Jeff Morgan

Psychologist Darby Saxbe argues that mindful underparenting respects a person’s unique developmental capacity to learn through observation how to enter adult life, and Catholic sociologist Christian Smith writes, “Among all possible influences, parents exert far and away the greatest influence on their children’s religious outcomes.” The family is a domestic church, whether parents acknowledge it or not.

Eric Cyr

Kacey Musgraves shows a willingness to change, to recognize that some things are empty or “lose their shine” and to keep looking for something that fulfills. In her Grammy-winning song, she repeatedly asks: “Can I speak to the architect?” The answer to this question—an answer that I don’t know Musgraves knows yet—is yes, she can speak to the Architect at any time, which is an answer both insufficient and, in its own way, complete.

Henry T. Edmondson III

An important case surrounding a recent state law mandating the Ten Commandments be displayed in Louisiana public schools is headed to the Supreme Court. The case has to do with the religion clauses in the First Amendment. What is needed is “juris-prudence”—that is, the Aristotelian-Thomistic intellectual virtue of prudence—applied to the Constitution.

Johan T. Erlandsson-Díaz

The secular world is in numerous ways easier to live in than that of religion. What is primarily offered in this horizontal worldview are pure endings: Things begin and then end. The faith journey offers a narrative of hope beyond the horizon of mortality, a journey that does not promise easy answers but requires a confrontation with darkness, suffering, and ultimate mystery.

Sin and the Concept of False Consciousness

Dr. Carl R. Trueman

The question of how Christians should think about the concept of false consciousness is a pressing one, given the recent prominence of various critical theories in public life. One might argue that sin is a form—perhaps the ultimate form—of false consciousness. As with false consciousness, we willingly walk the path of our own destruction, rationalizing it to ourselves as we do so.

Henry T. Edmondson III 

It is the crack of brokenness that permits an illuminated sliver of grace. Leonard Cohen seems to have done a lot of seeking, but there is no clear indication he ever found what he was looking for, if indeed he knew what he sought. He possessed keen insight into the human spiritual condition and a unique ability to present it artistically, and for that his musical and literary contributions are the world’s heritage.

Dr. Chad Engelland

While the first waves of machine technology enervated our bodies, this one threatens to cut even deeper and enervate our souls. Our machines today are saving us from the effort and skill of creating and making. If we outsource even our creativity, if we are no longer creators and makers, what are we reduced to? We are the mouse-clicking or thumb-tapping viewer of the spectacle unfolding before us.

In our culture, it has become a force of habit, when faced with the possibility of being wrong about the least little thing, to put an extra layer of shellac around the shell that protects our egos and either dodge or dig in. But the moral denial, dodging, and deflecting will always catch up with us eventually, tearing us up inside and deteriorating our relationships.

Stephanie Gray Connors 

Is it ethical to create human beings by science and not by sex? Should IVF be embraced or rejected? Is it inherently good or inherently evil? Or, perhaps, is it something that is sometimes right and other times wrong? These are important questions to consider, because IVF is now widespread and international, affecting millions upon millions of people.

Mark Bradford 

Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, the hope we had placed in the ruling has not been realized. It’s time to look for new ways to promote a culture of life in the United States. Imagine a world where concern for the integral development of all people was heartily embraced and became the rallying cry of the pro-life movement.

Dr. Richard DeClue 

Either at or after the Council of Constantinople (381), a creed based off of the original Nicene Creed was composed. Latin Rite Catholics and Protestants tend to include a further addition not found in the original Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: the Filioque. This version of the creed says that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son.”

Dr. Christopher Kaczor 

What we believe, what we think, what we seek, shapes what we see. We cannot see God as we see molecules under a microscope or stars in the sky. Indeed, the hiddenness of God is itself a biblical teaching. God is hidden in the sacraments; hidden in the Scriptures; and hidden in the discouraged, the bedraggled, and the addicted. God chooses to woo, not compel—to be delicate rather than overwhelming.