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Surprised by Christ

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The small surprises and sacrifices of Christmas—the time, resources, and care our loved ones expend in order to place under glowing trees those bright bundles upon which our own names are written—recall the marvel of Christ’s entry into the world in order to sacrifice himself for those he calls by name. This is the unexpected gift that we ought to be surprised by, over and over, every Christmas—indeed, every morning.
university campus

Residential Undergraduate Education and the Great Abbreviation

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Residential undergraduate matriculation may not be worth what is being charged for it now, but if it continues to atrophy and lose its comparative advantages, it may become worth nothing at all.
Karl Marx

What Can the Right Learn from Karl Marx?

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MacIntyre urges a recovery of the Aristotelian tradition to show modernity the way out of its aporia on moral questions: the fact that “there is in our society no established way of deciding between” the rival moral first principles we’ve lost our comprehension of and are polarized over.
drug use

The False Promises of Drugs: Joseph Ratzinger on True Human Excellence

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The problem with drug use is not just its grave danger to our bodily and psychological well-being, nor that it constitutes a radical assertion of self-will, but that it is a flight from the adventure of the moral life
Christmas carolers

Keep Satan in Christmas

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The experience of hearing and singing and sharing these familiar carols year after year is like the best experience of liturgy, in its combination of familiarity and fresh moments of discovery, when universally known words that have for years rolled across one’s lips in rote repetition suddenly blaze forth with meaning, vividly and achingly true.
Pregnancy ultrasound

Embryo Screening and the New Eugenics

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Genetic screening of embryos allows prospective parents to select embryos for IVF based on the absence of disease and disability as well as the possession of desirable traits. Human life, however, ought to be received graciously rather than rejected or accepted based on our preferences or risk appetite.
Israel

Kafka and Counterterrorism

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While the enemies of the Jews are impenetrable to reason, the murderous among them can be defanged, and their useful idiots isolated as cranks and bigots. A policy that does so successfully is indispensable for the surest guarantor of Jewish life since the Lord Himself fought the battles of Ancient Israel.
death, mortality, cemetary

Houellebecq at the End

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The sadness of Michel Houellebecq lies in the accuracy of his diagnosis and the failure of his prescription. He sees that death is the last enemy, but not that it might be destroyed.
reading

The 2024 Public Discourse Book List

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Our editorial team’s roundup of reads from a year of enrichment, enchantment, and entertainment
father

To Be a Man

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What does it mean to be a man in this confused time, especially if you deny, as I do, virtues applicable only to men, and which, supposedly, allow us to crack the code and know what it means to be a man? I don’t think it’s that special, actually, and I certainly don’t think it is recognizable only in some stereotypically masculine form.
J. D. Vance

The Political Potential of Postliberalism

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Even if Catholic postliberalism is no longer the intellectual avant-garde, populism is poised to shape the next few years of American politics.
Advent

Awaiting the Second Advent

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Christmas hope is grounded both in the reality of Christ’s first advent and also in the reality that he will come again to fully establish the peace his princely rule has promised. This is one of the great paradoxes of the faith: Christ has come, and he is coming. The kingdom has arrived, yet we pray “Thy kingdom come.”
Annunciation

The “Magnificat Gift” of Advent

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Offered daily through the liturgical prayer of the Church, the Magnificat invites every Christian, through Jesus, to see the Holy Spirit in the rare expression of the woman from whose flesh our Savior took his own. The Magnificat is Mary in her own words. It inspires study and imitation of the scriptures by presenting Mary as a gift and invitation, a mother of prayer and listening for all.
Washington Monument

Gratitude in an Angry Time

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Those of us who think the stakes in our cultural conflicts are high, whichever side of those conflicts we are on, frequently find ourselves furious. But what are we angry about? Our responses to that question have to do not just with the latest news, but with deeper intuitions about the nature of the human person and its relation to the moral life of our society.
On Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving

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Again we keep Thanksgiving Day; again we have the chance to become grateful, and not just for this single day. Again we are able to hold those we love, to feast in body and soul, and to become attuned to the freshness deep down in all things.
Jewish temple in the US

A New Alliance Between Christians and Jews

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Reviving a public Christianity in those parts of the country that are not yet entirely lost is the only plausible alternative to America’s continued decay into a brutal neo-Marxist tyranny. Jews who wish to avoid this calamity should seek an alliance with nationalist and conservative Protestants and Catholics.
Catholic church in America

American Catholics (and Others) after the Election

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Catholics can nurture their own friendships with serious adherents of other denominations and faiths. We can collaborate on projects to improve our neighborhoods and broader society. We can learn from each other in dealing with the many challenges of running a godly household today, from the sublime to the mundane. Wherever possible, and to the extent that our respective traditions permit, we can pray together to our common Father—for His blessings on our country, at least.
Protestant church in America

Protestant Futures and Friendships

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The challenges Protestants face are serious. But if we have the humility to learn from others, we will find that there are models and resources readily available to help us think through how we might respond to our cultural moment.
wokeness

Have We Never Been Woke?

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Al-Gharbi argues that the central social function of wokeness is not the pursuit of social equality, but the empowerment of the professional class and its own defense of inequality.
Utah farmland

The Online Staying Power of a “Ballerina Farm”

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Neeleman is not just any influencer; she has emerged as a sort of avatar in America’s cultural battles. The subheading of the Times profile asks whether she represents an “empowering new model for womanhood” or a “hammer blow for feminism.” The author, Megan Agnew, strongly suggests the latter.

Polygenic Embryo Screening: Following the Logic of IVF

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Even the most extensive attempt to shape “what we will get” will always fail to eliminate the contingency, particularity, and irreducibility of the person, whose concrete individuality will likewise always transcend whatever power we attempt to exercise over it.
Prison

No Porches in Prison: God, Civility, and Redemption

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Civility is an important but secondary virtue. It cannot sustain itself. We can find hope for a healthier culture in a rather surprising place. 
Trump

What Does Another Trump Presidency Mean for the Pro-Life Movement?

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Trump's reelection provides reason for pro-lifers to be cautiously relieved, though still apprehensive.
young adults

Why Do Today’s Emerging Adults Need a Playbook? A Q&A with Anna Moreland

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With respect to love, the loneliness epidemic is real. And that affects not just romantic relationships, but friendships as well. At the end of the day, life is a gift, and the center of life is who you love. That doesn’t start happening when you’re in your mid-thirties. It starts happening now