In the US, the so-called contraception mandate proposed by the Obama administration has been bitterly contested by the Catholic bishops and others—such as Steve Krason of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists in his “Call to Action”, and President William Fahey of Thomas More College in his “Open Letter”. Requiring Catholic employers to provide (or [...]
But what are the four (or five) elements that T.S. Eliot was so interested in (see previous post)? The idea that the world is composed of just a handful of basic elements is common to all the great traditions, and in both the Egyptian, Greek and Indian traditions these elements are given the names Earth, Air, [...]
An important book by Benjamin G. Lockerd Jr, Aethereal Rumours: T.S. Eliot's Physics and Poetics, does for The Waste Land and the Four Quartets something of what Michael Ward does for the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis in Planet Narnia. In his book, Michael Ward shows that each of the seven tales of Narnia was intended [...]
All Things Made New explores the Christian mysteries in the tradition of St. John the Evangelist, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, by studying the symbolism, cosmology, and meaning of the Book of Revelation, as well as the prayers and meditations of the Rosary, including the Apostles’ Creed and the Our Father. These reflections lead us [...]
Beauty for Truth’s Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education, by Stratford Caldecott, Brazos Press, 2009. Among the many fine resources available for Classical Christian Schools, here is another truly helpful book. This work does what few others in recent years have attempted to do, and that is address a possible theoretical and practical connection between [...]
Upon the prompting of Stephen Masty, I’d like to explore “what still really exists in America that is worth conserving and what may be, quite frankly, lost to all but memory.” Reid Buckley has declared that he cannot love our country because we are vile. Morally corrupt and bankrupt, we’ve even given Pat Buchanan license to doubt. [...]
Pope John Paul II When Brad Birzer asked me to write about the ten books that most heavily shaped my understanding of the human person, I retorted that he might as well ask me which of my children I love best. I agonized over the list interminably and tried not to cheat too [...]
The second volume of Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth covers the events in the life of Jesus from his triumphal entry into Jerusalem to his even more triumphal resurrection. One emphasis which flows through the chapters like a watermark is the pivotal position of Christ bridging the Old and Testaments, bringing one to fulfilment and inaugurating the [...]
This Sunday marks the fourth week of Advent; in a week, it will be the feast of the birth of our Lord. My mother has been blasting Christmas music. In between choir boys singing “Silent Night” and Bing Crosby, the radio DJ told his audience that the number one performer of 2010 is Lady Gaga. [...]
In Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict tells us that “if the market is governed solely by the principle of the equivalence in value of exchanged goods, it cannot produce the social cohesion that it requires in order to function well. Without internal forms of solidarity and mutual trust, the market cannot completely fulfil its proper [...]
Stratford Caldecott Cardinal Angelo Scola, speaking in Venice recently, discussed the phenomenon of the expansion of the notion of ‘rights’ in the context of modern political discourse without any agreed philosophy underpinning them. We are faced with a paradox: a hitherto unprecedented circulation and expansion of rights in tandem with a degree of [...]