The Sacred Heart of Jesus should not only glow with the divine love, but kindle with that same influence all that comes within its reach? The fire he came to send on the earth was none other than the fire of love which penetrated and informed his own sacred humanity. I am come to cast [...]
Andrew C. Johnston’s “The Sons of Remus” provides a window into not only how European identities were formed, but how all societies engage in a constant process of negotiation and renegotiation in determining who they are, where they came from, and where they are going. The Sons of Remus: Identity in Roman Gaul and Spain, by [...]
Hilaire Belloc’s “The Contrast” is a neglected study of America and Europe after the Great War. His sadness over the utter failure of Europeans to embrace their cultural patrimony and stand independently explains his later sympathy for Franco and Salazar, and his initial interest in Mussolini. The unimaginative always place a wall of separation between [...]
In the wake of Hamas' attack on Israel, Douglas Murray asks broad questions: “What can Western liberal societies do in the face of such movements? What can people who value life do in the face of those who worship death.” On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization, by Douglas Murray (209 [...]
All play is an attempt to approximate to the Creator, who performs his work with the divine seriousness which its meaning and purpose demand, and yet with the spontaneity and effortless skill of the great artist he is, creating because he wills to create and not because he must. Man, according to Plotinus, is a [...]
It is above all Saint Bernard, particularly through his innovative mystical theology, who shaped the theology of the later Middle Ages and also of modern times. The history of Christian spirituality is rather like a roller coaster with continual ups and downs, as renewal is followed by decline as the human spirit inevitably falters and [...]
Let us consider the case of a man who is facing a difficult decision—a decision, let us say, which will affect me. This decision involves a matter of some importance, and so I am deeply concerned that the man should make the right decision—right, suitable, impartial, just. I am not certain that he will in [...]
I have sought since my conversion to use the gifts that God has given me to glorify Him and to bring souls to Him, in contrast to the way that I had previously used those same gifts to glorify hatred and to lead souls astray. I’m in receipt of correspondence from a young woman, received [...]
The revolution that William F. Buckley, Jr., set into motion itself remains far from complete. In truth, and in Buckley’s mind, the main idea was actually to create a counter-establishment that would eventually produce not a revolution, but a “counter-revolution.” Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, by Sam Tanenhaus (1018 pages, Random [...]
Robert Woods’ “Mortimer Adler: The Paideia Way of Classical Education” embodies the life and educational philosophy of one education reformer. Though intended to be informative, most chapters are akin to an educator’s devotional, leaving the teacher inspired to be a more thoughtful and focused Christian tutor. Mortimer Adler: The Paideia Way of Classical Education, by [...]
The divine plan in nature calls for human completion, as divine grace in man calls for human co-operation. Work then is the redemption of nature as Christ is the redemption of man, and civilization is the product of both redemptive acts, the completion of the circle by which nature serves man and man serves God. [...]
The most interesting response from Parliament to the imperial crisis came, not surprisingly, from Edmund Burke. An Irishman by birth, Burke had been raised Church of England though his mother and sister were Roman Catholic. Crucially, this upbringing in a mixed family radically shaped Burke’s understanding of the world, he as always sided with the [...]
In the few decades after Dostoevsky wrote "Demons," revolution spread across Russia in a wave of chaos which has yet to end. All cultures and all eras face a similar trial. We can look at the America of our time with Dostoevsky’s eyes—with a similar worry and yet with a similar hope. Demons: A Novel [...]
It is only his love given in contemplation that can suffuse and surcharge our impoverished love with the only love that can lead us back from Paradise lost to Paradise regained. The very reason why Christ sent out his love on the first Pentecost day was so that it could enter into all who would [...]