From the January issue: Modern theology has regrettably left almost all discussion of reality and creation to materialist scientists and philosophers, tacitly accepting a rationalist framework and turning most people into practical atheists. Theologian Henry Vander Goot wrote that “a great deal of modern theology has turned its back on God’s creative work,” according to editor Rusty Reno. Instead, “Vander Goot holds that Scripture provides Christians with a divinely authorized construction of reality, as it were, one that avoids metaphysical conundrums and vindicates things as they appear.”

For further reading: Vander Goot took Genesis as a straightforward account of creation, while his intellectual nemesis Karl Barth took a more archetypal approach. For more on Barth and Genesis, read Stephen H. Webb’s “Reading Genesis with Karl Barth” (2013), in which he argues that the opinion that Barth “took the Genesis story as saga or legend” is “half true at best.”

A Catholic, a Protestant, and a Jew make the case that the version of the Ten Commandments displayed in public schools in Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas is not Protestant, as opponents to the laws claimed, but acceptable to all Christians and Jews: “We understand that it is possible to present the Ten Commandments in ways that are distinctively Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish, but the text utilized by Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas is, in fact, nonsectarian.”

For further reading: The Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that public displays of the Ten Commandments did not violate the Establishment Clause. Michael M. Uhlmann discussed the details of the case in his review of the 2005 Supreme Court docket.

While the Trump administration has made great strides on “cultural” conservatism issues like walking back DEI, social conservative issues like abortion have been put on a back burner. EPPC’s Patrick Brown outlines two goals that pro-lifers can push for from the administration. First, it must increase regulation of the abortion pill, minimally requiring in-person rather than mail-order prescriptions. Second, welcoming each new baby with an immediate cash bonus to the family.

For further reading: Ryan Anderson noted in 2024 that pro-lifers are all “incrementalists now.” He outlined the challenges of the post-Dobbs landscape in “The Way Forward After Dobbs.”

John Wilson has a new book list for 2026. The first week of the 2026 publishing season has seen exciting volumes on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and immigration, Aztec art in California, and salvation by grace alone. Despite pessimism about the state of the publishing industry, “It’s good to know that there is more worthy of our attention, not to mention more that is simply ‘diverting’ in the most generous sense, than we could ever exhaust. May it always be so.”

For further reading: John Wilson looked back at books from 2025 in his last column, “John Wilson’s Year of Reading.”

Upcoming Events

• February 1, 2026: Second Annual Neuhaus Lecture at the New College of Florida: “Recovering the University’s Soul” ft. Bishop Robert Barron | Sarasota, FL. Register here

• February 3, 2026: Second Annual Angelicum Aquinas Lecture: “A Conversation with the Theologian of the Papal Household” ft. Fr. Wojciech Giertych, O.P. | New York, NY. Register here.

• March 5, 2026: Annual D.C. Lecture: “Our Crisis is Metaphysical” ft. Mary Harrington | Washington, D.C. Details coming soon.

Until next time,

VIRGINIA AABRAM

Newsletter Editor