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James Hithcock Column

James Hitchcock, historian, author, and lecturer, writes frequently on current events in the Church and in the world.  

Dr. Hitchcock, a St. Louis native, is professor emeritus of history at St. Louis University (1966-2013). His latest book is History of the Catholic Church: From the Apostolic Age to the Third Millennium (2012, Ignatius).

Among his major works is The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life (Vol. 1 The Odyssey of the Religion Clauses and Vol. II From 'Higher Law' to 'Sectarian Scruples' ), which was published in 2004 by Princeton University Press.  Recovery of the Sacred (1974, 1995), his classic work on liturgy, is accessible on the Adoremus site: http://www.adoremus.org/RecoverySacred.html

A selection of Dr. Hitchcock's articles and columns are online at the Women for Faith & Family site:  http://www.wf-f.org/J-Hitchcock-col.html

**New blog on NCRegister.com
Dr. Hitchock's blog post. http://www.ncregister.com/blog/james-hitchcock/context-and-clashes-how-the-synod-and-council-compare

Table of Contents

Old Liberals, Young Liberals, and the Breakdown of the Family: Why and how the rejection of "Humanae Vitae" made all the difference among Catholics by James Hitchcock -- links to Catholic World Report

Religion and the Liberal Society - Liberalism now understands religious freedom almost entirely as the right of individuals, not churches -- by James Hitchcock - Michaelmas 2012

Why Eucharistic Adoration Disturbs Some Liturgists -- by James Hitchcock, on the Adoremus website, Oct. 2009

Continuity and Disruption in the Liturgy: A Cultural Approach, published in Antiphon, The Society for Catholic Liturgy, Volume Twelve, Numbers One, Two, and Three – 2008

The Vatican, Ecumenism, and Tolerance -- August 4, 2007

All or Many -- July 3, 2007

Freedom of Religion at Political Crossroad -- June 10, 2007

Pushing the Moral Envelope -- May 2, 2007

“Liberation” -- and Oppression -- March 24, 2007

Fanatic Anti-Christianity -- October 15, 2006

Our Enslavement to “Freedom” -- July 13, 2006

The Da Vinci Code Raises Secular Questions -- May24, 2006

Conscience and Chaos -- April 22, 2006

Liberalism's Dilemma -- February 25, 2006

Alito and the "A-Word" -- January 6, 2006

Commentary on the new Vatican Instruction concerning homosexuals in the priesthood -- November 28, 2005

Dei Verbum: The Divine Authority of Scripture vs. the “Hermeneutic of Suspicion” -- Adoremus Website [November 2005 Issue]

Religion, Politics and Judicial Principle -- October 16, 2005

Judge Undergoes Ordeal by Ideology -- September 18, 2005

The Supreme Court’s Penumbra of Politics -- July 21, 2005

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger -- Man for the Job -- June 2, 2005

Pope Benedict XVI -- April 20, 2005

Limits of Tolerance -- March 24, 2005

Is Tolerance Intolerant? -- March 2, 2005

The Myth of the "Wall of Separation" -- January 5, 2005

Theory of the Enlightened Class -- November 8, 2004

Just Judges? -- October 6, 2004

When the Media Decide What the Church Should Teach - September 6, 2004

The Skeptics' New Truth -- July 28, 2004

Personally Opposed -- to what? -- June 27, 2004

Religious Liberty -- For Whom? -- May 28, 2004

Politics and Church, Integrity and Hypocrisy -- May 1, 2004

Liberalism Repealing Freedom -- March 27, 2004

Critics of Film Reveal Passions -- March 1, 2004

Homosexual "marriage" -- What we can learn from the Scandanavian experience -- February 5, 2004

What Makes America Different? -- January 3, 2004

Religious Freedom and the Dogma of Tolerance -- November 22, 2003

Inventing a Religion of Tolerance -- October 24, 2003

Mary Magdalen - Revised -- September 14, 2003

When Liberalism Opposes Liberty -- August 24, 2003

Marriage: Why We Care -- August 3, 2003

Tolerance - A Liberal Dilemma -- July 10, 2003

Chimera of Relevance -- June 20, 2003

The "New Orthodoxy" of Dissent - Cardinal Arinze's Georgetown Address -- May 25, 2003

Hypocrisy on Pedophilia - Judith Levine and the LA Times -- May 10, 2003

The End of Gaudium et Spes? -- May, 2003

Political Orphans -- How the Democratic Party Left Traditional Believers Behind -- April 2003
This article originally appeared in Touchstone, April 2003, and is reprinted here with the author's permssion.

Evading the Cross -- April 10, 2003

Scripture Omits Subjectivity -- March 30, 2003

New Age: "Me"-Mired Mysticism -- March 6, 2003

Separation and the Courts -- February 7, 2003

How is America Different? -- January 13, 2003

Advice or Moral Malpractice? -- December 13, 2002

Recent Elections Demonstrate Pro-Life Majority -- November 20, 2002

Forsyte Saga -- November 9, 2002

Inverted Virtue - The Counter-culture Redux -- October 25, 2002

Sin, Salvation and the Search for Meaning -- October 14, 2002

The State of Religious Education -- September 18, 2002

The Sexual Revolution - A Case Study -- August 30, 2002

Modernism's Limited Vision -- August 16, 2002

Intolerant Tolerance -- July 19, 2002

"Will there be chocolate in Heaven?" - Plato, Aristotle and Catholics -- June 30, 2002

False Agenda -- June 13, 2002

America's Moral Tradition - A Cultural Paradox -- June 2, 2002

Secrecy and Subversion in the Church Has Historical Model -- May 13, 2002

Bureaucracy as a Force for Change -- April 29, 2002

Taking Religion Hostage -- April 6, 2002

Selective Diversity -- March 20, 2002

Religion and Violence -- March 6, 2002

Marx, Darwin, Freud and Post-modernism -- February 15, 2002

The Saints and Doctrine -- February 1, 2002

Faith, Truth and Terrorism -- January 18, 2002

Confronting Evil -- (on the events of September 11, reprinted in Voices - Lent/Easter 2002)

John Walker Lindh's search for Truth -- December 21, 2002

Demythologizing Jesus: Making the World Safe for Unbelief -- December 7, 2001

A Continuum in the Great Tradition -- May 12, 2001

Joy and Hope -- July/August 2000

The Nagasaki Martyrs - July 1999

Catholics and American Culture -- July 5, 1999

Conservative Bishops, Liberal Results - May 1995 (essay originally published in Catholic World Report)

How Schism may come -- February 1994, reprint from Homiletic & Pastoral Review

On the Present Position of Catholics in America -- 1978, reprint from The National Committee of Catholic Layman, Inc.

Recovery of the Sacred -- Liturgy and The Loss of History, Radical liturgical innovation after the Council became a principal cause of the widespread crisis of faith, AB June 2006, Vol. XII, No. 4 -- Originally published in 1974, reprinted 1995, currently out of print -- Links to Adoremus website

Excerpt from The Recovery of the Sacred is Chapter 7: The Dynamics of Liturgical Reform, What Happens When Sacred Ritual Is Subjected to Contemporary "Inculturation" by James Hitchcock, AB Vol. 2, No. 2: April 1996 -- Originally published in 1974, reprinted 1995, currently out of print -- Links to Adoremus website

“The Liturgical Revolution” is the first chapter of Recovery of the Sacred. Reprinted in the Adoremus Bulletin, November 2009, Vol.XV, No. 8