The New York Times columnist (not Catholic) chats online with his colleague Gail Collins (Catholic) about religion and politics and makes a very nifty reference to...the Donatists!

Gail Collins: David, we almost always talk about politics. Today lets pick something less contentious. How about religion?David Brooks: This is great. I just finished Peter Browns magnificent biography of Augustine. Im all ready to talk about the Donatists and Pelagianism. Did you know that even though they lived roughly 1,700 years ago, the Donatists were just like our two parties today. They were more interested in following their accepted doctrine than in looking at reality. Augustine smoked them in debate.

I agree: this is great. If Brooks subscribed to America, which lamented the creeping Donatism in the Church shown by the Obama-Notre Dame controversy, he might also have denoted the Circumcellions, who were new to me.H/T: RNS Daily Roundup