dying of a dozen drafts, is that they are efforts to stand in judgment on the world, to assess and appraise economic activity and weapons systems in the light of the doctrines of the Roman [...]