The Narthex

“Sleek barbarians” is a term and concept articulated by contemporary Polish philosopher Zbigniew Stawrowski which I have tried to popularize and disseminate in the English-speaking world. I do so because the concept seems to have even broader application here than in Poland (though Poland does not lack for its own…

The patria potestas was a legal power held by fathers in the Roman Empire. If you think that Tiberius was just dad in a toga, think again. In Roman law, a father had rights over his family, including the right of who could bear his name. If, therefore, a child…

Rumer Godden is perhaps best known for her 1969 bestseller In This House of Brede, the story of a woman who enters an English Benedictine convent. It was published a year after Godden converted to Catholicism. Religion, however, permeated Godden’s books from very early on, like Black Narcissus, her 1939…

The Blaine Amendment of 1875 sought to add the following language to the federal Constitution: “No money raised by taxation in any State for the support of public schools, or derived from any public fund therefor, nor any public lands devoted thereto, shall ever be under the control of any…

Paul Benjamin Linton is author of the magisterial Abortion under State Constitutions -- which has gone through three editions -- and the recognized pro-life authority on that subject. While Roe v. Wade held abortion policy hostage to an imagined federal “right,” Linton reminded us that every state has its own…

"Diversity" is the mot du jour, celebrated in all sorts of circles. Alas, many of those celebrating “diversity” are unclear about whether or how it connects to “unity.” Perhaps the readings for Pentecost can help. The central truth of Pentecost is the Holy Spirit, who is the principle of unity.…

A feisty fellow I knew liked to ask Protestants just what they were protesting. A wise Protestant might answer in terms of a positive protestation, for example, the rule of sola scriptura. A bellicose Protestant, in contrast, might reply “No popery!” Note well: the word “protest” can have either a…

On April 16, the Wall Street Journal reported that five large book publishers have joined the case filed by a sixth large publisher to prevent the State of Iowa from restricting the purchase or use of certain books for school libraries and classrooms (Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, “Major Publishers Join Iowa…

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is expected Tuesday to vote on a regulation banning “non-compete” clauses in employment contracts. Non-compete clauses are provisions in employment contracts that prohibit employees from working in that profession for a certain period of time or within a certain radius of the former employer. They…

Last weekend, as Iran launched missiles and drones on Israel, that coterie of pro-terrorist leftists Lenin once aptly titled “useful idiots” were launching protests in various American cities. One social media posting showed a group in Chicago learning Persian. They were learning marg bar Asra’eyl (“death to Israel”) and marg…

In Catholic circles the concept of natural law is fairly familiar. I say “fairly” because I’m not sure that many Catholics could give an account of what natural law is. I’m even less sure that many Catholics could draw on natural-law thought when, and if, they enter debates in the…

Much wailing and gnashing of teeth followed the Arizona Supreme Court's recent upholding of the state’s 1864 abortion act. The wailers' false narrative asks: How can we be governed by a 160-year-old law? If  you listen to abortionists, they will try to spin a fake history of abortion law, originally…

I spent Saturday, while waiting for the accountant to do my taxes, reading Stephanie Gray Connors’s new book My Body for You: A Pro-Life Message for a Post-Roe World  (link below). It’s a very readable and worthwhile presentation of pro-life arguments, especially in hard cases, which are becoming the stock-in-trade of…

Oren Cass's First Things Lecture in Washington, D.C., on March 4 addressed the topic “Constructing Conservatism in the Secular Age.” The talk’s core argument was that American conservatism’s reliance on religious faith to make its central values arguments collides with the growing secularization of U.S. culture, causing it to lose…

Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, became its ex-president through the confluence of two factors, neither one of which seemed sufficient to remove her from office but, together, generated sufficient public (and, apparently, internal private donor) criticism to render her continued incumbency untenable. As you may remember, Gay was criticized for her…