Tomorrow I will be watching Super Bowl LV. Although I love watching football, I sometimes wonder if I should. I address this question in an essay entitled I published over six years ago soon after Baylor University opened up its new football stadium. Originally published on September 12, 2014 over at The Catholic Thing I republish it here in its entirety: Ever since my wife and I bought a giant flat-screen television set for our living room, I cannot get… Read more
February 6, 2021
Special Super Bowl LV Post: Should I Like Football?
February 6, 2021 By Francis J. Beckwith
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January 29, 2021
Baylor Provost Defends Free Speech Against Cancel Culture
January 29, 2021 By Francis J. Beckwith
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We recently had an unfortunate incident at Baylor in which a small group of students on campus, with the assistance of the student newspaper (The Lariat), called for the dismissal of a lecturer in the English department. Her crime? She had made comments on twitter with which these students did not agree. The comments concerned the uncontroversial public policy question of whether biological males who claim to identify as girls or women should be allowed in semi-private spaces (such as… Read more
December 31, 2020
Petition Against Liberty University’s Falkirk Center: Some Observations
December 31, 2020 By Francis J. Beckwith
It is not unusual for universities to house a think-tank or two. A think-tank is an academic unit committed to research and the proliferation of that research. Some of the most well-known think-tanks include Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. They often host lectures, symposia, discussions, debates, etc. in which resident scholars and/visiting researchers participate. Unlike other academic units of the university, think-tanks do not offer degrees or even classes, though most if not… Read more
December 14, 2020
2019 and 2020: My most productive two year period of publishing, and a little advice to my younger self
December 14, 2020 By Francis J. Beckwith
The last two years have been my most productive in terms of publishing. I really don’t understand why. My guess is that I have become far more disciplined in reading and writing while at the same time realizing how little I actually know. Looking back at some of my early publications in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, I am actually surprised that they were published at all. What I see in my younger self is a way too… Read more
December 13, 2020
Reading the Summa Theologiae Cover to Cover: Mission Accomplished
December 13, 2020 By Francis J. Beckwith
Beginning on January 1, 2019 I embarked on a journey through St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae. Nearly two years later, I am finally finished. I read the last page today, December 13, 2020, on the Feast of St. Lucy. Although I had read a lot of the Summa over the past 40 years or so (not to mention numerous other works by Aquinas including the Summa Contra Gentiles), I had never read the whole thing cover to cover in such a… Read more
December 13, 2020
Judith Jarvis Thomson (1929-2020)
December 13, 2020 By Francis J. Beckwith
MIT philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson died on November 20, 2020 at the age of 91. She was, by all accounts, one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, having penned some of the most penetrating essays in the history of the discipline. But, as her New York Times obituary notes, she is best known for an article she published in 1971 in the journal Philosophy and Public Affairs, “A Defense of Abortion.” The Times writes: [Thomson’s article] began… Read more
December 7, 2020
Church, State, and the Abuse Crisis: The Role of Assumed Ideas of “Reasonableness” in Religious Liberty
December 7, 2020 By Francis J. Beckwith
The title of this blog post is the title of an article I just published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Christian Legal Thought 10.2 (2020): 21-28. An earlier version of the piece was delivered in New York City as a paper as part of the panel, “Church–State Relations in a Time of Scandal,” sponsored by The Morningside Institute (Sept. 26, 2019). Here’s the introductory paragraph: In this essay I look at the abuse crisis in the American Catholic Church through… Read more
November 29, 2020
How Google Makes Us Stupid: The Tyranny of Presentism
November 29, 2020 By Francis J. Beckwith
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Last week Pope Francis elevated Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington, DC to the College of Cardinals. He is the first American of African descent to become a Cardinal, though he is not first in the history of the Church. (Among the living non-American African cardinals are Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, Francis Arinze, and Robert Sarah) Because of this mistaken tweet by CBS News, I wanted to find out more about African Catholics that served the church from its beginnings. So,… Read more
November 18, 2020
The 2021 NCAA March Madness Basketball Bubble – But how will students complete course work? Question not even asked
November 18, 2020 By Francis J. Beckwith
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If you needed any further evidence that the ends of big-time college athletics (to establish branding and rake in money) are oftentimes at cross-purposes with the mission of higher education, look no further than the NCAA’s plan to emulate the NBA’s playoff bubble for its Division I championship tournament (otherwise known as “March Madness”). From the NCAA’s own website: The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee announced today the relocation of 13 predetermined preliminary round sites for the 2021 Division… Read more
October 31, 2020
Reformation Day and Schism
October 31, 2020 By Francis J. Beckwith
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“Reformation Day and Schism” is an essay I published 10 years ago in The Catholic Thing. I argue in it that Western Christians should no more celebrate Reformation Day than one should celebrate one’s marital divorce. What follows is the essay in its entirety. Sunday, October 31, is Reformation Day. It marks 493 years [503 in 2020] since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to that famous door in Wittenberg, Germany. The Augustinian monk set in motion a sequence of… Read more
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