Postcards from Palookaville

In thinking about the importance of being a generalist, the first thing to understand is that it is, indeed, a possibility. This might seem to be something of a stretch in the current climate of hyper-specialisation and oceans of information that no man can possibly navigate, but I do believe that...

Francis Beckwith helpfully links to this piece on the logical problems in Stephen Hawking's claims about gravity and the non-existence of God. The author is a Catholic (which may distress the staff of the National Catholic Reporter) but the argument is not, I think, restricted in its usefulness to...

Francis Beckwith helpfully links to this piece on the logical problems in Stephen Hawking's claims about gravity and the non-existence of God. The author is a Catholic (which may distress the staff of the National Catholic Reporter) but the argument is not, I think, restricted in its usefulness to...

One of the barriers which often hinders appreciation of the early church fathers is the sheer strangeness of the world in which they lived compared to that which we now inhabit. In many ways, the fundamental questions they asked were akin to those we face today. For example, `What does it look like...

One of the barriers which often hinders appreciation of the early church fathers is the sheer strangeness of the world in which they lived compared to that which we now inhabit. In many ways, the fundamental questions they asked were akin to those we face today. For example, `What does it look like...

John L. Allen Jnr., a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, has written an interesting, and long, review of a new, highly critical biography of Benedict XVI. The review makes for fascinating reading. Anyone unfamiliar with Allen's writing is missing a treat -- he writes well, is always...

John L. Allen Jnr., a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, has written an interesting, and long, review of a new, highly critical biography of Benedict XVI. The review makes for fascinating reading. Anyone unfamiliar with Allen's writing is missing a treat -- he writes well, is always...

One of the things that marks the world today, particularly the academic world, is the importance of specialisation and expertise. We all tend to trust the experts because who are we, poor mites, to question what somebody who has spent a lifetime studying a particularly narrow area says about a...

One of the things that marks the world today, particularly the academic world, is the importance of specialisation and expertise. We all tend to trust the experts because who are we, poor mites, to question what somebody who has spent a lifetime studying a particularly narrow area says about a...

On the small table in the corner of my office at Westminster there is an icon of the man who became known simply as `The Theologian,' Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the most important Christian thinkers of the later fourth century. The icon is, of course, a classic piece of Orthodox artwork: Gregory...