The Humanitas Forum

If you don’t carry a smartphone you’re old, odd, or eccentric.  You are hopelessly out of step with the times, according to conventional wisdom.  But is this wisdom?  Or, more precisely, convention without wisdom? 

Technology …

“What culture has ever attempted to see to it that no ego is hurt?” was written in 1966 by the sociologist Philip Rieff. 

But it is a line fitting for “The Coddling of the American Mind,” recently published …

A current Wall Street Journal article draws attention to the disturbing and growing problem of cutting among teens.  Researchers indicate that between 5% and 10% of adolescents may participate in self-injury behaviors, cutting being the most prominent.

In …

Mark Bauerlein is something of a contrarian—but in a good way.  He is thoughtful and constructive, not simply reflexive and crabby.  He is willing to give voice to controversial research findings that others may avoid.  For example, …

Young adults are leaving the church in droves! The past one hundred years in North America have brought dramatic changes to how young people approach becoming an adult. Today, on many measures, this stage of life represents the least religious …

It’s not what you’d expect from a youth minister:  “Youth enjoys no special privilege in the church-community.”  This line was penned in the late 1930s by the Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer who spent most of his pastoral career …

If we all think for a moment, we all know them—the “queen bees and homecoming kings” who sadly slip off their pedestals by their mid-twenties.  “What happened to so-and-so?” is probably the most frequently asked question at …