Books
2020’s Best-kept Literary Secret
Charis in the World of Wonders is the novel of the year—and the odds are that you’ve never heard of it. Or, if you have, you’ve not yet read it. Every year, a hundred thousand […]
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Some People Did See It Coming
If only for the sake of accuracy and fairness, the first-person plural pronoun in the title of this book begs definition, since a good many people did see “it” coming over the last four decades. […]
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It can’t happen here: A review of Live Not By Lies
In January 2017, three days before Barack Obama left the White House, the New York Times published an opinion piece entitled “Reading the Classic Novel That Predicted Trump.” Written by Beverly Gage, it spoke darkly […]
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The Essential Scalia is a comprehensive collection of originalist thought
With the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court the indispensable interpretive methods of original understanding in construing the Constitution and textualism in reading statutes are precisely where they belong: […]
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The gods of pulp-horror: H.P. Lovecraft and his religion
Lovecraft and me, we go way back. Both from Providence, both fantasy writers. Growing up in Rhode Island, I liked the kinship. Granted, there were differences. He was world-famous; I was a scribbling unpublished wannabe. […]
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The See of Peter in a dark and troubled age
Anyone who has experienced the miracle of modern dentistry mourns little the passing of the Middle Ages. But Modernity (the period from the Renaissance to sometime in the twentieth-century), even with extraordinary advances in medicine […]
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Accessible and imperfect, American Catholics is discomforting to left and right
Readers of this journal are no doubt aware of the recent traditionalist attacks on the theological orthodoxy of the Second Vatican Council. This theological critique generally carries with it some version of the following historical […]
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The Constitution: An excerpt from America on Trial
Editor’s note: On September 17, 1787, the U.S. Constitution was signed by 39 delegates to the Constitutional Convention. Since 2005, September 17th has been celebrated in the United States as both Constitution Day and Citizenship […]
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Restoring Humanity offers theological foundations for rebuilding Catholic culture
St. Augustine argued that we are bound together as a people by a shared view of what is lovable. While it is bad enough that Americans appear to be bound together by love of creature […]
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Defending America’s Rule of Reason
America is in crisis. Beyond the trials and tribulations associated with COVID-19, there is rioting in the streets and calls for the “rebranding” of the United States in terms of identity politics. These are times […]