Free Lunch Writ Large

We are deep in the blame game over the housing bubble, writes Al Sikes. Mortgage brokers, banks, rating agencies, property flippers, and regulators have all made the list. Perhaps somebody should go upstream in a search for the real culprit. 

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Playing the Devil in D. C.

Actor Max McLean describes what it is like to play Screwtape in the stage adaptation of C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, playing at the Lansburgh Theatre in Washington D.C. through May 18, 2008.

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Enduring Standards in a Confused Age

Surely there is a better way to do culture than the one which has produced American Idol? T. M. Moore makes a radical proposal that there is. He says we must learn to look beyond mere personal preference and our current sensual and materialist agenda to discover divine standards for beauty, goodness, and truth in the person of Jesus.

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'The underdogs around the block'

In this short reflection, Jo Kadlecek looks back on her experience with small businesses as a link to what is human in the capitalist system.

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A Few Thoughts on Education in Modern America

Senior Fellow Wilfred M. McClay suggests that we may have reached a point where the most radical and liberal people in society are those who pursue old-fashioned wholesomeness. He suggests a model of education that is equally radical, because we take on the shape of the things we study. So what things are exemplary? What things are worth imitating? Perhaps humanity is not just something we are, it is something we achieve. 

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Modeling Dialogue Rather than Warfare

Physicist Randy Isaac, executive director of the American Scientific Affiliation, argues that the prevailing public view of the relationship between science and faith as a conflict is sadly incomplete. He offers another model of dialogue and integration based on the experience of his colleagues.

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Thoughts on T. S. Eliot’s Poetry

Senior Fellow William Edgar offers an overview of T. S. Eliot’s life and thinking to help introduce readers to his poetry. He also compares the approaches of Eliot and his contemporary and critic C. S. Lewis, to ask some deeper questions about the role of the Christian artist.

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‘Young Altruists’ Need a Broader View of Doing Good

Donald Bishop, a senior U.S. Foreign Service officer, looks at the difficulties faced by some young adults who want to use their careers to make the world a better place. He argues that they leave unexplored real possibilities to do good. It’s time to question the conventional wisdom and consider the possibilities of business, the military, and long-term overseas service as means to help the poor and suffering. 

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Modeling Diverse Community

Pete Peterson looks at the new report from sociologist Robert D. Putnam and sees some evidence that American churches are living out their faith in ways that will help the country learn to live with its ethnic diversity. 

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The Shadow Side of Technological Control

Senior Fellow Wilfred M. McClay recently had a friend die of cancer. It got him to pondering again about the implications of our ever-expanding control of our bodies and our world. In this essay, originally presented at an October meeting of the Trinity Forum’s Senior Fellows, he looks at the inescapable ironies of our quest for control. Progress is good, right? Longer lives and less suffering is good, right? Sure. But all treatments have side effects and every advance has unintended consequences.

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