In Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Doulos, it is as if there is an existential darkness present throughout. In this world, no matter how cunning the schemes or how fail-safe the get-away plans are, for all concerned there is a retribution coming. In Melville’s cinematic universe the wages of sin are always death… Recently, at London’s British Film Institute, [...]
The narratives of science and Christianity are obviously not novels, nor works of fiction, for both claim to tell the true story of humankind—where we came from, what we are, and where we are going. To determine if either of these narratives is true, we must assess the plot… In 1882, Nietzsche’s madman ran to [...]
In the case of the now-deceased toddler, Alfie Evans, the British government, through its Royal College of Pediatrics and its courts, had legal authority. Alfie had legal “interests,” which the government defined in his case, but he did not have any “rights.” Alfie’s parents only had a right to be heard; they had no substantive rights or [...]
In modern America, all the dystopian horrors exist hand-in-hand with what seems like one perpetual theme-park existence. The war, torture, abortions, castrations, murders, suicides, drug addiction, homelessness, and medical horrors reside side-by-side with the smiling face of America, where everyone has perfect teeth and waves out a cheerful, “Have a nice day!”… Having just re-read [...]
Franz Schmidt’s lament makes grief beautiful. It elevates it to something irreproachable, like snow on a mountain peak that, when you’re stumbling around in it, stings and chills and makes you lose your footing, but from the distance, oh, the inexpressible beauty. As the story has it, when Hungarian-born twentieth century composer Franz Schmidt received the [...]
So brazenly was Britain’s Culture of Death on display recently that the scales dropped from the eyes of any who wished to see. Many do not want to see, though, and look away as life support machines are turned off, and the full force of the law is used to prevent the sick moving to a better [...]
“Who today still speaks of the annihilation of the Armenians?” Who, one wonders, would ask such a question? The answer, surprisingly enough, is a certain Adolf Hitler who asked it rhetorically as a means of justifying the German invasion of Poland in 1939. The annihilation to which Hitler referred was the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by [...]
Why are so many American white men killing themselves and others? And what’s to be done about this phenomenon?… Not long ago I was traveling back from a speaking engagement when I pulled into a Waffle House for breakfast. Waffle House is usually populated by working-class men at that time of morning, and this day [...]
The Seventh Seal is focused on man’s spiritual doubt, and even complete lack of faith in God. The film asks: How can God remain separate from us as we experience darkness and suffering? The Swedish director, Ingmar Bergman, has secured his place in the cinematic canon not only as a superb and unique director but [...]
The birth control for which Margaret Sanger so passionately fought has led not to freedom, but to slavery of the worst kind, for both men and women. Of this, we as a nation should be very afraid. Margaret Sanger, the great champion of sexual liberalism, is about as modern as they come in many ways, [...]
Europe may indeed perish, crucified by the sins, errors, and heresies of her own sons, but Christianity will never perish because, as Chesterton reminds us, it has a God who knows the way out of the grave… The Faith is Europe. And Europe is the Faith. Hilaire Belloc These words of Hilaire Belloc, possibly the [...]
The body language of the band is one of a frozen watchfulness. Each band member has the look and stance of one who has witnessed something truly awful, and yet is powerless to do anything about it. Before their eyes, what the Rolling Stones were witnessing was the ending of a life… It was to [...]
English musician Steven Wilson’s "Hand. Cannot. Erase" is extraordinary by the standards of any genre. His subject matter is the uniqueness of each human person, and he focuses on the life of one lost soul. An Incarnational Whole One of the greatest things in this whirligig of a world—however fraught with a string of perilous [...]
What are the historical roots of Halloween? Should Christians celebrate this holiday? And if so, how? Not that the Mass of the day has mention of black cats, or the Divine Office of witches, but for so long Halloween meant nothing but parties and vandalism that when someone first proposed that it came out of [...]