Paul Baumann

Article

A Nation in Despair

At this late hour, the list of political norms Donald Trump has violated is mind-numbing. But we cannot let it paralyze us.

By Paul Baumann

September 28, 2020

Election 2020

Donald Trump

Domestic Affairs

Article

Trolling the Catholic Vote

CatholicVote seems to think that if every issue is presented as black or white, the pro-life, pro-family Catholic voter will line up obediently at the polls.

August 27, 2020

Article

Masks & Masculinity

The most obstreperous opponents of masks tend to be men, a fact that has been chalked up to machismo and male privilege. But there’s more to it than that.

By Paul Baumann

August 19, 2020

Coronavirus

Gender

Article

The Harper’s Letter

Young journalists have called on media outlets to abandon evenhanded objectivity. But moral clarity is a work in progress, not a done deal.

July 17, 2020

Article

Journalism, Race, and Moral Clarity

The reaction to Tom Cotton’s ill-conceived essay is not just a step on the slippery slope to intellectual conformity. It is illiberalism, full stop.

June 12, 2020

Article

The Haves and the Have-Nots

Like his wife Joan Didion, John Gregory Dunne had an abiding interest in, and a cleared-eyed view of, the struggle between the haves and the have-nots.

May 28, 2020

Must Reads

Politics

Canons & the Candidate

Claiming that Joe Biden does not deserve to receive Communion misinterprets canon law and reduces Catholic theology to a partisan political weapon.

By Nicholas P. Cafardi

September 14, 2020

Religion

Is There a Religious Left?

The Religious Left has been here all along, engaging in protests and helping the vulnerable, a coalition of coalitions not tied to a single faith or set of policies.

By Kaya Oakes

September 7, 2020

Culture

Summer Readings & Screenings

Faith in God is an absurdity, as is Christ himself, and the believer must boldly, absurdly choose Christ anyway, again and again and again.

By Griffin Oleynick and Anthony Domestico

August 20, 2020

Culture

Savers and Unloaders

Physical objects carry meaning for us, but their accumulation can be a kind of spiritual error. Reconciling this contradiction leads us to richer, deeper lives.

By Rand Richards Cooper

August 20, 2020

Culture

The Last Shakers?

The Shakers, who arrived in America in 1774, are a religious community facing extinction. Their decline means nothing less than the end of an idea of heaven.

By Katherine Lucky

November 28, 2019

Books

‘Nameless Greatness’

Novelist Louise Erdrich’s latest book explores her Catholic and Ojibwe roots as it probes a painful period in recent Native American history.

By Anthony Domestico

August 7, 2020

Collections

The Coronavirus

COVID-19 has profoundly affected our daily lives. Catch up with some of Commonweal’s best writing on the political and spiritual ramifications of the virus.

By The Editors

April 21, 2020