Religion

Deeply committed to the principles of Catholic social teaching, Archbishop Roberto González Nieves has been a moral voice on every major social issue in Puerto Rico in the past generation.

If you’re looking for a Christmas gift for a music lover who enjoys English history, this well-written, thoroughly researched history of Handel's 'Messiah' might be the choice.

Highlighting the link between family unity and immigration might be a way to sway the hearts of conservative Catholics who’ve fallen for Trump’s vile claims against immigrants.

"Christians ought to oppose idolatry of the state and the military by being an alternative to the politics of war."

How an old rivalry between ‘Commonweal’ and the Brooklyn 'Tablet’ prefigures today’s Catholic media wars

Readers may find themselves broken open by Martha Gies's beautiful, devastating, ebullient essay collection.

"It would be an understatement to say that 'Conclave' paints theological differences in the Church with a broad brush. More like a spray gun."

An author and theology professor journeys through the long history of Marian art across time and space.

Concerns about the ethical production of clothing fit well into what the Church already speaks about.

Auden’s self-portrait as a lonely exile was accurate, but only for part of his life. In his youth, he was firmly identified with England.

Kant’s work was considered such a threat to Church teachings that even scholars needed special permission from their bishop or religious superior to consult it.

"Ceasing to attend to the inner theater and looking instead at the Christian story of death would place Christians where they belong: in the open before their God."

The synodal process and the Final Document suggest that Catholicism is moving in the direction of a more participatory and missionary Church—if slowly.

"For me, Holy Week 1971 was unusual. I spent it in jail. As a representative of Commonweal."

To have remained an independent journal of opinion for one hundred years is to have “made history,” and—in Commonweal’s case—impressively so.

John T. McGreevy celebrates Commonweal's hundredth year with a look back.

Professor and theologian Denys Turner discusses Dante's 'Divine Comedy' as a cohesive poetic and theological text.

The Supreme Court's Catholic majority obscures both history and Church teaching to advance its right-wing agenda.

There’s an evident cliquishness and wonkishness in the study of manuscripts—but the manuscript club need not be a closed one.

What does 'Commonweal' offer in this perilous religious and political moment?

Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey was a born showman—and a born opportunist.

The women pressing to become deacons have a simple plea: to be used not simply as office managers, but as ministers.

"The history of Commonweal is a history of hope and confidence."

A truly Christian postliberalism would imagine and enact an alternative modernity with a different standard of progress.

Gay communities have been havens for expressions of love, selflessness, covenant, and care that were in danger of being lost in the modern world.

It will be the job of Commonweal, as it always has been, to resist the pressures of contemporary secular culture.

… us to the future, to new ways of relating to our fellow human beings and the earth. This … especially in its reflections on finding peace in the long shadow of abuse. It also … reason that we are alive. We can forget, forgive, have mercy. The mode of life itself …

What can inspire a return to faith beyond a cultural-fortress mentality?

On the question of Church reform, all parties must move beyond their long-held grievances.

The seeds of peace will be planted in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East when justice comes for the people of Palestine.

It's about time faithful Catholics in America embrace their political homelessness.

When every initiation stands contrary to my parents' idea of filial piety, my only choices feel like stay or go, belong or don’t.

Patrick MacGill was a self-taught polymath, a celebrated poet and fiction-writer. He was also my grandfather.

The Synod can bring about a more evangelizing Church if it foments an inclusive Catholicism of women in ministry.

The eminent philosopher Charles Taylor discusses Romantic poetry's response to modern disenchantment.

Pope Francis has gone further than any of his predecessors in recognizing the value of non-Christian traditions.

Gary Dorrien remembers his tumultuous adventures in post-Kantian philosophy and democratic socialist organizing.

A certain kind of obstinate weirdness is a first step to autocracy.

Have Catholic bishops, theologians, and laypeople forgotten how to speak to the public?

David Jones’ 'In Parenthesis' is "the greatest work of modernist poetry you’ve never read."

"We’re trying very hard to persuade people who don’t know anything about who we are, or what 'Catholic' stands for, of our values and our identity."

"Clinging to space closes off any hope for peace, while exile exposes the Jews to the dangers of the Diaspora."

Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn’s memoir is a testament to the depth of a daughter’s love—and an act of faith in our better human instincts.

"Homilies make illiterates of us all. We receive them aurally or we don’t receive them: from the preacher’s lips to our ears."