The Democrats (Probably) Won’t Outflank Themselves
The Bulwark’s Jonathan Last is the latest conservative commentator to take up a line that is increasingly popular amongst the Never Trump right: If the Democrats don’t pivot toward the center they’re going to lose in 2020. The argument is relatively...
Reformation Day and the Waning of the Western Church
Reformation Day is a contested event in the church year. That this is so for Roman Christians is to be expected. That it is increasingly so for Protestants as well is lamentable. Part of the reason for that Protestant reluctance...
The Liberty of a Christian in a Democratic Age
Writing for the Catholic Herald, my friend Matthew Schmitz argues that the current political divide opening up in America confirms that Christian life and contemporary American ideas of liberty cannot permanently coexist. Eventually the two will come into conflict and...
There is No Wealth but Life: Rootedness in an Orphaned World
There is no wealth but life. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings. ~ John Ruskin “You surprise me,...
The Necessity of Nations
Dr. Werntz has argued that the question ‘can Christians be nationalists?’ is largely without meaning, at present at least, because it cannot be answered using the terms given in the debate so far. Our global, neo-liberal order has unmade nations...
Book Review: The Household and the War for the Cosmos by C. R. Wiley
One of the persistent irritations of the debate about ecological health and climate change is the routine pitting of the life of people against the life of the earth. Thus Sen. Bernie Sanders recently endorsed abortion as a licit strategy...
Book Review: Surprised by Paradox by Jen Pollock Michel
The Holy Fool has been a common trope in Christian literature for some time. You can reasonably trace it back to St Paul who, writing in 1 Corinthians, spoke of how the wisdom of God looks to the world like...
What are nations for?
Once in college I asked my pastor if he had time to get coffee so I could ask his advice on something that had been bothering me for several months. I was feeling stretched to my limits because I was...
Against the Political Atheists: On the Safety of the Dead Consensus
In his book Living on Fire the late Daniel Kelly tells the story of L. Brent Bozell, a Catholic writer, activist, and politician. Bozell began his career safely ensconced in the conservative establishment, writing at National Review with his brother-in-law and fellow...
Post-Liberalism and American Racism
Recently Adam Serwer published a piece in The Atlantic characterizing the current conversation about liberalism amongst American conservatives as essentially being a sustained, intellectualized temper tantrum thrown over their loss of power. Ross Douthat has done the main work in critiquing...