In the West many long-stable electoral patterns are disappearing. Centrist political parties have eroded in Germany, France, the UK, and elsewhere, and are being supplanted by polarized right- and left-wing groups. The UK now has at least five parties that have some real claim to voters’ allegiances.
In the U.S. this is masked partially because of the deep-rooted first-past-the-post electoral…
In a strange coincidence, within days of Chicago native Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI, Magnifica Humanitas, the University of Chicago’s Office of the President made the following announcement:
“As a next step in the University of Chicago’s overall approach to artificial intelligence (AI), the University is partnering with Anthropic to provide Claude Enterprise for all academics and staff…
In the wake of Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s current visit to the United States, speculation is growing over how her “peace” diplomacy might shape Taiwan’s fate. On Xi Jinping’s side stands a carefully drafted narrative of a “shared Chinese civilization,” presented as an unstoppable force driving toward unification. Xi has declared that “people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are…
On its surface, Polis III Nona’s installation ceremony bore all the hallmarks of a thriving church. The new patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Iraq’s largest Christian denomination, was flanked by clergy, adorned with traditional vestments, marking the transition to a new era for one of the world’s oldest Christian communities. Yet the congregation he inherits has all but vanished since…
Two recent articles have staked out the field. “What Do Conservatives Mean by ‘Western Civilization?’” by James Diddams begins with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez using the same phrase with entirely different meanings. In his response to Diddams, John W. Burge sees Western civilization as an unbroken tradition of Logos (reason) and the Great…
In the few days since the issuing of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, _Magnifica Humanitas_ , many across the globe are responding to this 42,000-plus-word document, including technology leaders, investors, CEOs, theologians, lawyers, politicians, and more. While many Catholic voices have praised the encyclical for its guidance concerning artificial intelligence and the proper use of technology,…
To wander through the ancient cities of Europe is an experience every American should have. Not only are these places the origin of so much we hold dear in the West—democracy, art, music, architecture—but they are simply a joy to behold. Their imposing, grandiose buildings stand surrounded by narrow, cobbled streets stuffed with shops and fantastic eateries.
Yet one must also reflect on what all…
The story of humanity can only be told through civilizations. In this context, the British sociologist Anthony D. Smith argued in his book Ethno-symbolism and Nationalism: A Cultural Approach that culture and politics play a complementary role in the creation of civilizational narratives around which nations and states are shaped. Myths, songs, popular history, and folklore have all contributed…
In browsing the libraries of Christendom, it would be natural to assume that the native tongue of the first Christians was Greek or perhaps Latin. Yet, despite the luminous volumes laid out in these classical languages, and even before the compositions of the Gospels themselves, Christianity was originally a Syriac religion. The oldest fragments of Syriac culture can be seen with words like…
The Challenge
Western Civilization is reeling. The fusion of Judaean ethics (Jerusalem) and Greco-Roman governance (Athens) that sprang to life in Christianity is under attack. From one side, utopians have deployed an entirely new metaphysics that mocks traditional faith, inverts Biblical morality, and pushes toward a successor civilization. From the other, religious supremacists assert that…
If Catholic social thought (CST) is to be an instrument of evangelization, as the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, citing _Centesimus Annus, 54_ says, then surely it must place “the human person and society in relationship with the light of the Gospel.” This cannot be done without reference to man’s sinful nature. Coherent notions of dignity, justice, social concerns, and all the…
On May 10, 1940, Britain’s King George VI summoned Winston Churchill to Buckingham Palace to form a government. The immediate impetus for this move was Britain’s failures in the Norway campaign, especially the failure to hold Narvik. Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, was the minister most responsible for that failure. But, as historian Andrew Roberts has noted, the debate “was as much…
Nigeria’s Christians are among the most persecuted in the world. They face threats from Muslim Fulani herdsmen who have raided villages and killed hundreds of believers. They also face threats from terror groups known around the world for their brutality, such as Islamic State (ISIS), against which a significant victory was recently achieved.
In a joint operation on May 16, U.S. and Nigerian…
In a recent critical essay inveighing against the excesses of the Trump presidency and decrying Christians who presumably glory in those excesses, Taylor University professor Ed Meadors argues that “authentic” Christianity must be differentiated “from the fraudulent practices and deplorable propaganda that daily characterizes the misconduct of President Donald Trump, whose self-worship and…
On May 17, 2026, thousands of Americans gathered on Washington D.C.’s National Mall for Rededicate 250, a national day of jubilation, prayer, praise and thanksgiving for America’s 250th anniversary. This date was providential because exactly 250 years earlier the Continental Congress set aside May 17, 1776, as a day for fasting and praying. Continental Congress member John Adams was particularly…
In his 2024 book All Things Are Full of Gods, the renowned philosopher of religion David Bentley Hart wrote a Socratic dialogue unlike any other. The premise? The ancient Greek gods gather together in a beautiful garden to discuss the nature of being in a conversation largely driven and moderated by Psyche, the wife of Cupid. In their 500-page dialogue, they telescope into a whole world of ideas…
Abraham Lincoln understood the covenantal nature of America, which he called “the electric cord.” The 16th president articulated the skeletal form of America’s cultural identity in Chicago on July 10, 1858:
We have besides these men—descended by blood from our ancestors—among us perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all of these men. They are men…
Before the “polarization” and the “fractured republic” reality made it impossible to ignore our present condition, Jean Bethke Elshtain was sounding the alarm in the 1990s. In one of her books, Augustine and the Limits of Politics , she writes:
As these overlapping associations of social life disappear or are stripped of legitimacy, a political and ethical…
On July Fourth 1779, Congress went to Mass. One newspaper reported that on “the day which gave freedom to the vast republic of America, the Congress, the president and councils of state, with other civil and military officers” attended “Roman chapel” at the invitation of “His Most Christian Majesty” Louis XVI’s emissary. “A _Te Deum_ was performed,” giving “great satisfaction to all present.”…
The advent of artificial intelligence has inaugurated a wave of economic and social transformations whose full implications we may not know for decades. In the realm of higher education, we are currently scrambling to cope with the rapid changes in our classrooms and curricula development. Many in academia see the rise of AI as the death knell of liberal arts education—after all, what is the…
Earlier this month in the Socialist Republic Vietnam, a carefully manicured election was run and won by communists. Last week in the U.S., the 32nd commemoration of Vietnam Human Rights Day was held.
Vietnam Human Rights Day allows us to adequately assess the facts about communist Vietnam. Despite Hanoi’s charm offensive as a stable, inexpensive spot for tourism and a low-cost vendor of cheap…
The latest offensive in Mali, led by al-Qaeda–linked Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) in coordination with the Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), should be a wake-up call to the international community; it signals not just another attack, but a shift toward territorial control and governance.
Because several areas JNIM controls are among the worst places in the world for…
On the present state of Western civilization, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, noted former New Atheist and recent convert to Christianity, has written: “The civilization that gave the world individual liberty, the rule of law, freedom of conscience, and human dignity is not in decline because its enemies are strong. It is in decline because too many of its defenders have forgotten how to make the case for…
Looking back at the early days of World War I, one of its participants, Winston Churchill, couldn’t help but marvel at the innumerable close calls, missed opportunities and small errors that often compounded into almost incalculable tragedies. “The terrible if’s accumulate,” he lamented.
In the long and horrible span of the…
Conversion to _authentic_ Christianity requires revision of everything, including one’s politics.
Authentic biblical Christianity exchanges human allegiances for the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33). Change of this kind is the essence of what the Bible calls ‘repentance’ (Greek: _metanoia_)—a complete “change” (_meta_) of “mind” (_noia_)—the replacement of ephemeral objects of worship—whether…
The Chinese Communist Party is rewriting the Bible.
As part of Xi Jinping’s “Sinicization of Christianity” campaign, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) plans to ensure Christianity in China is instilled with “core socialist values.” Pursuant to that effort, the CCP is currently working on its own translation of what it calls the “Chinese Christian Bible.” While it has yet to complete the project,…
Shadi Hamid is a strange advocate for American hegemony. The _Washington Post_ columnist is a liberal, a Muslim, and a vocal critic of the US-Israel alliance. And yet his latest book, The Case for American Power, is an attempt to explain why the Republic is “the last best hope of the earth.” However well-intentioned Hamid is, it is perhaps unsurprising that his case is not wholly…
A standard talking point of the American MAGA right is that European nations have become free riders on U.S. taxpayers. The complaint is not baseless: since the end of the Cold War, many European states have allowed their militaries to atrophy while relying on the United States to underwrite global security. Yet this argument misses the less visible benefits of the international system America…
In his recent article “What Do Conservatives Mean by ‘Western Civilization’?”, _Providence_ editor James Diddams notes how contrasting remarks from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reveal a tension: there is no firm definition of “Western civilization,” yet the concept enables people with different philosophical precepts to unite around policy goals…
I converted to Catholicism after years of misgivings over what I perceived as its readiness to excuse all manner of sinfulness in the name of ideas such as “human dignity” which, though theologically legitimate, could easily be manipulated to left-wing political ends. Eventually, however, I embraced Catholicism after coming to recognize the disparity between the Catholic Church’s formal teaching…
