I'm always curious to see the Church in its most ancient settings, and I couldn't help but notice the work of Pope Shenouda III over the years. I'm afraid that the new guy has his work cut out for him.Egypt's Copts choose new pope for uncertain timesNov 4, 12:51 PM (ET ( Read more... )

An article on demographic shifts of Christianity in Israel that caught my eye. In the Holy Land, a changed Christian worldOct 27, 12:34 PM (ET ( Read more... )

I was looking something up earlier and came across this article written by my director for the Jesuit weekly America back in 2000. I probably read it back then, about the time I started considering going back to school for the Ph.D., and going over to Notre Dame to talk with Richard McBrien about who best to study with in the United States if I ( Read more... )

Yesterday afternoon and evening, part of my 3+ hour long conversation with my former boss, the 16th-century scholar Mickey Mattox,, lead us away from more predictable elements like Martin Luther and to the recent death of Richard John Neuhaus, the publisher of First Things, that journal of American public life in religion, culture and politics. ( Read more... )

I woke to the wretched news that one of my most important teachers at Notre Dame has died. During the second year of my M.A. at Notre Dame, I studied Judaism with Rabbi Michael Signer, which turned into one of the most purely pleasurable courses of my student career. Having at the time just recently become aware of the Novak family's Jewish ( Read more... )

Wow: this is unexpected. First Things is one of the best journals of its kind, though I tended to find Neuhaus's own contributions the most maddening things in its pages. Nevertheless, you had to admire him for creating such an ecumenical forum.

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus dead at age 72By JOHN L. ALLEN JR., NCR Staff ( Read more... )

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Alexy II dies
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Dies at 79

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Was this the most alarmist headline that the Times could come up with this morning? No noting that the other major world religions have demonstrated no intrinsic initiative on their own to participate in hip and cool dialogue? No mentioning that Pela, while "center-right" and therefore suspect, is an atheist philosopher who has seen the ( Read more... )

Today's the Feast of Lewis, being the 45th anniversary of his death, as well as those of Kennedy and Huxley.

My birth certificate showed up in the mail, which was a relief. My identity remains my own for another day. So all my paperwork is in order, and my files can be put away for another decade. The day was spent digging back into Chapter 1 ( Read more... )

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