George Weigel After the last papal election, one wit, referring to gape-mouthed progressives who had convinced themselves that This Just Couldn’t Happen, observed that the senior cardinal deacon, announcing the election to Rome and the world, should have said that the new pope was Joseph Ratzinger, “qui sibi nomen imposuit [who has taken the name] Your Worst Nightmare.” That those who thought the worst had come (some of whom had spent the weeks between John Paul’s death and Benedict’s election... Read more

Anthony Esolen The egalitarian ideology of our time, writes the philosopher Philippe Beneton, in Equality by Default, cuts the human heart and soul out of the profession of the teacher. “Why give priority to classic literature,” he asks, “when Pascal is no better or no worse than any other author, when his style of writing is just one technique among others?” The teacher becomes a technician—and often a not highly skilled technician at that, as witness our millions of young... Read more

What ails the modern university? Well, where should one start to catalogue its ills? Too many colleges and universities fail to provide their students with a liberal education in any meaningful sense—that is, an education that enables them to liberate themselves from error and baseness. Too many faculty, particularly in the “softer” disciplines, pursue “research agendas” of dubious worth, and build high the silos they inhabit so that they have nothing much of interest to say to many of their... Read more

The resurgence of Orthodoxy may be the most profound, and is certainly the most surprising, transformation of Judaism in the past 60 years. Even more surprising, the most energetic part of it is not “modern” Orthodoxy but a culturally insular Orthodoxy—made up of Hasidic courts, men educated exclusively in Talmud, and a culture suspicious or even dismissive of secular society. This is the Haredi world. http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/content/module/2011/11/1/main-feature/1/the-great-orthodox-comeback/e   Read more

JAFFA, Israel — The schedules for Mass at the two Roman Catholic churches in Jaffa, on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, reveal a change that has dramatically, if quietly, altered the face of Christianity in the Holy Land. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/mass-in-hebrew-konkani-and-tagalog-once-all-arab-israel-christians-transformed-by-influx/2011/10/27/gIQA5htKMM_story.html   Read more

I first encountered Gisèle Littman, better known as “Bat Ye’or,” through her book, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians under Islam while browsing through a Judaica section of a Barnes & Noble book store in Westport, Connecticut in 1985. Reading it opened my mind to the historical evidence of the subjugated treatment of Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims under shari’a in the wake of Islamic Jihad over conquered lands. Her book threw into considerable doubt the then fashionable medievalist commentary that... Read more

Rabbi Eugene Korn ‘Noah was a righteous man; perfect in his generation.” As many students learn in their first Torah classes, the phrase “in his generation” gave our Rabbis license to fling open the gates of interpretation. Some saw it as additional praise for Noah, while others saw it as a criticism of his righteousness: perfect “in his generation” — but, evidently, not in the generation of Abraham or Moses. What is this rabbinic ambivalence all about? http://www.thejewishweek.com/jewish_life/sabbath_week/perfect_imperfect_noah   Read more

At first glance, the famous story that closes out this week’s reading seems pretty straightforward. The men of Babel build a tower to Heaven. God doesn’t like being challenged this way, so He disperses them and confounds their tongues. It’s a parable, a story of origins—of human language and perhaps of Babylonia—as well as a rejection of hubris. http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/content/detail/continue-reading-tower-of-power   Read more

On November 10 the Center for Religion and Society at Roanoke College will present a set of reflections on “The Promise and Peril of Bio-technological Advance in Medicine.” The topic will be addressed by James Peterson, Schumann Professor of Christian Ethics and author of Changing Human Nature: Ecology, Ethics, Genes, and God and Fritz Oehlschlaeger, Professor of English at Virginia Tech and author of Procreative Ethics. The lectures and ensuing conversation will be held at Antrim Chapel on the campus... Read more

The recent violence in Egypt between Copts and the Egyptian army, with its sectarian overtones, poured ice on the high expectations surrounding the Arab intifadas. Arab Christians in particular are worried about the future, and their anxieties are colouring their interpretation of the repression all over. http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/christian-minorities-forced-by-fear-into-the-dictators-fold?pageCount=0   Read more