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US war in Iran

America’s Conflict in Iran Is Not a Just War 

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Unlike the Iraq war, Trump’s Iran war is being fought without a clear plan or congressional approval. For these and other reasons, it plainly does not meet the conditions for a morally acceptable war, as set out by traditional just war doctrine. 
Cicero

Cicero on Our Disengaged Age 

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The collapse of the late Roman republic came not in an instant but over time: through a period of profound internal fracture and systemic chaos. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the American founding, we find ourselves in a similar period of civic fragmentation and disengagement.
Statue of liberty

Make America Good Again 

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America is great because America is good: that is the proposition. But is the proposition plausible? And “good” means ... what?
Supreme Court

Originalists Need the Classical Legal Tradition 

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The conservative legal movement has come far, but we’re just getting started. 
Notre Dame campus

How Catholic Should a Catholic Institution Be? 

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The University of Notre Dame does not and ought not have the luxury of relegating moral and theological questions to the margins.
poetry

Poetry and the Politics of Aspirational Conservatism 

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More than the squabbles of party politics, conservatives ought to be concerned with defending our civilization’s way of life and the ordered liberty that sustains it.
viewpoint diversity

Responding to Seven Theses Against Viewpoint Diversity 

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The culture of self-censorship, cancellation, and lack of exposure to viewpoints has adversely affected the university. The increasing ideological skew of the faculty is largely responsible. Universities need to address these issues to help restore their truth-seeking mission. 
Protestant church in America

Against Contempt for Confessional Christianity 

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The confessions are not a ball and chain. They are a covenant—public, binding, and liberating. 
reading a book

On the Divided Soul and the Joy of Loving Good Books 

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The joy of reading good books well is to better ponder and embrace them all. 
Pregnant woman and daughter on the beach

A Look Inside the Endometriosis Epidemic  

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Can We Restore Hope in Women’s Healthcare? 
Hebrew Bible

Uncovering the Jewish Roots of American Liberty  

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The Hebrew Bible offers a “political realism” that may assist both religions, and hence Western civilization, to survive. 
modern business man

A Digital Age Babbitt

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If Sinclair Lewis were writing today, would his Babbitt look markedly different?
school choice

School Choice Is About Religious Liberty, Not Just Better Test Scores 

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America’s constitutional tradition recognizes parents as primary educators. To honor this, policymakers must safeguard private school autonomy and ensure funding follows students to their families’ chosen learning environment.
Pascal

Pierre Manent’s Challenge to Modern Atheism  

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Pascal’s theology is sublime, beautiful, and all-consuming. But it reflects the life of a celibate mystic rather than that of the statesman who must transmit Christian culture. Statesmen after all must wager. 
Bookshelf

The Bookshelf: Nostalgia Has Consequences 

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Richard Weaver’s bestselling work is his worst book. But an author with his contempt for mass democracy would probably appreciate that irony. 
Migrants

The Catholic Church and Care for Migrants  

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The Church has a long tradition of generous care for migrants, while allowing room for legitimate regulation.
Fabritius The Goldfinch

Lenten Love

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Lent ought to be the training ground for how to approach things of value with proper reverence. In other words, Lent retrains our loves.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

The Ninth Circuit’s Religious Freedom Coup 

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For years, perhaps the most serious threat to religious organizations’ freedom to live according to their faith has been the ever-growing specter of nondiscrimination laws. The Ninth Circuit’s decision here offers perhaps the strongest opportunity we have seen yet to affirm the constitutional right of religious organizations to hire according to their faith. 
Ben Sasse

On Dying Well: Ben Sasse and the Vocation of Suffering 

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Ben Sasse’s recent announcement reveals to us both goods and virtues that show in his dying a glimmer of light, a stirring of hope, and the possibility of spring even in one’s final winter.
Hamnet film purchased via Alamy

Hamnet and the Myth of Radical Autonomy 

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That a story that demands we define ourselves by our duties of care to each other—not by individual success—should resonate with so many is perhaps a sign that the cultural tide is quietly turning. It’s time to remember that, if our interdependence makes us vulnerable, it’s also what gives us a sense of purpose. 
IVF lab

Big Tech Meets Big Fertility 

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If democracy means anything, it should mean some ability to take a deep breath before we permit Silicon Valley to hack baby-making in the same way it has remade so many other facets of our lives.
right vs left

Identity and Recognition Are the Polarized Polis’s Chief Virtues 

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Tocqueville’s insight anticipates Taylor’s: a democracy built on dialogical identity easily turns into a society where individuals depend on the crowd for self-definition.
inspiration for Rivendell in LOTR

Political Philology: J. R. R. Tolkien Against the Leftists 

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If I may be permitted to so step beyond my bounds and attempt to speak for what Tolkien’s advice might be, I believe his recommendation would be this: teach, read, and write poetry, for that is the first step toward viewing language as not merely a tool for communication, but a science, an art, a heritage, and a way in which man resembles God. 
sad, lonely young man

Why Are We So Pornsick? 

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Forming young men will be a lot easier if we remove the filth that is choking out loving and flourishing complementary relationships between men and women.