Magazine

May 1, 2015

v.142 n.8

Article

A Theory of Everything

Big History has its charms. It aligns with Common Core, provides a wealth of material online for free, and is exciting. But it may be too big to be history at all.

By Agnes R. Howard Thomas Albert Howard

April 20, 2015

Domestic Affairs

Article

The Liberal Arts vs. Neoliberalism

William Deresiewicz not only critiques the idea that college education is about learning marketable skills; he also revives the quest for meaning, self, and soul.

April 20, 2015

Article

Moral Agents

Mailer, Trilling, Macdonald, Kazin, Maxwell, Bellow, Auden, O'Hara—men with public moral concerns, who seized power to shape American literature. But who were they?

April 20, 2015

Article

There's Something I Want You to Do: Stories

Baxter reads fiction to “see bad stuff happening.” He writes characters who get into serious trouble, and face their own "human wreckage" at someone else's request.

April 20, 2015

Article

One Nation Under God

Kevin Kruse convincingly claims that the association of patriotism with Christianity comes from a libertarian reaction in American business to the New Deal.

April 20, 2015

Muslim-Christian Relations

Poverty

Secularism and Modernity

Social Justice

Theology

U.S. Catholicism

Article

Playing the Princess

Tension between religious freedom and combating discrimination is the frame for RFRA debates. But these highlight a more basic problem with RFRA jurisprudence.

By Cathleen Kaveny

April 20, 2015

U.S. Catholicism

Columnists

Contraception mandate

Domestic Affairs

LGBTQ issues

Article

Believe It or Not

“New atheists” like Richard Dawkins have made a splash with aggressive attacks on religion. But Michael Ruse, philosopher and reflective atheist, is not impressed.

By Gary Gutting

April 18, 2015

Secularism and Modernity

Book Essay

Books

Theology

Article

God's Bankers

Posner’s attempt to intertwine Vatican finance with a history of the papacy—"rampant corruption, pervasive nepotism, unbridled debauchery"—isn't neutral, or correct.

April 16, 2015

Article

The World Beyond Your Head

How can we choose to have agency over our lives when we are bombarded by choices? Crawford proposes a way to reclaim your attention span and thereby reclaim yourself

By Steven Knepper

April 16, 2015

Secularism and Modernity

Article

'It Follows' & '71'

The resonances of "It Follows" are varied and strange, touching on subtexts sexual, ethical, and sociological. The horrors in " '71" are frightening for being true.

By Rand Richards Cooper

April 16, 2015

Movies

Article

Poem | The Mountain, Year 2

...what seems like nowhere / is me talking to the mountain, / rain on my shoulders, / hair / like autumn grass / that blinds me as I climb...

By Nellie Hill

April 15, 2015

Poetry

Article

Poem | Quick

What never grew to light / past the established trees? / Each sapling in its supple bark / housed untold contingencies...

By Sarah Brownsberger

April 15, 2015

Poetry

Article

Two Poems | Beach Totem, Analemma

...in the name of the washed-up, / the lapsed and forgotten, / remnants joined to give loss, // no matter how touch / or random, another shot / at consequence...

By Barry Sternlieb

April 15, 2015

Poetry

Article

Letters | Abstinence Education vs. Common Sense

By The Editors

April 15, 2015

U.S. Catholicism

Pope Francis

Contraception mandate

Article

I’ve never liked going to church, but I’ll spend two hours here

Crumbs of Grace

By Clare Coffey

April 15, 2015

U.S. Catholicism

Ethics

Jewish-Christian Relations

Liturgy

Middle East

Muslim-Christian Relations

Article

Risks Worth Taking

The Obama administration has not made grandiose claims about what a deal with Iran on its nuclear program can achieve. But there is reason for guarded optimism.

By The Editors

April 14, 2015

Editorial

Foreign Affairs

Middle East

Muslim-Christian Relations

Terrorism

War and Peace

Article

Overheated

The furor over Indiana's RFRA raises questions about our capacity to engage in the kind of thoughtful, careful public discussion that issues like this demand.

April 8, 2015