Author Neil Butterworth alerts us to a classical side of Americana which is too often ignored, certainly compared to the attention given our accomplishments in literature. Our achievements in serious music are in no way inferior, and they deserve to be passionately sung. The American Symphony, by Neil Butterworth (366 pages, Routledge, 2020) The contribution [...]
Following the Way of Goodness and living in the Life that is true Beauty is absolutely essential. The deepest contemplation of great truths and even the Truth Himself is ultimately worth nothing if it does not issue in action and love. Congratulations, Trinity class of 2022! You are finishing something extraordinary. And when I say [...]
Good war films put the objective in front of the audience and show repeatedly what must go heroically right to achieve it. And it is the depiction of real heroism in "Top Gun: Maverick" that makes the film so exhilarating. The weekend after the graduation of the Class of 2022, my wife, my daughter, and [...]
In the "Oresteia," Aeschylus examines whether a city exists for proper worship of gods or whether it exists for proper cultivation of “that which is most divine in us.” Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join John Alvis, as he considers Aeschylus' views of the polity as embodied by [...]
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was a phenomenal composer, and his gifts for fully fleshed-out musical ideas that created cinematic moods were extraordinary. The second movement (“Romance”) of his Violin Concerto makes me think of a darkening summer evening. You know, the kind where the sun set earlier but still lends a glow to the western sky [...]
Brave young men, overcoming terror with their willingness to fight, came from the corn-fed plains of America to do battle with tyranny. Many of them gave the ultimate sacrifice, as they bled out into the sand below me. Was the blood-spattered sacrifice of lives on D-Day commensurate with the soft, effete, and self-indulgent lives of [...]
The fine arts are rightly classed among the noblest activities of man’s genius; this is especially true of religious art and of its highest manifestation, sacred art. Of their nature the arts are directed toward expressing in some way the infinite beauty of God in works made by human hands. Their dedication to the increase [...]
The film “Field of Dreams” beautifully portrays in a contemporary idiom the Parable of the Prodigal Son, but even more so, the grand cosmic drama to which that Parable points: that of Paradise lost and Paradise regained. In view of the beginning of baseball season, and as the father of two Little Leaguers, I thought [...]
Having buried the shade or shadow of Bela Lugosi with the many other ghosts of my past, I have found myself once again haunted by his undead presence in the pages of the recently-published novel, "This Thing of Darkness." Many full moons ago, during the decadent days and daze of my youth, I enjoyed dabbling [...]
May God bless the librarians of the world. Unrecognized as such, they are the keepers and preserves of culture, and of our sanctuary islands in the maelstrom of turbulent modernity. My earliest memory of entering a library was sometime during my first few days at Wiley Elementary School in Hutchinson, Kansas. It was the fall [...]
As we know, the question of what progress is, and whether it exists at all, is a vexed one. This goes also for the arts, and specifically music. Music, particularly our Western classical tradition of music, certainly develops through time. The music of Wagner sounds very different from the music of Palestrina, and in turn [...]
A true, life-giving education is an education that recognizes and embraces a world filled with goodness, truth, and beauty. It is also an education that requires virtue from those who undertake it. Editor's Note: The following is an abridged version of the commencement address that Joseph Pearce gave to the graduating class of 2018 at [...]
Art and technology are both forms of sub-creation. They reflect an aspect of what it is to be human which we call the imago Dei. Like the God in whose image he is made, man is creative. He uses his imagination to make new things from other things that already exist. Laughter has its place [...]
My mother’s unrelenting message to me was: Keep your head, keep your feet planted on the ground, muster courage in the face of the ambiguous and the unknown, do what is in front of you, and by all means possible take care of your responsibilities. I’ve had more vaccinations for more virulent diseases than most [...]