Bernd Roeck traces the roots of the Renaissance as far back as the sixth millennium BCE. His long view of history explores the “why” of Western culture’s success.
At Trump's Rededicate 250 event, religious leaders insisted that America was founded as a Christian nation. The claim doesn't withstand historical scrutiny.
Accumulating wealth is now the way many people seek to belong—to "buy" their place in the world. But an extrinsic source of belonging will always be fragile.
When literature was still recognized as an incomparable source of liberty and dignity to millions, the CIA spent decades distributing banned books behind the Iron Curtain.
St. Godric’s transformation from successful merchant to ascetic hermit illuminates the ways people relate their religious beliefs to their wealth—in the Middle Ages and today.
Stephen Harrigan’s book ‘Sorrowful Mysteries’ gives a stirring account of the historical, political, and spiritual impacts of the 1917 apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Fátima.
The socialist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg embodied precisely what we need today: a politics that seeks the flourishing of all creatures and recognizes the radicalism of that demand.
Few writers have argued against modern egalitarianism with more flourish than Samuel Francis. Donald Trump and his gang now practice what Francis preached.
A retrospective at the Jewish Museum draws attention to Ben Shahn, whose art tells the story of twentieth-century life from the perspectives of immigrant workers, tenant farmers, and city-dwellers.
Fifty years ago, the Helsinki Accords reflected a bipolar world dominated by the U.S. Today, Pope Leo XIV faces a geopolitical environment that is far more unpredictable.
William F. Buckley's critique of Pope John XXIII was one of the most daring episodes in the conservative eminence's career. He later wished it never had happened.
Paula Fredriksen’s 'Ancient Christianities' looks to explore the tangled root system underlying Christianity—not a story of a series of individual men, but of broad social movements.
The 1950 Jubilee Year was a landmark moment for American Catholics, who were coming into their own power—and wealth—during an era of Cold War upheaval.
Kant’s work was considered such a threat to Church teachings that even scholars needed special permission from their bishop or religious superior to consult it.
