Max Foley-Keene

2 months ago | commonwealmagazine.org | Miles Doyle |Dominic Preziosi |Anton Barba-Kay |Max Foley-Keene

Article Gross Pay The extraordinary work of inmate firefighters in Los Angeles has called attention to the plight of incarcerated workers across the country. Article A Serious Man There is reason to think that Cardinal Robert McElroy might serve as a moral counterexample to the new Trump administration. Article The Attention Trap The idealized image of attention as control is not so much a virtue as a phantom or mirage of one.

Oct 22, 2024 | commonwealmagazine.org | Max Foley-Keene |Mary Gordon

One of the most influential environmental philosophers of the past two decades has found Jesus. Timothy Morton, who trained as a scholar of Romantic poetry, first came to prominence as a theorist of hyperobjects, a critic of the concept of “nature,” and a collaborator with the Icelandic experimental-music superstar Björk. Now, in Hell: In Search of a Christian Ecology, Morton argues that contemporary environmental movements lack the feel of the sacred.

May 9, 2024 | commonwealmagazine.org | Max Foley-Keene |Gareth Dale |Alice McDermott |Phil Christman

There’s a funny moment in Ravelstein, Saul Bellow’s roman à clef about his friendship with the Straussian political theorist Allan Bloom where Bloom/Ravelstein invites his graduate students over to watch some hoops. Bloom, we learn, loves ball: he seldom misses the Chicago Bulls on NBC, and he loves holding court with his academic disciples, occasionally jumping on the phone to gossip with some former student now stationed in the first Bush administration.

Oct 11, 2023 | commonwealmagazine.org | Max Foley-Keene |Alexander Stern |Susan Reynolds |Xiao Situ

Pope Francis concludes Laudate Deum, his apostolic exhortation on the climate crisis, by pointing to runaway per-capita emissions in the United States and condemning the “irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model.” Let us, then, engage in an examination of conscience, calling to mind some elements of the American lifestyle.

Sep 4, 2023 | commonwealmagazine.org | Max Foley-Keene |Mollie Wilson O’Reilly |Daniele Palmer |Santiago Ramos

Liberal political philosophy has been under fire from the start. One of the essential facts about this centuries-old tradition is its resilience—fellow travelers will call it adaptability; anti-liberals might characterize it as slipperiness—in the face of attacks from both right and left.