It’s unwise to publicly comment about who is telling the truth in sexual misconduct cases when you’re not privy to all the evidence [Updated]

May 22, 2022 By Francis J. Beckwith

Update: On May 23, 2022, Princeton University officially fired Joshua Katz, the New York Times reported. Three days later, Dr. Katz’s wife, Solveigh Lucia Gold, published a robust defense of her husband at Bari Weiss’s website Commonsense here. In a piece entitled, “Free Speech and Due Process at Princeton: The Case of Joshua Katz,” Robert P. George, Katz’s colleague in the Princeton politics department, offers a stinging rebuke to the university and its administration. I have known Robby George for over... Read more

My review of Michael Ward’s After Humanity, a guide to C. S. Lewis’ Abolition of Man

May 20, 2022 By Francis J. Beckwith

Many readers are familiar with C. S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man. Last summer Word on Fire publised a wonderful companion to the book. Authored by theologian and literary critic, Michael Ward, it is entitled After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man. My review of Professor Ward’s volume just appeared this morning in The Catholic Telegraph. Here’s how it begins: During the height of the Second World War, in February 1943, C. S. Lewis delivered the... Read more

A Billy Joel Passover

April 18, 2022 By Francis J. Beckwith

HT: Volokh Conspiracy. A delightful musical montage from the group Six13. Read more

Is it Time to Rethink the School Prayer Cases?

April 18, 2022 By Francis J. Beckwith

Since arriving at Baylor in Fall 2003 I have taught the course “Law and Religion in the United States” sixteen times. (Fifteen times at Baylor and once at the University of Colorado when I was serving there as a visiting professor in 2016-17). Among the many issues we cover is public school prayer. We always read Engel v. Vitale (1962), the first Supreme Court prayer case. Depending on what other topics addressed in the course, we read one or more... Read more

Will Bob Dylan perform “Murder Must Foul” in his March 10 show in Irving, Texas?

February 27, 2022 By Francis J. Beckwith

Bob Dylan will continue his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour on March 3 in Phoenix. From there, he will travel to Tucson (March 4), Albuquerque (March 6), Lubbock (March 8), and then to Irving (March 10), a suburb of Dallas. During this tour, which began in 2021, Dylan has covered all the songs from his 2020 album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, except two: Crossing the Rubicon and Murder Most Foul. The latter is a 17 minute account of JFK’s... Read more

Review of Maureen Condic’s Untangling twinning: what science tells us about the nature of human embryos

February 27, 2022 By Francis J. Beckwith

The journal Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics just released online my review of Maureen L. Condic’s book Untangling twinning: what science tells us about the nature of human embryos, published in 2020 by the University of Notre Dame Press. Here’s how the review begins: When does an individual living human organism come into being? If one argues “at conception,” then one must deal with the perplexing problem of monozygotic twinning, which occurs after conception and before the beginning of the primitive streak. At some point during... Read more

Why Is Sexual Assault Special?: Transactional Sex and Sacred Intuitions

February 26, 2022 By Francis J. Beckwith

My essay, “Why Is Sexual Assault Special?: Transactional Sex and Sacred Intuitions,” was just published in The Palgrave Handbook of Sexual Ethics. Edited by David Boonin (University of Colorado, Boulder), other contributors include Boonin’s CU Boulder colleagues Michael Tooley and Alastair Norcross as well as Christopher Kaczor (Loyola Marymount University), Alan Soble (University of New Orleans), Edward Feser (Pasadena City College), Cheryl Abbate (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), John Corvino (Wayne State University), and Jessica Flanigan (University of Richmond). Here’s the abstract... Read more

Remembering my Father

February 17, 2022 By Francis J. Beckwith

Difficult to believe that tomorrow it will be seven years since my father died. In 2016 I wrote an essay about him at the first anniversary of his death. It was published over at The Catholic Thing. Here it is in its entirety: “Fathers are so necessary as examples and guides for our children in wisdom and virtue. Without father figures, young people often feel orphaned, left adrift at a critical moment in their growth and development.” – Pope Francis... Read more

My review of the book, American Pope: Scott Hahn and the Rise of Catholic Fundamentalism

February 15, 2022 By Francis J. Beckwith

About two months ago I was invited by Angelus News to write a review of the book, American Pope: Scott Hahn and the Rise of Catholic Fundamentalism (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2021). My review was published in early January. Here’s how it begins: Scott Hahn is probably the most influential American Catholic author and speaker over the past three decades. An adult convert to the Catholic Church from Reformed Protestantism, Hahn serves as professor of theology and Scripture at Franciscan University in... Read more