If we are to be truly inclusive and truly representative, we need to hone in on what it is to be truly human. What is it that unites all people across all races, all generations, and all classes at all times? The Great Books of Western Civilization are not merely artifacts to be respected and [...]
If we truly want to overcome the curse of racism, we need to begin with restoring the humanities, the voice of the human race, to their rightful place at the heart of any good, true and beautiful education. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of Destiny, a politically-charged play by the Marxist [...]
We must not invest in the transient things of this world, the very worst of investments, but in the everlasting things of heaven. If we fight the long defeat with the things of heaven in mind, we will attain the final victory. It is this final victory that represents, for each of us, the final [...]
The Great Books bring us into communion with humanity, that expansive group of neighbours to which we owe allegiance and, in consequence, to which we owe obedience in terms of the need to give to our neighbours the love which is due to them. I’m very encouraged by the mission of Hildegard College, an undergraduate [...]
"The link between father and son is not only of the perishable flesh: it must have something of 'aeternitas' about it," J.R.R. Tolkien wrote to his son. "There is a place called ‘heaven’ where the good here unfinished is completed; and where the stories unwritten, and the hopes unfulfilled, are continued. We may laugh together [...]
It is not often that I find myself quibbling with the great philosopher, Peter Kreeft. On the contrary, it is usually best to do with Dr. Kreeft what T.S. Eliot did with Dante. “I have just finished an article on Dante," Eliot wrote in 1920, "and I feel that anything I can say about such [...]
“Strong art destabilizes the self,” a reader commented on my recent essay, “that’s its job.” Really? On the contrary, great art edifies. It engages the isolated and alienated self with goodness, truth, and beauty. It moves us beyond the confusion of the unstable self towards the true stability found in the fusion of sanity and [...]
Robert Hugh Benson's "Initiation" is a novel which delves and dives deep into the mystery of suffering. Its theme, and the reader’s following of the purgatorial steps of the “initiation,” is perfect for those seeking to take the purgatorial steps on the Lenten pilgrimage to Golgotha. The literary reputation of Robert Hugh Benson, one of [...]
In “The Lord of the Rings,” the One Ring and the One Sin are symbolic similitudes. As the One Ring is “unmade” on Mount Doom, so the One Sin is “unmade” on the hill of Golgotha, the place of the skull. Therefore, if the Ring is synonymous with sin in general and Original Sin in [...]
The one thing that unites man with his most ancient of ancestors and which divides him from all other creatures is his status as a sub-creator, as the imago Dei, who uses his imagination to create in the image of the Creator Himself. Art is the signature of man. —G.K. Chesterton G.K. Chesterton begins his [...]
In reflecting the strangeness of reality and the diabolical darkness of evil, Tim Powers’ "The Mills of the Gods" takes its place alongside other cautionary tales of fictional supernatural realism that prefigure and reflect reality. They show real-life figures in the light of the truth that exposes and vanquishes the diabolical darkness. Not facts first; [...]
All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII Is the world a stage? And are all of us merely players [...]
"That Hideous Strength" is, without doubt, one of the finest and wisest novels of the twentieth century, deserving its place in the canon of Great Books and contributing to the Great Conversation and the goodness, truth, and beauty of Christian Civilization. Over the past few weeks, in my two most recent essays for this illustrious [...]
On the most profound level, "Perelandra" deals with the mystery of freedom itself. How can a person with free will choose the good in the presence of seductive evil? My recent essay, “C.S. Lewis Goes to Mars”, discussed the deep philosophical underpinnings of Lewis’ novel, Out of the Silent Planet, which was the first of [...]