Paul Baumann

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Paul Baumann is Commonweal’s senior writer. He is working on a book titled Why Do I Go to Church?

Article

Shrouded Figures

A visit to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington occasions reflections not only on how we see, but who we think is worth seeing

February 5, 2019

Article

Language Games

Clearer, more honest language is needed if the two sides in the seemingly unresolvable debate around abortion are going to get beyond name-calling

January 22, 2019

Article

Portrait of a Marriage

An exploration of the memoirs of the British novelist yields insights into beauty, cuisine, and what makes for a lasting marriage

January 9, 2019

Article

Reading the Opposition

Instead of hyperventilating about the decline of Western religious and political institutions, conservatives ought to help build them back up

By Paul Baumann

December 13, 2018

Secularism and Modernity

Same-Sex Marriage

Foreign Affairs

U.S. Catholicism

Article

‘The Nun’s Story’ Revisited

However much we may admire the austerities and asceticism of pre-Vatican II religious life, the film depicts a closed world to which we cannot return

December 4, 2018

Article

Discovering Jean Donovan

Nothing about Jean Donovan’s upbringing in a wealthy Connecticut suburb suggested that she would be a martyr in El Salvador

November 19, 2018

Must Reads

Politics

Suiting Up for Team Racist

Bishop Stowe spoke up about the racism of Donald Trump’s MAGA campaign, and spoke the simple truth. Let’s hope it’s the start of a trend

By Mollie Wilson O'Reilly

February 7, 2019

Religion

Narrowing the Universal Church

Recent debates in higher education over who counts as an “authentic Catholic” have the unintended effect of splintering the universal Body of Christ

By Julia G. Young

February 6, 2019

Culture

Somewhere Else

Mammon can never be God. We need ways of valuing ourselves and our neighbors that are not indexed to the market

By Ian Marcus Corbin

February 10, 2019

Books

Surviving Survivalism

Westover tells the story of her soul, not her accomplishments. Becoming an individual through paideia, she discovers herself as a relational being

By Mike St. Thomas

February 1, 2019

Collections

Why We Came. Why We Left. Why We Stay.

The Catholic faith is first of all a gift, one a person must choose to keep; the days of Catholicism by default are behind us

By The Editors

December 3, 2018