Topics

Twilight of the Universities

SACRIFICING STUDENTS ON THE ALTAR OF IDEOLOGY

Caitlin Smith Gilson

Education steeped in transcendental Beauty and the Great Books of history is replaced by a dictatorial ugliness that flattens the passions and rids the heart of love.

The Luxury Beliefs of the Ruling Class

James Noel Ward

Rob Henderson defines "luxury beliefs” as “ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class at very little cost, while often inflicting costs on the lower classes.”

How Cowardice, the Herd Mind & Twitter Mobs Threaten Academia

A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE CLANNISH INQUISITION

Jason M. Morgan & J. Mark Ramseyer

A university education should be about learning to think. It will be disquieting, perhaps troubling. It might even be infuriating. And that’s as it should be.

An Elegy for Bloom

A STAUNCH DEFENDER OF THE WESTERN CANON

Cicero Bruce

Bloom understands that literary study, in contradistinction to cultural studies, is, and ever will be, an elitist endeavor in the service of aesthetics.

Christians at the End of the Pax Americana

FROM A WARFARE STATE TO A WELFARE STATE

Robert McTeigue

With the welfare/warfare state, one may wonder: which came first? They are both features of empires, especially in the latter stages of an empire’s lifecycle.

Which Way the Wind Blows

FORBIDDEN WORDS AND ACTIONS

John Lyon

Daily we hear of intemperate students demanding this or that “right” drawn from a grab-bag of potential claims on others’ behavior.

Re-emergence in a Surprising Field

REBIRTH OF AMERICA’S SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY — PART II

Lewis M. Andrews

The mental-health professions in recent years have changed their opinion of religion and now regard faith as a reliable predictor of well-being.

The Practical Application of Christian Ethics According to America’s Early College Presidents

REBIRTH OF AMERICA’S SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY — PART I

Lewis M. Andrews

They represented a variety of denominations but expressed a remarkably similar prescription for living spiritually in the wider world.

Fr. Ted’s Big Trade

Michael V. McIntire

Hesburgh departed from the idea of creating a distinctive institution in the Catholic intellectual tradition, settling instead for making it more American and worldly.

The Ideology at the Root of Our Moral Disorder

MEET SOCIOLOGICAL MAN

Clifford Staples

In the sociological imagination, it is man who creates God. Once he frees himself from God, anything is possible, or at least appears to be.

Remembering John Lukacs

ODE TO AN ACADEMIC OUTSIDER

Will Hoyt

Lukacs had rock-solid confidence in the Western idea of truth for which books stand and without which civility cannot exist.

Post-Truth, Climate Change & the Catholic University

WHY DO PEOPLE REJECT THE SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS?

A. James McAdams

As the earth was created before man, Pope Francis advises, man is obliged to treat the earth in a manner that is “caring, protecting, overseeing, and preserving.”

You Can Say That?

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

China could well be poised to inherit the earth that the U.S. once commanded — especially if our comparative student bodies are any indication.

Seeking Knowledge of God through the Experience of Beauty

HARMONIOUS RELATIONSHIP IS THE NUCLEUS OF LIFE

Edmund B. Miller

Education must do what the word itself promises: lead out, via a pattern, a road. In other words, simply and finally, education must be the experience of beauty.

Halving & Having the Truth

NEWMAN ON LIBERALISM & ITS LIBERALLY EDUCATED DISCONTENTS

Joshua Hren

Through the joys and perils of liberal learning we must ever recollect that only faith seeking understanding properly disposes the intellect toward conformity to Christ.

The Myth of Meritocracy

NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK

Pieter Vree

A meritocracy fits America’s sense of itself as free from the class-based social structures that defined the European countries from which our predecessors fled.

By the Lakes of Babylon

CULTURAL COUNTERPOINT

Jason M. Morgan

Fr. Hesburgh proved to be a perfect avatar for the Notre Dame he created: an endorser of some kind of vaguely conceived “natural religion.”

The Great Awokening: The Puritan Roots of the Social Justice Warrior

Jason M. Morgan

Social Justice Warriors behave like cult members. They are little Cromwells who demand Robespierre-level ideological purity of every single person.

I Am Not White

WHAT CONSTITUTES CULTURE?

Thomas Storck

Public discourse remains limited to material concerns, but what really differentiates human beings is culture, which is founded on religion.

An Extraordinary Educator's Enduring Legacy

Christopher Beiting

John Senior was a noble man who stood against the spirit of the age to remind the world of a better time, and he left those he touched better for his presence.

Can a Return to Augustine Resolve the Current Educational Crisis?

K.F. Stewart

A proper education enables us to fulfill the Great Commandment, loving God with all our heart and our neighbors as ourselves.

The New Hate Speech: Catholic Teaching at a Catholic College

An affirmation of Church teaching at Providence College is seen by students and administrators as an act of "homophobia" and "transphobia" that warrants intimidation and threats because it's an offense against the PC narrative.

"Critical Thinking" in the Postmodern University

GUEST COLUMN

Clifford Staples

Thinking is aimed at truth and leads one to draw conclusions and develop convictions. Insofar as truth is denied, however, all we can ever have or hold are opinions.

The Cult of Diversity at Providence College

A Catholic college, employing the vague and undefined empty vessel of "diversity," is willingly suppressing its own Catholic culture in favor of an infection with Western sexual obsessions.

Betraying the Fort

BIDEN & BOEHNER AT NOTRE DAME

John Lyon

Notre Dame's president honored Joe Biden for putting "the good of the nation above partisan victory," with "respectful dialogue" and "honorable compromise."

Why We Need a New Model of Catholic Higher Education

GERMINATING IN THE WEEDS OF IDEOLOGICAL SECULARISM

Michael B. Ewbank

Young Christian faithful need to engage with the contemporary world while pursuing their chosen life's work.

Permanent Irresolution & the Art of Making a Public Argument

GUEST COLUMN

Robert Barron

The principal means of teaching in the medieval university was not the classroom lecture but the quaestio disputata (disputed question).

The Unbearable Whiteness of Being

Pushers of political correctness now desire, if not demand, something called "deep diversity" — that is, eliminating all signs of "whiteness" from campuses across the country.

Fingers on the Triggers

The "trigger warning" movement seeks to scrub college campuses clean of words and ideas that might cause discomfort, hurt feelings, or negative thoughts. Almost everything has this potential.

How Pro-Lifers Are Saving Higher Education

THE HUMANITIES' HOLLOW HUMANITY

Jason M. Morgan

The Christian on campus is the only hope for bringing humanity back to the humanities and saving our dying universities.

The Toxic Effects of "Rape-Culture Feminism"

ONE IN FIVE COLLEGE WOMEN SUBJECT TO ASSAULT?

Jeffrey R. Jackson

All students need some measure of discipline, one that deters situations from which rape allegations would arise.

A Chronicle of Christendom's Decline

Frederick W. Marks

Historian Warren Carroll is, first and foremost, an eloquent exponent of Judeo-Christian values who puts character delineation front and center.

An Autonomous Philosopher & the Mandatum

ACADEMIC FREEDOM BOUND?

Paul Symington

Religious convictions are deep and can easily override considerations of beliefs that are contrary to them, even in light of attempts at objectivity.

Hollow Theology

While Catholic colleges have stronger core requirements than their secular counterparts, most have abolished requirements for students to take Catholic theology courses.

Ivy League Culture Wars

There are campus activists and groups-- who are not necessarily Catholic or even Christian-- at Ivy League colleges fighting for traditional moral values on marriage and sexuality.

The Marketplace of Ideas -- Command-Economy Style

If you want to continue teaching on college campuses, it's best to hold to the politically correct version of the genesis of homosexual orientation.

Another Victim of Institutional Coddling

On at least one college campus, teaching certain aspects of the Catholic faith -- even in the context of a class on Catholicism -- is considered "hate speech."

When Heteronomy & Autonomy Collide

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO NOTRE DAME?

L. Scott Smith

The University of Notre Dame is positioned to ride the wave of American popular culture, and without a fight will go the way of its sister institutions once run by Protestants.

Notre Dame, R.I.P.

GUEST COLUMN

Michael V. McIntire

Notre Dame's honoring of President Obama was the full flowering of the university's rebellion against the Magisterium of the Church.

Classical Education in Southern California

Thomas Aquinas College has been providing a superb classical education to students from all over the country for nearly four decades.

The Secularizing of Catholic Universities

FROM ORTHODOXY TO HERESY

Michael V. McIntire

Catholic academics betrayed the faith with the Land O'Lakes Statement in 1967, which has spread error throughout the Church ever since.

False Theologians, Then & Now

HENRY VIII & THE DISSENTERS IN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITIES

Anne Barbeau Gardiner

By giving pseudo-legitimacy to the English tyrant, false theologians made possible Henry's theft of Church lands, his dissolution of monasteries, and his wrecking of libraries.

Is Georgetown Still Catholic?

LAST THINGS

Tom Bethell

The great problem besetting not just the Jesuits but the Catholic Church in America and the Western world more generally is wealth.

Is Providence College All It's Cracked Up to Be?

A CLOSER LOOK

Jeffrey R. Jackson

Notwithstanding the general perception that Providence College is very Catholic, the occurrence of certain events call into question whether it has experienced a serious decline.

The Dismal State of Most Catholic Colleges & Universities

ARE THEY JUST ABOUT WORTHLESS?

Anne Hendershott

For most liberal Catholic scholars, one is apparently not supposed to direct one's "critical thinking" against the reigning libertine bromides.

Keeping the Light Burning

Philip Blosser

It's time to get over the embarrassment of seeking out students, faculty, and administrators from a school's supporting religious tradition.

Let's Abolish Most Catholic Colleges & Universities

IT'S TIME TO TRY SOMETHING ELSE

Marian E. Crowe

Nowadays the old notion that a Catholic college ought to teach Catholicism to undergraduates seems not even to be seriously considered.

Blitzkrieg on the Western Front

EDITORIAL

Dale Vree

Student-Professor Sex

THE STENCH OF THE ZOO

J. A. Gray

The baseline of professional behavior expounded and approved by professors in their trade journal is disturbingly low.

How Much Freedom Can Our Culture Stand?

GUEST COLUMN

Tom Martin

Forgotten is the teaching that by knowing truth, a student is freed — saved from drowning in a sea of unfulfilling “self-fulfillment.”

Homosexual Memoirs for Catholic Freshmen: Why?

NOWHERE NEAR HEAVEN'S COAST

Katherine Kersten

At a Christian university, students and faculty should be committed to a search for the truth about the truly good life for man.

Can We Revitalize Catholic Higher Education?

"UNCATECHIZED CAME I INTO COLLEGE, UNCATECHIZED GO I FORTH"

Marian E. Crowe

Perhaps it is unrealistic to think of supporting scores of Catholic colleges in our secular society. Perhaps 10 to 15 is more realistic.

Shack-Ups & Shakedowns on Campus

Just who qualifies as a "partner" in a "partnership"?

"Catholic Studies": The New Catholic Ghetto

A NEW ELECTIVE AT CATHOLIC COLLEGES: CATHOLICISM!

Nino Langiulli

A single program relieves the institution of the responsibility to give the entire curriculum a Catholic character.

The Rift Between the Finest Minds & The Limp Academics Now in Power

SPOILED AMERICANS, SOFT PROFESSORS & STUNTED STUDENTS

Robert Greer Cohn

A “Humanities and Arts Memorial” was held at Stanford in 1995, as top universities worked to destroy Western culture.

A Voice Crying in the Bewilderedness

J. A. Gray

Mankind exhibits a passion for knowledge and freedom, and an inveterate tendency to be seduced by counterfeits of knowledge and freedom.

Should Classes in Catholic Colleges & Universities Begin With Prayer?

IF CRUCIFIXES IN CLASSROOMS, WHY NOT PRAYER?

Gregory R. Beabout

What to Do About Our Largely Secularized Catholic Colleges & Universities?

IT'S TIME FOR THE BISHOPS TO USE THEIR SHEPHERD'S CROOK

Kenneth D. Whitehead

To Denigrate "Western Civilization" Is to Disinherit Our Children

NEW WORLD ORDER: HI TECH, NO SOUL

Lawrence D. Hogan

The Nihilism & Atheism of Allan Bloom

HOISTING A STRAUSSIAN CONSERVATIVE WITH HIS OWN PETARD

Philip E. Devine

Bloom takes as his model an atheist who is prepared to be deceptive about his beliefs in order to protect his own interests. It seems fair to infer that Bloom is such a person.

Shame on You, Harvard!

CHRIST & NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Law professor Derek Bok was suddenly raised to the pinnacle of a Harvard presidency and subsequently suffered a loss of idealism.

Discovering the Church in Harvard Yard

A "POSITIVELY BIZARRE" CONVERSION

John C. Cort

My father wrote an angry letter to the Dean of Harvard and told me that if I insisted on being received into the Church he would insist on withdrawing me from Harvard.

Academic Fundamentalism?

Robert N. Bellah

Review of The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom

Small Gestures

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

Being clever, brilliant, even what gets called “well-educated” is not to be equated, necessarily, with being considerate, kind, tactful, even plain polite or civil.