The Narthex

A sociologist named Jason Arday died August 14, 2026, in his London home. It appears that the cause of his death was suicide. But to any event there are circumstances, and those surrounding Dr. Arday’s death seem to shift much of the responsibility for his untimely passing onto those who…

It would be great if women who wanted to play basketball had a league of their own. They don’t, though. Instead, they have the WNBA, which is a political action committee doing layups and free throws. The difference between a women’s basketball league and the WNBA is, well, difference. A…

Hear ye, hear ye! President Trump opines that he is the most powerful person to ever live (“The YOLO Presidency,” The Atlantic, April 29, 2026). There are compelling reasons to dispute his claim. Even so, many of our politicians insist that the United States is the greatest country on earth.…

For years during the early Twenties we heard about the “Biden Crime Family.” Shady dealings in Ukraine. Board memberships that reeked of pay-to-play implications. Personal enrichment for a scofflaw scion. Special treatment from the so-called Department of Justice. Another example of two-tiered courts in the USA. Right on to all…

Many readers may be familiar with the term Anthropocene. It denotes an epoch of geological time during which human influence on the environment has become pronounced. Geologists, who apparently like to work as slowly as the processes they study, have, after laborious deliberation, largely rejected the use of Anthropocene as…

Freedom fails when citizens demand the benefits of ordered liberty while refusing the virtue that gives liberty its moral spine. Our present disorder should surprise only those who believed a republic could survive after the home stopped forming conscience, the school stopped teaching wisdom, and the church was politely invited…

Even before the thrilling movie 300 (2006), many Westerners were familiar with the even more thrilling history of the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC). At the “hot gates,” the historical record tells us, Spartan king Leonidas I led his fellow Greeks against a much bigger invading force under “King of…

On March 6, 1981, Walter Cronkite concluded his final broadcast as anchor of CBS Evening News, and with that quiet farewell a chapter of American media culture gently closed. For nearly two decades, his voice entered millions of living rooms every evening with calm pacing, measured language, and disciplined restraint…

Bombs are falling on Iran. In this act of naked aggression many see the contours of another murderous rampage: the invasion of Iraq 23 years ago, which like the Iran adventure was also unwarranted chaos predicated on a tissue of lies. Here we go again, the war-weary American public groans.…

President’s Day arrives every February with historical aura but then gets swallowed by appliance discounts and mattress commercials, as though civic memory can be replaced by a coupon code. The holiday has become a soft cultural placeholder, a day people “enjoy” while forgetting what it was meant to teach. The…

American political mythology often introduces the Founders as secular craftsmen who constructed a democratic republic through sheer Enlightenment grit. Yet any careful reading of their correspondence reveals that these men never imagined a public order severed from divine authority. They lived in a world where appeals to Heaven were considered…

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of "Common Sense," a slender pamphlet whose physical modesty concealed a civilizational provocation. On a winter day in 1776, an obscure British immigrant named Thomas Paine released a text that redirected the political trajectory of an entire people. Within three months,…

Amazon has produced a docudrama on the First Lady, Melania. You might love it or hate it (or, like me, haven't seen it) but promotion of an incumbent First Lady is not uncommon. If you doubt it, ask how many times Vogue featured Jill Biden on its front cover --…

Marriage is very much under assault in the Western world, in part by false notions of “freedom” that assume a person’s choices can reconstruct the nature and definition of marriage. Poland is one place where that assault is underway. Although the Polish Constitution defines marriage as a man-woman relationship, the…

I grew up in a New Jersey Rust Belt town which has lost its factories and is now somewhat economically depressed: Perth Amboy. Its name is unusual, a blend of cultures.  “Perth” comes from the Earl of Perth in Scotland, who was one of the backers of the city's 17th…