Columns

MAGA, Trump, and the vision thing

December 2, 2024 James Kalb 37

Progressives believe in “progress,” which, in practice, means extending the “arc of history”—the general tendency of thought and social organization—toward a windowless global technocracy that manages the whole of life. Many people—including Catholics who merge […]

Columns

The Church in an age of anxiety

November 4, 2024 James Kalb 15

What direction should Catholicism take in America today? It’s a new setting, historically speaking, and despite all efforts, we don’t seem to be dealing with it well. We live in a democratic consumer society that […]

Columns

Is Christianity “conservative”?

October 10, 2024 James Kalb 28

Last month I pointed out serious problems with progressive Christianity, mostly having to do with the progressive rejection of transcendence. To fill out the discussion, it seems I ought to say something about conservative Christianity. […]

Columns

How real is our democracy?

August 1, 2024 James Kalb 57

Is our society democratic? It is compared with many countries. Iran, for example, has elections that matter, so it is democratic to that extent. Even so, what counts here as a harsh or contemptuous response […]

Columns

Tweets and tyrants

June 3, 2024 James Kalb 22

What use is Twitter (now called “X” but still better known as “Twitter”)? It has millions of users, who can post whatever they want, so there’s lots of information on very different topics. Sometimes there’s […]

Columns

Backwards and forwards

May 6, 2024 James Kalb 21

Some things change, some don’t, and it can be hard to know what to do about it. Wise sayings point in different directions: “[I] beseech you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to […]

Columns

Social class today

April 8, 2024 James Kalb 10

Ethnicity, class, and sex are always with us. Members of different societies develop differences in habits, attitudes, and loyalties that grow into cultural and eventually ethnic distinctions. A complex society includes activities whose demands, qualifications, […]