Category: Featured
Who’s Afraid of John Calvin? Answer: Thomas Jefferson
In 1822, Thomas Jefferson was enjoying a quiet retirement at his beloved Monticello. His family troubles gave him sleepless nights but he found solace in his correspondence and, as always, in his books. The former president’s mind turned over Virginia’s...
The Lost City: What’s the use of cities in a world of states?
I once quoted to my father, who is of a Marxist disposition and considers patriotism “the last refuge of scoundrels”, the famous words of Sir Walter Scott: “Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath...
On The Traditionalists and the Protestants
Ross Douthat had a fascinating interview this past weekend in the New York Times with Cardinal Raymond Burke, a leader in conservative American Catholicism who has been consistently pushed toward the margins of church life under Pope Francis. At the risk...
Putting on Avatars, Putting on Christ: Reflections on “American Democracy in the Internet Age”
G. K. Chesterton was once asked to publish a response to the question “what is wrong with the world?” With characteristic wit and aplomb, he sent the editors back four words: “Dear Sirs, I am.” The story, sadly, is apocryphal....
Anatomy of Glory
Suppose the reformer stops saying that a good woman may be like God and begins by saying that God is like a good woman. Suppose he says that we might just as well pray to ‘Our Mother which art in...
Thomas Aquinas Reviews Worship Songs: Breathe
Whether “This is the Air I Breathe”? Objection 1: It would seem that God is, in fact, the air I breathe. The Psalmist writes, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” Therefore,...
Violent Schools in a Violent World
The Hunt, a series from the creators of Planet Earth, provides a vivid depiction of the brutal predator/prey chase. The series reveals a violent world where crocs mimic floating logs before lunging toward a herd of slurping wildebeest and a...
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...
Happy Reformation Day, or, How Melanchthon Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Jesus
Obviously, everyone should celebrate Reformation Day. At this point, even the Church of Rome has surreptitiously attempted to take on board many of the Reformation’s emphases, albeit in impure form and without the necessary dogmatic changes—er, development[1]—that would allow her...
An Intercourse with Ghosts: The Unabomber, Irony, and Terror
1. To write about Theodore J. Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, is to sit for a moment with the ghosts of his victims peering over your shoulder. The dead and the maimed, both. Just as much as you try to...