I do not own a computer printer. My computer is itself a small laptop, which would be too easily dwarfed by such a thing. Worse, if I did have a printer, I would be tempted to use it, and I would soon find that I needed an extra filing cabinet, then a bank of cabinets, … Read more
I do not own a computer printer. My computer is itself a small laptop, which would be too easily dwarfed by such a thing. Worse, if I did have a printer, I would be tempted to use it, and I would soon find that I needed an extra filing cabinet, then a bank of cabinets, … Read more
Through much of my life I did not take stress seriously. I looked upon it as something light and artificial, a maladie imaginaire afflicting intellectuals and other idle people. Nor did it occur to me to think of stress, or anxiety, in religious terms— any more than I might turn to the Church for an … Read more
One of the attractions of Catholicism for me was its promise of freedom from the puritanical deposit in the Protestant traditions. I mean this broadly, of course. We tend to reduce Puritanism retrospectively to prudishness about sex and drink, because modern man has had sex on the brain and perhaps too much to drink. The … Read more
I have found Dinesh D’Souza’s voice a helpful contribution to that War on Whatever we are arguably fighting—both in his recent book The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11 and in his discussions of it in this magazine and elsewhere. He is right to tell people that when Muslim fanatics … Read more
First, I want the reader’s sympathy. Before I wrote this column, I ploughed through the jargon-ridden and statistics-laden pages of a recent study on “Trends and Determinants of Fertility Rates in OECD Countries: The Role of Public Policy.” Once upon a time I read such things with something strangely approaching pleasure. Now they make my … Read more
First, I want the reader’s sympathy. Before I wrote this column, I ploughed through the jargon-ridden and statistics-laden pages of a recent study on “Trends and Determinants of Fertility Rates in OECD Countries: The Role of Public Policy.” Once upon a time I read such things with something strangely approaching pleasure. Now they make my … Read more
As a Catholic convert in the media, I get letters from many young, smart, skeptical, “postmodern” people seeking religious advice. Many want to become Catholic, but know almost nothing about the Faith. We are called to evangelize, and in the hope that this might be useful to others, here is a stripped-down version of the … Read more
As a Catholic convert in the media, I get letters from many young, smart, skeptical, “postmodern” people seeking religious advice. Many want to become Catholic, but know almost nothing about the Faith. We are called to evangelize, and in the hope that this might be useful to others, here is a stripped-down version of the … Read more
I am overwhelmed by large statistical surveys of anything, though it strikes me that the comparative survey of American dioceses, reviewed elsewhere throughout this issue, in fact confirms what we’d expect from good sense. Bishops do make a difference, and have great power to lead their flocks toward life or toward death. I write from … Read more
I am overwhelmed by large statistical surveys of anything, though it strikes me that the comparative survey of American dioceses, reviewed elsewhere throughout this issue, in fact confirms what we’d expect from good sense. Bishops do make a difference, and have great power to lead their flocks toward life or toward death. I write from … Read more
If you ask, it may be given. That is why you might hesitate to pray for courage. Or so went the reasoning of a friend who noticed that when she prayed for courage she not only received it, but was immediately projected into circumstances in which it would be tried. Well, she lived to joke … Read more
If you ask, it may be given. That is why you might hesitate to pray for courage. Or so went the reasoning of a friend who noticed that when she prayed for courage she not only received it, but was immediately projected into circumstances in which it would be tried. Well, she lived to joke … Read more
Christmas is supposed to be an event for the “PACE Christians”—those who atÂtend church for “Palms, Ashes, Christmas, and Easter.” But I learned from John Derbyshire, a columnist at National Review, that he always preÂferred to attend in midsummer, when half the congregation was away on vacation. In a recent column, he said he had … Read more
Pope Benedict XVI apÂparently triggered fresh “days of rage” among Muslims worldwide with his speech at the University of RegensÂburg in Bavaria. I say “apparently,” beÂcause it was no remark of the pope’s, but a quotation from a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, that made the spark. The line, from which the pope carefully distanced himself, seemed … Read more
The ideology of “scientism” holds that science alone can answer, or should be allowed to answer, life’s significant questions. In its most radical form, it holds that science has answered these questions, and plausibly accounts for the origin, nature, purpose, and destiny of the universe and man. In the scientistic account, anything not physical, measurable, … Read more
There is something to be said for the incuriosity of Horatio Nelson, who, before the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, received a signal from his admiral to disengage and withdraw. Nelson’s crew certainly noticed the flags and had, apparently, no trouble reading them. But Nelson had only one good eye. When alerted, he lifted his … Read more
I do not see what is controversial about Ann Coulter’s new book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, for I do not see what is controversial about stating the obvious. Such is the deÂgeneration of our intellectual culture that almost any statement of fact (say, ‘There are physiological differences between men and women”) will be laÂbeled … Read more
I wrote last month about the Catholic experience of watching the resurgence of violent Islam—in the knowledge that we adhere to the only institution on earth that stood successfully against previous tides of Islamic conquest. The claim of universality was severely tested in the schism between East and West, to an even greater degree than … Read more
The case of Abdul Rahman, put on trial in Afghanistan for the apostasy of converting to Christianity, cannot be resolved exÂcept by main force. This is a fact of life that Catholics should be the first to acknowledge. We have a long hisÂtory of confrontation with Islam, and we belong to the only earthly instituÂtion … Read more