What about the New Oxford Review?

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I recently received an invitation in the mail to subscribe to the New Oxford Review. I already subscribe to Catholic Answers Magazine and was wondering if this might be a nice supplement to that reading. The material they sent said Karl Keating was a contributor, so I figured it can’t be too bad, but then I see a couple of articles on the internet saying that it’s rather fundamentalist (i.e. not completely divorced from some of its former Calvinist Protestantism), overly critical of the pope, and rather unnecessarily triumphalistic. Does anyone have any advice? Is anyone a former subscriber who let their subscription lapse because of editorial problems? Is anyone a current subscriber who disagrees with these criticisms?
 
I never subscribed, but I used to read their stuff online quite often. I think the description of “unnecessarily triumphalistic” and “overly critical” are consistent with my experience. I haven’t been back there in a while. I don’t know that Keating’s involvement is recent.
 
conRep12 said:
I recently received an invitation in the mail to subscribe to the New Oxford Review. I already subscribe to Catholic Answers Magazine and was wondering if this might be a nice supplement to that reading. The material they sent said Karl Keating was a contributor, so I figured it can’t be too bad, but then I see a couple of articles on the internet saying that it’s rather fundamentalist (i.e. not completely divorced from some of its former Calvinist Protestantism), overly critical of the pope, and rather unnecessarily triumphalistic. Does anyone have any advice? Is anyone a former subscriber who let their subscription lapse because of editorial problems? Is anyone a current subscriber who disagrees with these criticisms?
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I know a subscriber who is a friend of mine. I used to read it when he would bring over various issues, and I never saw anything critical of the pope. The description of triumphalism seems apt… At least I can see how one could get that impression. It certainly seems unapologetic in its apologetics, and gets very rhetorical. My friend says they started toning down the rhetoric a couple years back when they got a new editor.

As an example, I think they used to sell a shirt with a guy barbequeing on it and a tag line “I’d rather be roasting heretics.” It was tongue in cheek, of course, but nonetheless I don’t think they would sell that shirt anymore.

I’ve been impressed with the sampling of articles I’ve seen and I would recommend it on the assumption that it’s still the same now as it was a few years ago. I have never subscribed to any magazine, for what it’s worth.
 
conRep12 said:
I recently received an invitation in the mail to subscribe to the New Oxford Review. I already subscribe to Catholic Answers Magazine and was wondering if this might be a nice supplement to that reading. The material they sent said Karl Keating was a contributor, so I figured it can’t be too bad, but then I see a couple of articles on the internet saying that it’s rather fundamentalist (i.e. not completely divorced from some of its former Calvinist Protestantism), overly critical of the pope, and rather unnecessarily triumphalistic. Does anyone have any advice? Is anyone a former subscriber who let their subscription lapse because of editorial problems? Is anyone a current subscriber who disagrees with these criticisms?
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Former subscriber here: I let my subscription lapse years ago. At first I appreciated the orthodoxy but over a couple of years the articles evolved from orthodox to that triumphalistic thing and I noticed articles targeting people over rather petty things. One example was referring to a woman (a well-know Catholic writer) who was married (with her first marriage annulled) by Mrs. FirstHusbandsLastName instead of using Ms. or just her first name like they did with most people. They did this in more than one issue of the magazine. I don’t know what they were trying to accomplish but in part it looked like they were suggesting her declaration of nullity was invalid. I thought it made them look like *******s. And the editors should appreciate my being blunt since they seemed to relish being so.
 
I used to read it. I don’t remember anything negative said about the Pope either. The best you can do is subscribe and see for yourself and if you don’t like it, do not renew the subscription.
 
dmar198 said:
I know a subscriber who is a friend of mine. I used to read it when he would bring over various issues, and I never saw anything critical of the pope. The description of triumphalism seems apt… At least I can see how one could get that impression. It certainly seems unapologetic in its apologetics, and gets very rhetorical. My friend says they started toning down the rhetoric a couple years back when they got a new editor.

As an example, I think they used to sell a shirt with a guy barbequeing on it and a tag line “I’d rather be roasting heretics.” It was tongue in cheek, of course, but nonetheless I don’t think they would sell that shirt anymore.

I’ve been impressed with the sampling of articles I’ve seen and I would recommend it on the assumption that it’s still the same now as it was a few years ago. I have never subscribed to any magazine, for what it’s worth.
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I didn’t know they got a new editor. That can certainly make a difference. Thinking about it, I cannot recall them being critical of the pope. Just everyone else. 😛
 
Thank you all. I just wanted to see what other people thought before I spent $24 for a year’s subscription. I think I’ll take the option of a sample issue for $3.95 and hope that it’s not a particularly good issue but a representative of their usual work. Then I’ll think about subscribing for a year.
 
conRep12 said:
Thank you all. I just wanted to see what other people thought before I spent $24 for a year’s subscription. I think I’ll take the option of a sample issue for $3.95 and hope that it’s not a particularly good issue but a representative of their usual work. Then I’ll think about subscribing for a year.
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I get something daily by email in my inbox from NOR. it is free.
I think you have to subscribe to read articles in full, but the news stories are free.
 
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