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Sidney Callahan What do we mean by "God," and how do our minds find meaning? This year I've been reading (and then rereading) two books that brilliantly take on these questions. David Bentley...

living with a Wild God (October 2014)

Sidney Callahan Visions & Blind Spots Living with a Wild God A Nonbeliever’s Search for the Truth about Everything Barbara Ehrenreich Grand Central Publishing, $26, 256 pp. How does a...

Thinking, Fast and Slow (July 2012)

Sidney Callahan Overriding Irrationality Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30, 512 pp. Daniel Kahneman is the most respected and influential psychologist in...

A Bittersweet Season (May 2011)

Sidney Callahan Trading Places A Bittersweet Season Caring for Our Aging Parents—and Ourselves Jane Gross Alfred A. Knopf, $26.95, 368 pp. Jane Gross's book on caring for aging parents is both...

A relic (November 2009)

The Last Word A Relic Sidney Callahan We are moving and have been cleaning out our overstuffed files. As I sorted through one pile, ready to toss it out, I happened to find a letter...

What Remains (July 2009)

Sidney Callahan What Remains AN ALZHEIMER'S CHRONICLE At our regular lunch date, my friend N told me she has been diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s disease. Oh no, I cried inside, beset by...

Finding the Voice of the Church (October 2007)

Speech Therapy ployed by many neoscholastics. As the epigraph to this book, a quotation from the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, puts it: “If he really meant what he was shouting, he...

My Mother's Keeper (November 2006)

My Mother's Keeper Life in the Alzheimer's Ward r >: tll 0 Et 0 Sidney Callahan A flicker of anxiety arises as I pass through the locked doors to visit the Alzheimer's residence of my...

On Apology (April 2005)

q~ r 0 0 Sidney Callahan Say It Like You Mean It On Apology Aaron Lazare Oxford University Press, $24, 306 pp. ho's sorry now? And will they apologize successfully? Dr. Aaron Lazare,...

A Profile Case Againts Bush (June 2004)

A PROLIFE CASE AGAINST BUSH It's about more than abortion Sidney Callahan I voted for George W. Bush and I'm heartily sorry now. My support was motivated by prolife convictions, but so is...

The virtue & vice of deadlines (December 2002)

OF SEVERAL MINDS SIDNEY CALLAHAN THE VIRTUE & VICE OF DEADLINES The last 900 words Hail and farewell, fellow readers. I am quitting the column business-cold turkey. Total abstinence is the only...

AFTER THE SEX-ABUSE SCANDAL Will the laity step up & assume their rightful place in the church? Will the bishops let them? (September 2002)

Sidney Callahan The unknown future induces hope and fear. But one event is certain: John Paul II will eventually pass from the scene. Even his iron will and sense of mission cannot keep him going...

Zygotes & blastocysts Small is still beautiful (June 2002)

SIDNEY CALLAHAN OF SEVERAL MINDS ZYGOTES & BLASTOCYSTS Human enough to protect? As debates over stem-cell research and cloning roil on, proponents of scientific research ask their opponents:...

Second chance? Purgatory looks better all the time (April 2002)

SECOND CHANCE? A new view of purgatory We will not meet Nazis in heaven, argues Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, because of the "objective terrible-ness" of their crimes. Oh yes? Then what about...

Religion & evil (February 2002)

SIDNEY CALLAHAN OF SEVERAL MINDS RELIGION & EVIL Faith offers no immunity Flash! This news just in. Religion has not withered away as modern secularization myths would have it. Three...

Therefore, choose life (January 2002)

SIDNEY CALLAHAH OF SEVERAL MINDS THEREFORE, CHOOSE LIFE Widows, Planned Parenthood & September 11 As "difficult as their situation may be, she and other widows said they felt blessed to have...

Getting it right: Journalists, terrorism & the war (November 2001)

SIDNEY CALLAHAH GETTING IT RIGHT The ethics of journalism Anthrax in the newsroom arouses journalists' attention. If death concentrates the mind, then terrorist attacks can bring to...

Philosopher on call (September 2001)

OF SEVERAL MINDS SIDNEY CALLAHAN PHILOSOPHER ON CALL What my husband told the president The recent controversy over stem-cell research started with a big bang at our house. My...

The pope says! (June 2001)

OF SEVERAL HINDS SIDNEY CALLAHAN THE POPE SAYS! And then what? Last month I gave a lecture on women in the church, and promptly incited a vigorous rebuttal. My conservative...

Spiritual symptoms: The fine line between spirituality & psychology (April 2001)

SIDNEY CALLAHAN SPIRITUAL SYHPTOMS Does religion make you crazy? The shades of Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, James Taylor, and Girl Interrupted hovered around the auditorium of...

The call to holiness (March 2001)

SIPNEY CALLAHAN f 111 CALL ¥® H0LiiiES$ Planned & unplanned In his apostolic letter Novo millennio ineunte, initiating the new millennium, Pope John Paul II asks: "Can holiness ever be...

Toward a brainy church (January 2001)

SIDNEY CALLAHAN TOWARD A BRAINY CHURCH Not top-down but back-and-forth Conservatives in the church buttress their theological arguments for a centralized authority at the top of a hierarchy...

Human rights & religion (November 2000)

art, science, politics, ethics, and...

Gender differences (September 2000)

responses. Those who want to...

Turn off that cell phone! (June 2000)

roar by. I also don't mind hearing the...

Prayer makes a difference (April 2000)

placebo effects, a third matched...

Better to light a candle Why churches shouldn't look like conference centers. COLUMNISTS (March 2000)

The Hidden Gift is a compelling film. Some of the color the war in Sudan is a religious and ethnic war launched by footage assembled by director David Tlapek is as...

We're all original sinners (January 2000)

WE, RE ALL ORIGINAL SINNERS ~ Don t give Adam & Eve all the credit s a practicing sinner I don't need to be convinced of the reality of personal sin. Whenever I give in to the dreary enslaving...

Oh, behave! (December 1999)

OF SEVERAL MINDS SIDNEY CALLAHAN OH, BEHAVE! Stifle your road rage 0ecently I read in the news that two thirty-something, middle-class Alabama "ladies" had a murderous road-rage confrontation....

Alternative treatment (November 1999)

OF SEVERAL HINDS SIDNEY CALLAHAN ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT Maybe snake oil works Of my eyes don't stop watering and itching I'm going to go to an acupuncturist. But will I tell my doctor? He,...

Sexuality & homosexuality (September 1999)

OF SEVERAL HINDS SIDNEY CALLAHAN SEXUALITY & HOMOSEXUALITY The church's Gordian knot Resolved: However provoked, no Christian will use the word "homophobia" or "patriarchy" in heated...

Come out and play? (June 1999)

OF SEVERAL MINDS SIDNEY CALLAHAN COME OUT AND PLAY? I'd rather be reading Readers of the world unite. Oprah loves you. She runs a book club and when she recommends a book it skyrockets to the...

The Eucharist (April 1999)

OF SEVERAL MINDS SIDNEY CALLAHAN THE EUCHARIST What does it do? Coming home from Mass today I realize that the more I go, the more I want to go, but the less I fully understand what...

Rocks of ages (February 1999)

OF SEVERAL MINDS SIDNEY CALLAHAN ROCKS OF AGES A pilgrim's progress Thousands of Muslim pilgrims streamed through the narrow Jerusalem streets hurrying to worship at the Dome of the...

The shaming of America (November 1998)

n ~ give in; I'm succumbing to scandal analysis. And this after my boast that I was the only writer in America who never wrote a word about O.J. Not watching TV news provides...

Confronting the Generals (September 1998)

A s U.S. cruise missiles have been deployed again, I am reminded of a conference I attended in California. There I met three young U.S. Army generals who were also invited speakers. They were...

Free will (June 1998)

he audience stared at the neurobiologist's slide photographs of a leech and a frog. "Now," we were told, "both of these organisms follow the Harvard Law of Animal Behavior: The animal...

Visions & other gifts (May 1998)

~ hat are we to make of modem religious visions and intense experiences--mine, yours, Mother Angelica's? Such episodes produce conflicts for me as an intellectual Christian believer...

The feminist pope (April 1998)

engage and transform them all, a faith jo}fftd in all the gifts Christ wants to give us and open to the whole world he died to save. The Catholic faith shapes a church with a lot ~( room for...

Good & plenty (February 1998)

ise than six used to be. I can only conclude that family size among Americans, Catholics inclu d ed, will remain small in the foreseeable future. Ironically, our generation was the exception,...

Bad arguments (January 1998)

Complaints we have received from both liberals and conservatives persuade us that in a world of political correctness, there are very few questions beyond debate. Often enough, these are the...

Nunsuch? Religious communities are changing but reports of their death have been greatly exaggerated (December 1997)

OF SEVERAL MIND SIDNEY CALLAHAN MUNSUCH? Reviving religious communities Recently I was invited to speak to a conference of vowed religious on the identity of the religious vocation from a...

Lights! Camera! Tears! (October 1997)

SIDNEY CALLAHAN LIGHTS! CAMERA! TEARS! A little restraint, please Let's hear it for the stiff upper lip and dignified restraint in public displays of grief. The British royals took an unfair...

Of human bondage (September 1997)

SIDNEY CALLAHAN OF HUMAN BONDAGE Science fr s,q erstitiun ave you ever wondered why superstition and scientific knowledge increase and flourish together? Here we live in the most...

The grandma hypothesis Don't throw granny from the train (August 1997)

SIDNEY CALLAHAN THE GRANDMA HYPOTHESIS Wallpaper she ain't Grandmothers matter. So concludes my all-time favorite report of research in Science magazine (April 25, 1997). Admittedly, now that...

Are 'pre-embryos' human? Which came first, Homo sapiens or human beings? (June 1997)

ARE 'PRE-EMBRYOS' HUNAN? What else could they be? SIDNEY CALLAHAN placenta takes place. Only after about two weeks, when the possibility of twin-ning is over, does the implanted embryo develop "a...

We, the people-of Cod Our columnist argues for democratic reforms within the church (May 1997)

SIDNEY CALLAHAN WE, THE PEOPLE-OF GOD The church needs a constitution What do you think, an inter-viewer asked the noted the-ologian Charles Davis, "is the greatest challenge facing the church at...

The tyranny of time Some of us have so little time we can't even think about it (April 1997)

SIDNEY C ALLAHAN THE TYRANNY OF TIME Let's cast it off Now is the time for all good men (and women) to throw off the tyranny of time-if we can manage it. I know too many enslaved people. They (we)...

Lengthening shadow (February 1997)

LENGTHENING SHADOW SIDNEY CALLAHAN Will it be 'Pull up your socks' or Prozac? Do you suffer from a "shad-ow syndrome" mental dis-order? Say what? Shadow syndromes are identified as mild mental...

The Benevolence of Babies (December 1996)

THE BEHEVOLENCE OF BABIES A metaphysics of diapers Sidney Callahan Babies invite worship from their parents, grandparents, fond friends, and strangers passing on the street. Baby devotion may be...

The capital that counts (November 1996)

SIDNEY CALLAHAN THE CAPITAL THAT COUNTS The coin that creates trust How much "social capital" do you possess? Your "ma- terial capital" in money and property can be easily ascertained by your...

Death's fearful curse It's coming, so get ready (October 1996)

SIDNEY CALLAHAN DEATH'S FEARFUL CURSE Losing this life's dear pleasures Are you afraid to die?" my newly bereaved son asked. "If you believe we're all going to heaven, aren't you eager to get...

Let's talk (September 1996)

SIDNEY CALLAHAN OF SEVERAL MINDS LET'S TALK The search for common ground Welcome, welcome, all hail to the new Catholic Common Ground Project. This initia-tive, introduced in the statement...

Dear Mr. Clinton (August 1996)

OF SEVERAL MINDS SIDNEY CALLAHAN DEAR MR. CLINTON I'm returning your veto I am a prolife Democrat who's going to defect from my party. Come November, I plan to vote for Bob Dole. And how, pray...

A mother's death Job asked a good question about human suffering: Why? (May 1996)

OF SEVERAL MINDS SIDNEY CALLAHAN A MOTHER'S DEATH Is this what God demands? A death in the family, especially a sudden, senseless death, plunges the heart into mourning and forces a test of...

The nuptial body (March 1996)

OF SEVERAL MINDS SIDNEY CALLAHAN THE NUPTIAL BODY One metaphor among many What, pray tell, is a "nuptial body"? I only come across the phrase in the writing of churchmen who resist women's...

Is black white? If a cat may look on a king, a columnist may query a cardinal (February 1996)

SIDNEY CALLAHAN IS BLACK WHITE? Seeing purple Hear Cardinal Ratzinger, If you instruct us as loyal Catholics to submit in mind and will to the "infallible" teaching that women cannot be ordained...

What we see, we do To imitate is human, so watch what you watch (January 1996)

SIDNEY CALLAHAN WHAT WE SEE, WE DO Violence & the media Monkey see, monkey do, cor- rect? The fire-setting and burning of a subway token- booth clerk in New York City replicates in real life a...

Correspondence (December 1995)

CORRESPONDENCE To the Editors An author displeased I suppose a Milledgeville girl ought to be pleased with most Any notice in Commonweal 31 years after the Event but I am not Over-Gratified to...

The trouble with angels Once a doubter, our columnist has finally heard angels front on high (December 1995)

OF SEVERAL MINDS SIDNEY CALLAHAN THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELS My conversion experience Retraction time again. I was wrong to cavalierly dismiss the existence of angels ("Filling the Gaps," March 24,...

Let a smile be your ontology (October 1995)

OF SEVERAL MINDS SIDNEY CALLAHAN LET A SMILE BE YOUR ONTOLOGY So sue me At last, the final liberation. I no longer have to be "emotionally correct." I'm old enough now to reclaim all those...

The thirst for revenge: (June 1995)

OF SEVERAL MINDS Sidney Callahan THE THIRST FOR REVENGE TRYING TO UNDERSTAND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT How can people be in favor of capital punish- ment? Good question. Those of us who are thor-oughly...

Filling in the gaps (March 1995)

FILLING IN THE GAPS THE VISIBLE MEETS THE INVISIBLE Where oh where is the missing 90 percent of the cosmos? Frantic scientists search in vain for the invisible "dark matter" of the universe....

The cognitive dissonance of Murray & Herrnstein (February 1995)

WARNING: DANGEROUS CURVES AHEAD The cognitive dissonance of Murray & Herrnstein SIDNEY CALLAHAN If you've just come home from a six-month safari, you may have missed the bitter disputes set off...

Cockroaches aren't God: (January 1995)

OF SEVERAL MINDS Sidney Callahan COCKROACHES AREN'T GOD PUTTING THE 'EN' IN PANTHEISM I object to calling the universe 'God's body'; isn't this simply pantheism?'I was in the midst of...

Kinship is forever (November 1994)

ens the obligations that we owe to the old. In the mirror I see my face turning into my father's face with the same wrinkles and deep shadows, while my-body slowly begins to resemble my mother's in...

Paradigms in peril (October 1994)

OF SEVERAL HINDS Sidney Cctllahan PARADIGMS IN PERIL AS ALWAYS re we undergoing a foundational change in the world and the life of the church'? Bishop . Kenneth Untener, an especially...

Killing kills the Spirit (August 1994)

OF SEVERAL MINDS Sidney Ccillahan KILLING KILLS THE SPIRIT THE NEED FOR NONVIOLENT DISCIPLINE T he killing of abortionist John B "Doc" Bntton by militant prohfe activist Paul Hill...

Two by two (July 1994)

6 OF SEVERAL MINDS Sidney Callahan TWO BY TWO THE CASE FOR MONOGAMY Polygamy is better than monogamy, said a fourth of the adult students in my Bronx evening class! The most vocal advocate...

Growing gray with grace (May 1994)

OF SEVERAL HINDS Sidney Callghan GROWING GRAY WITH GRACE THE BEST IS YET TO BE A happy birthday visit with my eighty-one year-old mother in her retirement home was an occasion for...

Why I changed my mind (April 1994)

WHY I CHANGED NY MIND THINKING ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE ast month I came out of the closet and confessed at an evening lecture that I believed that homosexuals should be allowed to marry. The...

A textbook case (March 1994)

OF SEVERAL MIMPS Sidney Callahan A TEXTBOOK CASE MORE THAN YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX ust "erotic incoherence" be our fate for the foreseeable future? Last week I substituted in a...

Fight fierce but fair (February 1994)

OF SEVERAL HINDS Sidney Callahan FIGHT FIERCE BUT FAIR AND PRACTICE AT HOME Good family fights prepare you for the larger world of democratic conflict. If you learn to fight well and...

Memory can play tricks (December 1993)

A CELEBRATION FOR EDWARD S. SKILLIN'S 90th Birthday! marking his 60 years of service to Commonweal and the beginning of Commonweal's 70th year of publication Join us on Thursday, January 20,...

Virtue by the numbers: (November 1993)

light of the political and strategic changes that the strategic and tactical capabilities explanations given to spouses and fami- of the 1990s. of UN-led forces are...

What is a good conscience?: (October 1993)

and one's judgments can be more or less dis- OF SEVERAL MINDS Sidney...

Getting our heads together: (November 1989)

GETTING OUR HEADS TOGETHER AN AGENDA FOR CATHOLIC INTELLECTUALS SIDNEY CALLAHAN Today there exists very little activity that can be described with the exclusive term "American Catholic...

Jesus the Liberator of Desire: (October 1989)

DELIVERING THE GOODS JESUS THE LIBERATOR OF DESIRE Sebastian Moore Crossroad, $11.95, 132 pp. Sidney Callahan Sebastian Moore, an English theologian teaching at Boston College, produces...

To instruct the ignorant: (April 1988)

TO INSTRUCT THE IGNORANT SIDNEY CALLAHAN WORKS OF MERCY IN A PSYCHOLOGICAL AGE That is ignorance? And what does it have to do with us? Why should we go about correcting it? The essence of...

Lovemaking & babymaking (April 1987)

LOVENAKING & BABYMAKING ETHICS & THE NEW REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY SIDNEY CALLAHAN How should we ethically evaluate the new reproductive technologies developed to treat the increasing problem...

Abortion & the sexual agenda (April 1986)

t ,e SIDNEY CALLAHAN I A CASE FOR PRO-LIFE FEMINISM Abortion & the sexual agenda T HE ABORTION DEBATE continues. In the latest and perhaps most crucial development, pro-life feminists are...

Breaking through the stereotypes (October 1984)

A SIJRPRISING SIDE .OF THE ABORTION DEBATE Breaking through ...... t h e s t e r e o t y p e s SIDNEY CALLAHAN & DANIEL CALLAHAN A PART FROM some of the nastier reasons people impute to each...

The Percys of Mississippi (May 1984)

would get a just price for their eggs, ture of the world of the rural poor in Latin chickens, or pigs. When the National America. Gabriel Garcia M~irquez's Guard tries to intimidate people to keep...

Man and Woman in Christ (November 1981)

Undoing Christian feminism MAN AND WOMAN IN CHRIST THE ROLES OF MEN AND WOMEN IN SCRIPTURE AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES Stephen B. Clark Servant Books, $15.95, 753 pp. Sidney Callahan HERE is a...

Saints, Scholars, and Schizophrenics: (May 1979)

sounds like a figure from a c o n t e by Vol- will it take us to realize what television is tradictory pressures to stay with the...

Callahan, Vincent F. Jr.

CALLAHAN, WILLIAM

CALLAHAN, WILLIAM M.

Callan, Edward

Callan, Edward T.

Callan, Richard 1.

Callanan, Liam

Calland, Annice

Callery, Sean

Callery, Virginia Annan