Trendier than Thou?
EDITORIAL
Back in its October 1986 issue, Crisis, the neoconservative Catholic monthly, announced editorially that it regarded the NEW OXFORD REVIEW as a competitor. Both Crisis and the NOR share a commitment to Catholic orthodoxy, so why competitors? Because Crisis strongly disapproves of our political leftism, which it itemized with reckless overstatement. The suggestion was even made that maybe the NEW OXFORD REVIEW should rename itself the New Trendy-Left Review.
Trendy? Sure, it was trendy to be on the Left in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But the NOR didn’t exist then. Who really thinks it was trendy to be on the Left in the mid-1980s, when Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were riding high in their saddles? But let that point pass.
Curiously, the January 1990 Crisis, in the person of its Publisher, Michael Novak, has taken the NOR to task for being “far out of touch” with the political realities of the 1980s and 1990s. (And again, we are presented with a wildly exaggerated list of particulars. But let that pass too.)
We don’t mind being attacked by Crisis, but we do wish Crisis would make up its mind about what we’re guilty of. Are we trendy or out of touch? It’s a question that impinges on Crisis too, for if we’re trendy, then maybe it’s Crisis that is out of touch, or if we’re out of touch, then perhaps Crisis is the trendy one.
You May Also Enjoy
Reviews of Memory and Identity: Conversations at the Dawn of a Millennium... Swimming With Scapulars: True Confessions of a Young Catholic... Fully Human, Fully Divine: An Interactive Christology... Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus Through the Gospel of John... Silent Music: The Life, Work, and Thought of St. John of the Cross
How can there be any fervor if we don't know why we should evangelize?
Christians are not usually in politics on our own terms, from the unique standpoint of people who are trying to follow Jesus Christ.