Monsignor Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion of Liberation, used to say: “I see what you see, but I see more!” He meant that the Catholic Christian engages with the same reality set before everyone else, but more deeply. Christianity provides corrective lenses, and once we receive them, a whole new world appears before our eyes. We see everything the secular world does, but we see more.  Giussani’s words have been on my mind during the Easter season. In particular, they have been on my mind as I consider the culture’s creep (or technological leap) towards transhumanism in light of the C ..read more

Plastic is a marvelous petroleum byproduct. It is useful, chiefly, in its capacity as a lightweight, impermeable barrier; secondarily, in its ability to be easily molded; finally, in its transparency. And if the world were boring, and the people in it prosaic, this would be the end of the story. We would use the stuff where it worked, worked well, and did no harm in other regards. We would ditch the stuff where it was unnecessary, worked poorly, or caused some degree of damage beyond its obvious use as a transparent barrier and a moldable substrate. As it stands, something about plastic turns ..read more

The Catechism praises almsgiving as, “Money or goods given to the poor as an act of penance or fraternal charity.” It may sound like a humdrum practice, but almsgiving would have been unthinkable, strange, to the ancient, pagan world. For the ancient Greeks and Romans, it was no virtue to give to the poor. In fact, they didn’t even have a word that meant almsgiving until the Christians invented one. As Roman Garrison writes, “The lack of terminology in the Greek tradition (and the Roman as well) for the concept of almsgiving proves to be symptomatic of a certain disinterest in the plight of th ..read more

Human beings must become themselves before they die. And because they die, there is no such thing as unequivocal human “progress”—no such thing as a collective humanity growing better, faster, or stronger.  Each generation begins again, and whatever the last generation achieved does not repeat itself in their children as if encapsulated in their genetic code. Any improvement of the human lot depends on human love, that is, on the successful giving and receiving of reality by dying people to growing people. Fail in this regard, and the whole thing is a wash.  Of course, there are book ..read more

I am excited to have more children, largely because I have a lot to do, and after a certain increase in their muscle mass and spiritual faculty, a child can help me to do it. I tested this humdrum thought in my social circle, under the assumption that its busy occupants would agree. I was particularly interested in whether any of them planned on teaching their children to take dictation, translate foreign texts, lay bricks, or learn to repair socks, as these would be useful to my future plans—and perhaps we could go halfsies on the necessary schooling. To my dismay, they were dismayed. Most se ..read more

The article below originally appeared as part of the essay “What Are We to Do?” in New Polity magazine, issue 3.3 (Summer 2022). It is reprinted here because Fr. Waldstein recently replied to it, in part, over at The Josias. It has been lightly revised for greater clarity. Considering that some of the positions I take above have recently been rebutted in these pages by Fr. Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist., it seems that I owe him, and readers, an explanation—especially since it may seem that in disagreeing with him I set myself against St. Thomas. The essence of our difference can be covered rather c ..read more

FROM THE PRINT MAGAZINE: This essay was originally published in New Polity Issue 3.1 (Winter 2021). Our print magazine releases four times a year. Subscribe to read our best work. My mother always told me that it was rude to discuss either politics or religion in polite company.[1] Ruder still, to discuss them both together.  Generally speaking, we are allowed to have political opinions. We are also allowed to have religious convictions. But it seems unreasonable, and vaguely un-American, to assert that one is relevant to the other; extremist, even Islamist, to assert that our political p ..read more

The history of screen technology can be roughly described as a process by which Californians slowly move screens closer and closer to everyone else’s face. From the movie theater, to the living room (where children were once warned, “Don’t sit too close to the TV!”), to the smartphone held a foot before our noses, to the innovations of these latter days—in which Apple et al would inch the screen past the nasal frontier and place it in front of our eyes, while Musk and his futurist cohort would stuff the thing even further into our heads—it’s all one, slow, move-in for a weird and uncomfortable ..read more

Goliath represents the impulse to put all our hope in man; to stockpile; to amass; to find salvation in the strength of a singular Giant. This is why Goliath is so very big. David represents the Jewish impulse to put all our hope in God. This is why he, David, is so very small. Goliath is a tempter—he has “scaled armor” (1 Sam 17:5) like the Leviathan, Satan, of whom it is said, “his protective scales are his pride” (Job 41:15). Goliath tempts the Israelites for forty days. “Rabbi Yoḥanan says: ‘These days correspond to the forty days over which the Torah was given, as he [Goliath] wanted to d ..read more

I would like to diagnose a brand of conservatism—a mood shared by those on and offline alike. It consists in removing the center of the chest, clearing out the heart and lungs, and filling the resultant vacancy with a medium-sized oriental gong. This, one bares towards the World Gone Mad; toward the Wicked World which threatens all that is Good, True, and Beautiful with barbs of Moral Depravity. The barbs are shot—“men are becoming women!” “you can’t trust your neighbors any more!”—the missiles strike the gong, and the conservative resonates long and loud for all to hear. He is alarmed—hear hi ..read more