Excerpt from Oliver O'Donovan's Begotten or Made? "Sometimes the philosophy of an age is epitomized in a work of art; and to my mind the modern programme for morality was never better expressed than at the very beginning of the modern period, in Beethoven's opera Fidelio, surely the greatest of all artistic tributes to the…
Why post a lengthy excerpt from 17th century puritan John Owen's Mortification of Sin in Believers? Since getting John Owen's complete works for Christmas, I have been reading as much Owen as I can—and I can't get enough. We would all do well to read more Owen. (Also, I am very grateful Banner of Truth…
Acts 15 gives us a fascinating insight into how the apostolic church navigated the transitional period between the inauguration of the New Covenant and the end of the Old Covenant, particularly with regard to the requirements for covenantal membership. Specifically, was the requirement of circumcision to continue into this new age? If not, how would…
The nation's paper of record published a remarkably bad take recently on masculinity and femininity. The piece, titled "Enough Leaning In. Let’s Tell Men to Lean Out," is by Ruth Whippman, whose bio states that she is working on a book on raising boys. Buckle up. The gist of the author's argument is that society should stop…
Excerpted from Oliver O'Donovan, Resurrection and Moral Order, 74–75. Emphasis added. "'By faith Abel, though dead, still speaks,' wrote the author to the Hebrews (11:4), alluding to Genesis 4:10, where Abel's blood 'cries out from the ground'. The reason he still speaks is that God did not heed the cry: he did not exact from Cain…
Over at CBMW.org, I published my thoughts in the wake of two more mass shootings in America — and why I believe there is something sick with the American male. Here's an excerpt: Western civilization has historically recognized four cardinal or natural virtues, affirmed by august thinkers from Plato and Cicero to Ambrose, Aquinas, and…
The good folks over at Public Discourse graciously published my response to Michael Wear's op-ed in the New York Times. Wear is a self-described pro-life Democrat who is calling Democrat candidates back from radical positions on abortion. The problem is, as I argue in the piece, the Democratic candidates' positions are essentially indistinct from the current Democratic Party platform,…
The Atlantic has a fascinating article in its August 2019 issue on world-renown economist Raj Chetty and the work he is doing on generational opportunity and the stalled-out American dream. Chetty was born in New Dheli, India, and emigrated to America at age 9, where he was afforded many opportunities he took advantage of to climb…
C.S. Lewis, "Men Without Chests" On virtue: It still remains true that no justification of virtue will enable a man to be virtuous. Without the aid of trained emotions the intellect is powerless against the animal organism. I had sooner play cards against a man who was quite sceptical about ethics, but bred to believe…
Reclaiming a Father’s Presence at Home, Institute for Family Studies (John A. Cuddeback) It is the stock-in-trade of defenders of the traditional household to decry the general movement of women out of the household and into the “workforce.” Most, however, are mute on the issue of the parallel and prior male exodus. And yet the…
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