This is the last weekly TST Column. Starting May 1, the column moves to a monthly rhythm. I’ve kept the weekly pace up for several months, and I’m grateful for what it has produced, but it has also been exhausting. Writing a thoughtful column every week is one thing. Having the time to fully support it, share it, and let it live is another. More than that, the weekly pace has begun to pull time and energy away from the rest of my 30-series books, and those books matter deeply to me. They are the larger home for many of the ideas I most want to finish and share. So this change is not about doing less. It is about making each column stronger, while creating more room for the deeper work ahead. Thank you for being here with me.
Over the coming months, I’ll publish one more column in the Understanding Philosophy series, then begin the Understanding Ethics series. This column is the first in that new ethics arc, moved to the front because it felt timely. Trump’s war with Iran and his feud with Pope Leo XIV over war, peace, and Just War Theory suddenly made an old ethical question feel very current. Reuters covered the dispute in mid-April, and Vatican-linked coverage, along with the U.S. bishops, addressed the Just War issue directly. That also makes this a fitting follow-up to our recent columns on truth, belief, and confidence, because before we judge war, we first have to judge the claims, evidence, and authorities surrounding it