“Weak Thought and the Law” by Jared Farmer

Weak Thought and the LawThomas Jared Farmer The following is an excerpt from Thomas Jared Farmer’s upcoming book, Gianni Vattimo: Philosopher, Communist, Catholic, Nihilist. Farmer’s book is now available for pre-order. Excerpted with permission: Copyright (c) 2025 Columbia University Press. Used by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved. Page numbers refer to publications linked in the text.

“Catholic Social Teaching and Agnosticism about Democracy in the US Church” by Massimo Faggioli

St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Roanoke, Virginia by Joe Ravi (CC-BY-SA 3.0). With the election of Leo XIV, who chose his name in an acknowledgment of Leo XIII,  the pope of Rerum Novarum, Catholic Social Teaching (CST) might be back in an even stronger way. Hence, there were great expectations for the apostolic exhortation, Dilexi

“Pakistan’s Hybrid Legal System: Negotiated Coexistence of Secular and Islamic Law” by Jo D. Chitlik and Rashid Mehmood

Shah Faisal Mosque, Islamabad, Pakistan via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). The Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s legal system presents a distinctive pluralistic model, intertwining secular common law inherited from British colonial rule with Islamic jurisprudence, or fiqh, under a single constitutional framework. The 1973 Constitution declares Islam as the state religion and mandates that all

“Complexifying Psychedelic “Mysticism”: Analytical, Therapeutic, and Legal Considerations” by Jay Michaelson

AI image made by the author to demonstrate Aldous Huxley‘s writing. “Mysticism” – the experience of union with ultimate reality – is often described as a summum bonum of human religious experience, and a central feature of the psychedelic experience.   Indeed, in describing psychedelic experiences, “mystical experience” is one of the most frequent terms

“In Defense of Defense” by David Little

United States Department of Defense Building (US-PD). The executive order of President Trump to turn the Department of Defense into the Department of War is profoundly ominous. Especially when combined with the president’s desire to eliminate the United States Institute of Peace, thereby discouraging a search for alternatives to war, and to portray the U.S. military as “ruthless,” as both he and