New Symposium – UPDATE: Jim Geraghty!

Last updated on: March 6, 2017 at 10:40 pm By Elizabeth Scalia

Timothy Dalrymple and I had a conversation about the differences between Catholics and Evangelical Christians and their methods of movement. Timothy, who has boundless energy and manages over at the Evangelical Portal, said, “let’s broaden the conversation with a symposium!” “…a symposium on the future of social conservatism and the extent to which religious groups, and the tensions and synergies between them, are shaping that future. The rise of a younger, more pro-life generation is changing the complexion of the... Read more

Bookclub: Sinners, Science & Faith

Last updated on: March 6, 2017 at 10:40 pm By Elizabeth Scalia

The Patheos Book Club is discussing Sinners: Jesus and His Earliest Followers by Greg Carey, and you are invited to read an excerpt, here. Because I’ve been waylaid, I missed the discussion on this book by Karl W. Giberson and Francis S. Collins, which I have only just received for review and looks very interesting, The Language of Science and Faith. Collins, of course is the Director of the National Institutes of Health, and a professed Christian, so this look... Read more

Real Lessons from a Fake SEAL

Last updated on: March 6, 2017 at 10:40 pm By

A SEAL trident is the military equivalent of a diploma from Yale and a tap from Skull and Bones. It should come as no surprise that the occasional mediocrity claims, falsely, to have earned one. That some of these fakes happen to be clergymen also sounds like a fair enough proposition — priests and preachers are supposed to have a gift for gab; who can predict where that gabbing might lead? But when a Christian Bible Fellowship pastor named Jim... Read more

A Theology of Expansive Love

Last updated on: March 6, 2017 at 10:40 pm By Elizabeth Scalia

After being rather quiet for the past two weeks, it feels good to write again, and funnily enough my column today at First Things came about precisely because illness made me submissive to silence, where I re-acquainted myself with a “quaint” act that I do not practice enough — “offering it up” — and rediscovered the powerful theological punch contained therein: Pondering the crucifix, and the immensity of what Christ endured, we wonder what could possibly be ‘lacking’ in his... Read more

Hitchens' Singular Voice – UPDATED

Last updated on: March 6, 2017 at 10:40 pm By Elizabeth Scalia

If you have not yet read Christopher Hitchens’ latest piece in Vanity Fair, on the failing of his physical voice, stop what you’re doing and go read it. It is a gorgeous, generous, melancholy, funny, graceful, grateful and even — dare I say it — God-whispering piece. In the medical literature, the vocal “cord” is a mere “fold,” a piece of gristle that strives to reach out and touch its twin, thus producing the possibility of sound effects. But I... Read more

Bridget and Her Cross

Last updated on: March 6, 2017 at 10:40 pm By

Every once in a while, somebody tells you a story that makes all your problems look small, and your vision feel blurred. That is the sense I’ve been getting these past three weeks, watching the status updates on my friend Bridget’s Facebook page. They concern her daughter, who was born on April 15th, and whom Bridget and her husband brought home immediately, pending the formalization of their agreement to adopt her. Before spooning up the details, I should make it... Read more

Military Religious Freedom A-Ok for Druids, "Meh" for Catholics

Last updated on: March 6, 2017 at 10:40 pm By

Plundering the Deacon’s Bench, again… The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that the Air Force Academy is now accommodating its Wiccan and Druid cadets with their own chapel: Add Wiccans and Druids to the list of faiths that have their own chapel at the Air Force Academy. A circle of stones around an altar was dedicated on a hilltop above the campus Tuesday with earth-centered prayer and speeches about religious liberty at the academy, a school that has long faced criticism... Read more

Church of Geeks

Last updated on: March 6, 2017 at 10:40 pm By Patheos Daily Reflections

WRITTEN BY MAX LINDENMAN: Poor Glen Lafantasie. The Civil War historian from Kentucky is freaking out over the sesquicentennial of the war’s declaration. He fears it will trigger a nostalgic frenzy among the amateurs — particularly the reenactors, who seem to him touched by the obsessiveness that’s made sci-fi and comic fanboys such an easy target for stand-up comedians: Civil War reenactors and buffs seem to have a far greater tolerance level than I do. They live and breathe the... Read more

Catholic Coiffure

Last updated on: March 6, 2017 at 10:40 pm By Ben Conroy

GUEST POST By Max Lindenman This post from Acts Of The Apostasy has been making the rounds for the past couple of days. I feel honor-bound to make sure nobody misses it: AoftheA has discovered that insufficient reporting exists in regards to Catholic hairstyles. Were you to Google “Catholic hairstyles”, you get…nothing. What, you mean you never knew there was such a thing as “Catholic hairstyles”? Fortunately you’ve come to the right blog. After days and days long hours about... Read more

To My Mother, the Reluctant Catholic

Last updated on: March 6, 2017 at 10:40 pm By Elizabeth Duffy

BY MAX LINDENMAN — GUEST POST My mother is the best Catholic I’ve ever known. That might sound a little strange when you consider she hasn’t been to Mass since the fall of 1962, but there is is. While raising me, by herself, in Manhattan of all places, she was stewardship personified. When we moved to the City in 1979, she was working as some kind of sub-sub-sub-editor for the company that published The World Almanac and Book of Facts.... Read more