Today, people commonly turn a blind eye and a blind mind to the plagues that threaten to destroy Western culture and human identity, and that move silently beneath the face of placid waters. Fifty years ago today, Steven Spielberg’s suspense thriller, Jaws, took the world by surprise as the pulsing two-note theme and the invisible [...]
It can be dangerous to depict evil. Accuracy might require getting too close to things best kept at bay. J.R.R. Tolkien once cautioned his friend, C.S. Lewis, concerning Mr. Lewis’ skill in depicting evil. Anyone familiar with Uncle Screwtape or Perelandra’s Un-man will know to what Mr. Tolkien alluded. There is an uncanny comprehension of [...]
“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is thematically applicable to much of Poe’s work—the struggle to see the light of truth and justice that shines at the end of a dark tunnel of violence and horror. Edgar Allan Poe was missing. The year was 1849. There had been no trace of Mr. Poe for six [...]
Any vaccine that has been derived or developed through or in conjunction with abortion is nothing that the Christian conscience can accept. And it would be a relief if Christians could hear a message of clarity and unwavering orthodoxy on this issue of issues from the leaders of the Church. A death-dealing industry and a [...]
Many Americans agree that something hasn’t smelled right about this pandemic from the beginning, something in the air that smacks of calculated panic and political engineering. The coronavirus will pass, God willing, but perhaps in its place will come another disease—the relentless leftwing virus. Donald J. Trump has been criticized and condemned for calling COVID-19 [...]
Christians should admire and respect all that President Trump has done for the cause of life, and prepare to support him against the hate he will face from his opponent. His Ash Wednesday message of humility and living the Gospel is a comfort because it shows that he is willing to speak the truth. On [...]
The imagination should be a mirror, not a psychedelic portal, transcending reality without renouncing the transcendentals. Catholic professor and writer John Senior possessed a sharp imagination, which he once leveled against Dumbo. “Dumbo is an abomination of the imagination,” he said. “Elephants can’t fly. Horses can fly.” Dr. Senior’s intriguing statement poses the controversial position [...]
The Iliad is Homer’s vehement attempt to reconcile god and man, clairvoyantly musing on how terrible and wonderful it would be if a man possessed a divine nature. As the heroes of The Iliad are slain in blood, Homer gives each of them an epitaph in poetry, that they may die not as expendable masses, [...]
There is a notable nightmarish and intangible quality to “The Fall of the House of Usher,” as there is in many of Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic masterpieces—a vague sense of foreboding, a floating uneasiness, or shadowy moodiness that is beyond the power of words to express... Edgar Allan Poe. Enigmatic. Eccentric. Erratic. Melancholic. Alcoholic. Neurotic. [...]
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novels present a world teeming with people groping through guilt for a purpose they do not fully understand, often trading defiance for either despair or determination as the inescapable truth becomes clear: There is, on earth, no alleviation of the human condition… Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the [...]
The Last Jedi seems intent on burning down the archetypes of the heroic past. When the hero fails to be a hero, and furthermore denies his own status as a hero, what is the rationality behind such postmodern disenchantment? Moviegoers have loudly lamented the Luke Skywalker they encountered in Rian Johnson’s newest episode of the [...]
Father Christmas and the Christian father share a domestic priesthood that presides over the Christmas mysteries. Christmas calls on fathers far and wide to take up the books of Christmas, to draw their children into a ring round fire or tree to be read to... When St. Nick drives his miniature sleigh full of toys drawn [...]
There is a secret to the art of education, but it is an obvious secret. Despite the whirlings of the world, education is straightforward: It engages the good, the true, and the beautiful in the context of basic and natural human interactions and for the sake of human happiness. As an action exercised by one [...]
Star Wars is an icon of the modern idol of distraction that has become the destiny of a generation of lost souls. Modernity’s enchantment with the film is rooted in a religious hunger for transcendence—but God has been left off the modern menu. And the Lord’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the [...]