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In the Gospel of St. Mark, the Lord Jesus teaches that 'from the beginning of creation 'God made them male and female.'' He then declares a great and beautiful truth [...]

This is more a story than an argument. It is in some ways a very personal story, and yet not without broader implications. It is just possible that some may [...]

My church is better than your church. It sounds like the stuff of schoolboy quarrels on the playground: My dad can beat your dad! Yet, sad to say, that is [...]

I'll presume to call it Neuhaus' Law, or at least one of his several laws: Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed. Some otherwise bright people [...]

When I was a young Lutheran seminarian, I was struck by a professor's forceful declaration that the phrase growth in grace is a contradiction in terms. The grace of the [...]

As with most academic traditions, and especially those that are viewed as soft, there are orthodoxies and fashions, and sometimes sudden turns, that are conventionally described--following Thomas Kuhn's Structure of [...]

* Here's an interesting statement by Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News, who also runs the 'Crunchy Con' blog on beliefnet.com. Some years ago he was giving major attention [...]

Whatever else it is, the pro-life movement of the last thirty-plus years is one of the most massive and sustained expressions of citizen participation in the history of the United [...]

It is no secret that the quest for Christian unity has come upon hard times. As a Catholic, one's first duty is to make it clear that the Catholic Church [...]

What Happened at Vatican II by John W. O'Malley Harvard University Press, 372 pages, $29.95 Vatican II: Renewal Within Tradition edited by Matthew Lamb and Matthew Levering Oxford University Press, [...]

* I have mentioned before Clive James' book of mini-essays on intellectuals of the past hundred years, Cultural Amnesia. He really does not like Jean-Paul Sartre, who was lionized by [...]

In saying that one must guard against superlatives in recounting Pope Benedict's apostolic visit this April, one acknowledges that superlatives are not easy to resist. The enthusiasm of the crowds, [...]

The beginnings of this reflection appeared on the FIRST THINGS website. Permit me a word on that. A recent survey of our readers indicates that relatively few also check the [...]

Russell Shaw admits that some people think he has become a nag on the subject. He has written several books and many more articles on the evils of clericalism. Charmingly [...]

In 'True Devotion to Mary' (December 2007), Father Neuhaus stated the following: 'Catholic bishops and other leaders must strive to correct the widespread idea that Mary or one of the [...]

In his classic work Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, Henry Adams asserts, only half whimsically, that the twelfth-century Cathedral of Chartres was, in all its details, built at the direction of the [...]

* A megachurch in Redmond, Washington, has come on hard times. Overlake Christian Church was booming a decade ago and put up a $37 million building. Now attendance is down [...]

The topic of fascism, Nazism, and the churches continues to fascinate, as witness a steady stream of books on the subject. An informative article by Michael Hollerich of Santa Clara [...]

We are incessantly told that we live in a celebrity culture, and it is in large part true. If a celebrity is defined as someone who is well known for [...]

Is 'human dignity' a useful concept in bioethics? Does it shed important light on the whole range of bioethical issues? Or is it instead a useless concept--a slogan that camouflages [...]

Let me say it straight out: Hugh Heclo's Christianity and American Democracy is one of the most suggestive books on religion and the public square to have appeared in some [...]

The unknowing reader might at first think that Jesus of Nazareth is coauthored. At the top of the dust jacket is 'Joseph Ratzinger.' Then, directly below it, in much larger [...]

Yes, I know. I had promised a commentary on Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict's apostolic exhortation based on the 2005 synod of bishops on the Eucharist. His exhortation was issued in [...]

The argument advanced by Zev Chafers-with an engaging mix of urgency, frustration, and humor both high and low--is really quite simple: American evangelicals are, next to American Jews, Israel's best [...]

Philip Jenkins begs to differ. But first a word on the discussion that prompts his dissent. Over the years, FIRST THINGS has devoted substantial attention to the thesis that Europe [...]

To look at the big picture of the relationship between Christ and culture is, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, a dizzying experience. Our most immediate cultural world is [...]

Valparaiso University had an inestimable part in shaping my understanding of the Church and its mission in the world, as it did for many Lutherans of the time. There at [...]

'Whatever happened to Christian Canada?' I expect many readers have never given a thought to the question. In part, because many, if not most, readers seldom give a thought to [...]

A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion by Catherine L. Albanese Yale University Press, 640 pages, $40 If one is looking for a fascinating [...]

It is galling when a good friend submits to another publication an article that we would have loved to publish. But then Maria McFadden, editor of the Human Life Review, [...]

* A book that has generated considerable controversy is at last available in English. Unfortunately, it will probably not get much attention. It is put out by the relatively obscure [...]

The Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama, is a remarkable place. It very much reflects the vision of Timothy George, its founding and present dean, a Baptist of Calvinist proclivities [...]

To have lived in the Athens of Socrates, the Rome of Augustus, the Christendom of Charlemagne, or the Philadelphia of the Constitutional Convention--ah, what stories we would have to tell. [...]

Bill Coffin has died at age eighty-one. It was front-page news, and deservedly so. As much as or more than any religious figure, Bill represented the turning of the mainline-oldline [...]

If you're not a Christian and not about to become a Christian, but you're a public intellectual who is paid to be an expert on a society that is overwhelmingly [...]

Benedict's first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est--'God Is Love'--is dated the Feast of the Nativity but was not issued until late January. There has been so far surprisingly little commentary on [...]

Going on five years since September 11, 2001, and many, if not most, Americans seem very uncertain about what it means that we are at war--or whether we really are [...]

During those younger years as the pastor of a poor, black, inner-city parish in Brooklyn, including the years of working with Martin Luther King, Jr., I was an unapologetic romantic [...]

In his influential book The Courage to Be Catholic, George Weigel wrote about the 'The Truce of 1968.' By that is meant the decision not to discipline the many theologians [...]

Back in May 2001, I wrote in this space, under the title 'Bible Babel,' about the translation that is the unfortunate New American Bible (NAB). It is a subject that [...]

* 'Chrismukkah.' That was last December's commercial novelty in the service of inclusiveness. The Catholic League and the New York Board of Rabbis were not amused. They issued a joint [...]

Once upon a time--it was the 1976 bicentennial of the American founding, to be precise--I wrote a book on the American experiment and the idea of covenant. Time magazine picked [...]