Religion
March 31, 2013 — Steven Hayward
I think I’ve figured a few things out. Among other things, I can dump all my Jared Diamond books now.
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March 11, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The Spanish town of Ribadavia is preparing to hold its first Passover Seder since 1492. The event has been organized by the municipality’s tourism department in partnership with the Center for Medieval Studies, an organization that researches the history of Iberian Jews prior to their expulsion during the Spanish Inquisition that began in 1492. The project is aimed at increasing tourism to Ribadavia and “breathing new life into its old
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March 1, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Best tweet of the day so far may belong to David Freddoso, who says “BREAKING SEQUESTER NEWS ** DUE TO BUDGET CUTS, THERE IS NO POPE ANYMORE — YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN, PEOPLE **.” Heh. More seriously, since we wrote here a couple of weeks ago about the theological studliness (that’s a technical term right out of the Catechism, isn’t it?) of Pope Benedict, there has been a media frenzy
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February 26, 2013 — John Hinderaker
At Commentary, Evelyn Gordon writes that Christianity has replaced Judaism as the world’s most persecuted religion: In recent months, a new consensus has emerged: For the first time in millennia, Judaism has lost its title as the world’s most persecuted religion; today, that dubious honor goes to Christianity. “Christians are targeted more than any other body of believers,” wrote Rupert Shortt in a 54-page report for the London-based Civitas institute
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February 13, 2013 — Steven Hayward
We haven’t taken sufficient notice here of the decision of Pope Benedict XVI to abdicate. Pope Benedict has always labored in the shadow, so to speak, of his charismatic and highly consequential predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who we can rightly claim had a key role in bringing about the demise of the Soviet empire. I write about this a lot in my second Age of Reagan, and I won’t
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January 4, 2013 — Steven Hayward
The very first newspaper op-ed article I ever published, way back in 1984, was about All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California, which has long had a reputation as a leading “progressive” parish. I wrote about attending a meeting where a group of parishioners were reporting back on a recent visit to the newest workers’ paradise, Nic . . .—now just wait for it!!—yes, indeed, it was Nicaragua (or “KNEE-car-AHHH-gua,” if
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December 24, 2012 — Steven Hayward
I’ve always thought the “War on Christmas” meme that some populist conservatives (and a certain TV network that I’ll just skip over for now) like to pound on during the holidays was silly and trivializing. Not for being wrong, mind you, but for being too narrowly focused. The aggressive secularization of the Left operates 24/7 all 365 days a year, and is not just rolled out like crèches during the
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October 10, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Twenty-four years ago this month, the magazine brought us its Nietzschean fears with its famous red-on-black cover, “Is God Dead?” More recently, apparently, the agnostic editors of Time experienced a crisis of faith over the secular substitute for God, and thus presented the interrogative cover of October 23, 1989: “Is Government Dead?” The irony, which is surely lost on Time‘s editors, is that God and Government are in a doubtful state for remarkably
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July 20, 2012 — Steven Hayward
So my former denomination, the Episcopal Church, has been coming in for a pounding here for its relentless political correctness, but I had no idea I’d get backup in the form of what appears at first to be a parody of a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal today. Except, it isn’t a parody. Here’s the whole thing, in all its glory, with just a single comment
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July 18, 2012 — Steven Hayward
While I’m on the subject of theological liberalism, I might as well summon to view a greatest hit from the 1980s. I had nearly forgotten than once upon a time, I wrote a series of reviews of college catalogues as though they were regular books, for the original incarnation of the Claremont Review of Books. The very first one I ever did was the catalogue for the School of Theology
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July 17, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Can’t liberalism do anything right? You’d think that liberal religion at least would be a market winner—you get to be right with God, and still party hearty. Turns out liberalism doesn’t work any better in the pulpit and pew either. The figures are out, and the pews are emptying out at Episcopal churches everywhere in the U.S. As Ross Douthat commented in the NY Times last weekend: Today the Episcopal
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