In the contemporary discussion on what constitutes the essence of morality and how it can be recognized, the question of conscience has become paramount especially in the field of Catholic moral theology.

It's always a rollicking good time when Mark Steyn is back in our pages, as he was yesterday, interviewed by our colleague Joe Brean on free speech after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

The secular state cannot be neutral in matters of religion.

The great anthropologist Ruth Benedict taught us the distinction between shame cultures, like ancient Greece, and guilt cultures like Judaism and Christianity.

Most people get virtue wrong.  They think that it is simply the opposite of sin — when in fact the opposite of a sin is usually another kind of sin, just as the opposite of going too far west is going too far east.

The distinction between what the law permits and what the law enjoins is often blurred.

Perhaps my favorite recorded conversation in English literature is the short chat between Boswell and Dr. Johnson, when Boswell said he wanted to stand for election to Parliament, and Johnson advised against it.

A person of noble mind and heart admires nobility and greatness in others.

Perhaps my favorite recorded conversation in English literature is the short chat between Boswell and Dr. Johnson, when Boswell said he wanted to stand for election to Parliament, and Johnson advised against it:

When I was a student, my friends and I would stay up all night to discuss such questions as the truth or otherwise of determinism.