“God forbid,” exclaimed the third hereditary leader of Chabad, known as Zemach Zedek (1789-1866), “that we should say the world is not real!” And yet, nearly every page of classical teaching in the Chabad school insists that the world is “completely nullified” before the great light of God, “like the light of a candle extinguished in the light of the sun.” This is the apparent paradox of materiality which is both real and not real, and it is this dilemma... Read more

I picked up John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion some years back. Dipping into it, I anticipated a dry, grim, and doctrinaire treatise. Perhaps because I came to it with such low expectations, the books surprised me. I found the Institutes surprisingly accessible, written by a lively, engaged mind. I anticipated the argument of the books to be tightly wound around the theme of God’s sovereignty—with the focus on God’s glory coming at the expense of humanity’s abasement. Instead,... Read more

Conservatives embark on a fool’s errand when they try to argue that our—or any—particular social understanding of manhood and womanhood represents the essential nature of our being as gendered creatures. Pinkness does not inhere in womanliness. More seriously, neither courage, nor fortitude, nor any other virtues inhere exclusively in manliness as opposed to womanliness. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/10/10976/?utm_source=Copy+of+RTA+Esolen+Pedophilia&utm_campaign=winstorg&utm_medium=email Read more

Elizabeth Corey I know from personal experience that this conflict in the soul does not go away, no matter how pleasant and accommodating our colleagues may be, or how flexible our schedules. We are limited, embodied creatures. These limits mean that we cannot do everything to its fullest extent at once, and certain things we may not be able to do at all. The tragic aspect of this is that both excellence and nurture are real, vital goods and that... Read more

This summer, a British television network called to interview me for a show about efforts toward sexual-orientation change. The host of the show, they informed me, was a gay man. I declined the invitation, stating that the host’s gay identity would disqualify him from a fair evaluation of the ex-gay experience. http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/print.php?storyid=18063 Read more

Because of her longstanding support for abortion, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a Catholic, must be denied Communion under the law of the Catholic Church, said Cardinal Raymond Burke, head of the highest court at the Vatican. http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/vatican-chief-justice-nancy-pelosi-must-be-denied-communion#sthash.cJcJY2cP.dpuf Read more

The last month and a half has seen perhaps the worst anti-Christian violence in Egypt in seven centuries, with dozens of churches torched. Yet the western media has mainly focussed on army assaults on the Muslim Brotherhood, and no major political figure has said anything about the sectarian attacks. http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/09/the-silence-of-our-friends-the-extinction-of-christianity-in-the-middle-east/ Read more

When Pope Francis was elected a friend asked me what to expect. “Strap on your seatbelt,” I replied. The comment didn’t reflect any special knowledge of Jorge Bergoglio. But I know Jesuits. They tend to be extremists of one sort or another. They’re trained to speak plainly, directly, and from the heart rather than according to the standard script. http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/09/francis-our-jesuit-pope Read more

From David Virtue: For Abby Johnson, a former Episcopalian turned Roman Catholic, the closing of a single Planned Parenthood center demonstrated her dramatic reversal from abortion clinic director to leading pro-life advocate. For pro-lifers throughout the United States, it marked another exhibit in a hopeful trend — abortion centers are shutting down at an unprecedented rate. The total so far this year is 44, according to a pro-life organization that tracks clinic operations. None was more telling for Johnson than... Read more

[Friends, I am going to break my own rule and post something that has nothing to do with religion.  But I find it so insightful, especially for my students, that I want to help give this the exposure it deserves.–Gerry] The man who matches companies with workers talks about the skills gap, the harm from ObamaCare, and the incentive not to work. But he’ll still find you a job. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324492604579087044033601178.html?mod=trending_now_4 Read more