Ronald Hendel and Jon Levenson Both Judaism and Christianity have traditionally placed Genesis in larger contexts defined by their authoritative literatures, the Oral Torah (or rabbinic tradition) and the New Testament (usually along with Church tradition), respectively. (Were it not for the larger Jewish context, in fact, we would not even know there was a distinct book called Genesis.) Within those traditional contexts, lively debate has taken place, and errors challenged. In both cases, an awareness has developed that the... Read more

German historian Götz Aly is an expert on euthanasia during the Nazi era. In a SPIEGEL interview, he discusses why many accepted the murder of the handicapped and mentally ill, and how his own daughter has shaped his views on how the disabled should be treated today. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/historian-goetz-aly-on-nazi-euthanasia-program-and-inclusion-debate-a-896209.html Read more

Robert Lopez The richest and most successful same-sex couple still cannot provide a child something that the poorest and most struggling spouses can provide: a mom and a dad. Having spent forty years immersed in the gay community, I have seen how that reality triggers anger and vicious recrimination from same-sex couples, who are often tempted to bad-mouth so-called “dysfunctional” or “trashy” straight couples in order to say, “We deserve to have kids more than they do!” But I am... Read more

Over the course of five years, Freitas—no longer a full-time professor—has lectured extensively and expanded her research. The result is The End of Sex: How Hookup Culture Is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, Sexually Unfulfilled, and Confused About Intimacy. Aimed more at popular audiences, this book leaves aside the soul and focuses on the sex. Specifically, it examines the hookup culture at secular and Catholic universities, the roles that culture trains men and women to play, and how students can opt... Read more

Mary Eberstadt Who’s going to church? Commentators have assumed that faith is now the preserve of poorer communities. The opposite is true. http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/4958/full Read more

President Obama’s recent address to Planned Parenthood’s National Conference sweepingly mischaracterized abortion restrictions and pro-life views as culturally inaccurate and outdated. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/04/10038/ Read more

Finance Minister Sammy Wilson, of the DUP, defended his party’s use of the petition of concern saying it was important to stop “reckless legislation”. He said the motion would not promote safeguards or equality and he did not believe a balance of opinions had been accurately reflected during the debate. “This is not an issue of equality, it is an issue of redefining marriage as it has always been understood, ” he said. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-22344006 Read more

In elementary school, the teacher would demonstrate the magnetic field of a magnet by putting iron filings on a paper right over the magnet. Sure enough, the filings would get ordered according to the pattern of the magnetic field of the magnet. I often use that homely example to illustrate what the Western tradition has meant by natural law. http://www.roanoke.com/opinion/commentary/1882346-12/follow-the-natural-rule-of-magnetism.html Read more

Stapel was an academic star in the Netherlands and abroad, the author of several well-regarded studies on human attitudes and behavior. That spring, he published a widely publicized study in Science about an experiment done at the Utrecht train station showing that a trash-filled environment tended to bring out racist tendencies in individuals. And just days earlier, he received more media attention for a study indicating that eating meat made people selfish and less social. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/magazine/diederik-stapels-audacious-academic-fraud.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Read more

It is widely assumed that people form large families because they hold traditional beliefs, and that when they abandon those beliefs, they stop creating those families. For Ms Eberstadt, the link between robust families and resilient faith is reminiscent of bonds forming a double helix: dynamic, self-reinforcing and flowing endlessly in both directions. And if there is one trend for her which has primacy, it seems to be the influence of the family on everything else. Where it is strong,... Read more