The mid-twentieth-century opera, “The Trial at Rouen,” tells the story of the final days of St. Joan of Arc, her imprisonment, and trial for heresy. Composer Norman Dello Joio employs themes of conscience, belief, and spiritual motivation; he makes us think about the consequences of institutional corruption and the power of individuals to rise above [...]
America from the beginning encouraged a broad and generic religiosity, yet allowed for the free practice of specific religions. Indeed, the historic creeds were implanted, took root, and flowered in America. This has created a certain tension, in which the religions risk losing their identity in favor of a vague national consensus. Commentators have long [...]
The question of human origins surely ranks high on the list of theological topics, touching on the deepest questions of who we are, where we came from, and where we are destined. In his new book, William Lane Craig has made an important contribution in the effort to combine faith and reason to shed some [...]
One of the most pernicious mistakes in thinking about history is to consider adjacent historical periods as diametrically opposed to each other and to paint an exaggerated contrast between them. In doing so, we fail to see the organic continuity of history, the way that periods and movements overlap and interact. The result is a [...]
Graham Greene classified his 1958 novel "Our Man in Havana" as one of his lighter pieces or “entertainments,” yet which allows for a surprising amount of spiritual substance. “The moral imagination is… man’s power to perceive ethical truth, abiding law, in the seeming chaos of many events.” –Russell Kirk In his book The Catholic Writer [...]
As a composer Virgil Thomson was a minor master, but his critical prose ranks with some of the best writing on music in English. To pass from reading a contemporary essayist to one of the middle decades of the 20th century is often to enter another world, one of succinct elegance and inborn culture. The Missouri-born [...]
In his play "Becket," Jean Anouilh anchors his themes in a traditional Christian worldview. Becket’s journey to finding his “true self” is shown to be identical with honoring God and fulfilling one’s moral duty. Plays, movies and other dramatic renditions have made the life and martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket familiar to a wide audience. [...]
Spinoza has appeared to build upon the edifice of the ancients and the medieval scholastics, but he has actually taken the floor out from under us, so that “God” and “man” no longer mean quite what they did. A wise man has written a book called God or Nothing—the title a profoundly pithy expression of [...]
Had I to choose a musical summer idyll, my choice would be Jour d’été à la montagne (Summer’s Day in the Mountains), a tone poem by the French Romantic composer Vincent d’Indy. D’Indy (1851–1931) is one of those composers celebrated in their day whose music has since fallen into obscurity (his other “mountain” piece, Symphony [...]
I found in theology something missing from philosophy as I experienced it—the undergirding of a received and popular body of knowledge found in scripture and religious tradition. Theology is a mansion with many rooms and has something to say to every aspect of the human condition. As “discourse about God,” “reasoning about God,” or “the [...]
For the explosive energy and power of his music, and its exploring of unheard-of worlds of sound, Igor Stravinsky was the main figure in 20th-century music. Many of us are affected by the ethos of his music whether we are aware of it or not. Its confidence, sharpness, clarity, precision, and lack of sentimentality are [...]
The theological study, “The Ascension of Christ,” shows us why the ascension is an important and necessary mystery of Christianity: It is the link between Christ’s resurrection and his second coming. It marked a new beginning, opened a new era, and drove the future course of history. The Ascension of Christ: Recovering a Neglected Doctrine, [...]
The Christian worldview can be characterized as fundamentally comic. This is not simply because the Christian “narrative” starts in sin and ends in salvation, reflecting the ancient definition of comedy. The Christian attitude toward the world also makes him receptive toward and perceptive of humor, because he realizes that nothing in the world is ultimately [...]
Music held a notable place within Thomas Jefferson's cultured and humanistic life—a point reinforced by his insistence on having music instruction at his newly founded University of Virginia. This shows the importance Jefferson placed on music in the life of the mind, just as his involvement with music throughout his life enhances his image as [...]