Bridging the Great Divide

William Gairdner

April 1, 2015

Most of us believe we believe what we believe because we believe it. In his new book, William Gairdner says our beliefs are too often about justifying our underlying — and unchallenged — liberal or conservative worldview

Many such underlying liberal/conservative disparities and divisions will be examined as I attempt to show that no matter what surface arguments someone defends, we can usually tease out their underlying philosophy of life and show how it always obliges the taking of specific moral and political posi...

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Cheering Up With Chesterton

Richard Bastien

April 1, 2015

Convivium book review editor Richard Bastien surveys the works of the great G.K. and concludes that true sanity lies in Chestertonian cheerfulness

He insisted on the fact that man is naturally homo religiosus: "The instinct of the human soul perceives that a fool may be permitted to praise himself, but that a wise man ought to praise God To those who claim that the doctrine of original sin derives from a pessimistic view of human nature, Chest...

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Barristers' Arrogant Blindness

Barry Bussey

April 1, 2015

The decision by Justice Jamie Campbell in the dispute between Trinity Western University and the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society was more than just a win for TWU. It opens our eyes to how blind Canada's lawyers have become.

The Nova Scotia decision on TWU has painted a bright line between the current state of the law, which allows for religious belief and practice on marriage in religious institutions of higher learning, and emerging legal theories such as "deep equality," which suggests that accommodating such religio...

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Gambolling with Galileo

Graeme Hunter

April 1, 2015

Graeme Hunter says the world needs a good book on Galileo. Lawrence Lipking's What Galileo Saw: Imagining the Scientific Revolution is too mad a gambol to qualify

Lipking's enigmatic book closes with a final riddle: "The meaning of modernity and the ways that modern people define themselves depend on the Scientific Revolution The penultimate chapter concerns priority disputes between Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke in connection with the invention of the "Syste...

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Something Beautiful for God

Daniel Bezalel Richardsen

April 1, 2015

In Randy Boyagoda's new biography of First Things founder Father Richard John Neuhaus, reviewer Daniel Bezalel Richardsen finds a fitting tribute to one who spent his days pondering the follies of the world and the Church while turning out 10,000 words for his monthly magazine

How an "Ottawa Valley Lutheran boy," who was baptized over the family kitchen sink, would become one of the most influential religious figures in American public life is a story told with thoroughgoing gusto in Randy Boyagoda's recently released biography Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public S...

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Sea to Sea

Raymond J. de Souza

April 1, 2015

Father Raymond J. de Souza's continuing survey of religion, culture and public life.

With that history in mind — of a Catholic Church that had survived persecution and was revived by recusant lay faithful and a few missionary priests — the simple fact of a papal visit, even if Francis was the third pope to visit, is of historic significance There was recent history, meaning the civi...

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Progress in the Face of Reality

Peter Stockland

March 30, 2015

Not surprisingly, both as a study presented by a "progressive" institute and as a general observation of life, more "young" Canadians than "older" Canadians support the agenda of the Broadbent Institute This led to the question posed by the title of the report: "Could a Progressive Platform Capture ...

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Distractions and Counterfeits

Peter Stockland

March 27, 2015

In "The Serpent and the Centre," Sharpless, a 20-something New Yorker, is as concerned as Gavin Miller and Matthew Crawford by the dislocating falsehoods and the amphetamine diffusion of attention from hyper-technological urban life It's a theme attended to in Comment's superb interview between my C...

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Balancing Religion and Secularism

Raymond J. de Souza

March 25, 2015

Should Canadians be debating the proper place of religion in our society or should elected officials be dealing with these issues instead?

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Total Victory?

Naomi Biesheuvel

March 20, 2015

“The minority judgment would have granted Loyola High School, as a religious corporation, the right to religious freedom,” she explains, but “the majority did not rule on that point In the 4-3 split, the minority was in considerably stronger support of religious freedom than the majority, explains E...

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No steps back, no steps forward

Peter Stockland

March 19, 2015

The Supreme Court of Canada says Montreal's Loyola High School had its Charter religious freedoms violated by the Quebec government's refusal to allow it to teach a program from a Catholic perspective ...

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What makes the common good common

Raymond J. de Souza

March 19, 2015

Paul Donovan comments on the Supreme Court's Loyola decision

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Happy are those

Peter Stockland

March 18, 2015

Indeed, during his research and writing for the definitive two-volume biography of John Paul II, it became clear to Weigel that the future saint developed, early in life, an interior capacity for tenacious resistance to the "tyranny of the possible": doing solely what the world limits us to rather t...

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Be Not Afraid: An Evening with George Weigel

Raymond J. de Souza

March 17, 2015

The biographer of John Paul II sat down with Father Raymond J. de Souza to discuss conversation, conviviality, and calling.

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The power of faithful Canadians

Raymond J. de Souza

March 16, 2015

University of Toronto's Randy Boyagoda discusses his new book on Father Richard John Neuhaus, which will be reviewed in our April/May issue of the magazine. Subscribe today!

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