“Through a Glass, Darkly”
Through the travail of the ages, Midst the pomp and toil of war, I have fought and strove and perished Countless times upon this star. […]
Faith and the Promise of Infinity
Chess is a relatively simple game. The board can fit on a small table and only has sixty-four squares in eight rows of eight. There are only thirty-two total pieces, and the pieces always begin in the same positions. The rules can be written on one page and learned in one sitting. Though simple, chess [...]
Christopher Nolan at the Verge of Jordan
What’s the big deal about facing death if you know you are going to be saved? Mr. Christopher Nolan has asked us to consider this question so many times it would be impolite of us not to oblige him. His films The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010), and Interstellar (2014) each run an experiment upon the [...]
“And Death Shall Have No Dominion”
And death shall have no dominion. Dead man naked they shall be one With the man in the wind and the west moon; When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone, They shall have stars at elbow and foot; Though they go mad they shall be sane, Though they sink through the [...]
What Makes This Good Friday Extra Special?
It is clear that the date of the Lord’s Crucifixion would have been well-known to the early Church and that this is the very source of the tradition that I have no trouble accepting as true. And this is the reason for my claim that this particular Good Friday is extra special. Editor’s Note: This [...]
John F. Kennedy & C.S. Lewis: Where Are They Now?
It is interesting to ponder how the reputations of John F. Kennedy and C. S. Lewis have fared. How have they weathered the inexorable passage of time? And where are they now: in Heaven or Hell? At 5:30pm (UK Time) on November 22, 1963, C.S. Lewis collapsed in his home in Oxford after a long [...]
Marcus Aurelius & the Dying Wisdom of the Gladiator
The film “Gladiator” imparts a feeling of what living according to Stoic virtue might be. One of the best Stoic lines of dialogue in the film is given to Maximus, who says: “I knew a man who once said, ‘Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back.’” In Ridley Scott’s [...]
Is the Film “Macbeth” Hostile to Life?
Justin Kurzel’s “Macbeth” features many streams of spilt blood, but a deeper current moves below the surface. It is animated by an awareness that life, though vulnerable, is an intrinsic principle and fundamental desire. It may seem absurd to leave after seeing director Justin Kurzel’s new adaptation of Macbeth* and to think, “Now that’s pro-life.” [...]
Steve McQueen & the Hound of Heaven
In his last days, Steve McQueen raced to Mexico looking for a miracle cure to the cancer that was killing him. He didn’t find one. But he found something else. From what had he fled? From what was he running? What was it that pursued him? The film titles give us some clues, as does [...]
Fame, Fashion & Fascism: The Many Masks of David Bowie
It is said that Oscar Wilde was once asked whether it was true that he had walked down the Strand with a lily in his hand. “To have done it was nothing,” he replied, “but to have made people believe one had done it was everything.” Wilde’s point was that the truth was less important [...]
The Susan Syndrome: Lemmy & the Sin of Suspended Adolescence
“Oh Susan!” said Jill. “She’s interested in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up.” “Grown-up, indeed,” said the Lady Polly. “I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she’ll waste [...]
Candles of Light & Life: Father Ho Lung & the Missionaries of the Poor
Can the culture of life take root and flourish in the very midst of the culture of death? This crucial question is answered in the affirmative by the Missionaries of the Poor, one of the fastest growing religious orders in the Church today. Father Richard Ho Lung founded the Brothers of the Poor, as they [...]
The Curse of the Cape: The Real Horror of Bela Lugosi
The story you are about to read is one of the real horror endured by Bela Lugosi, and more terrifying than any screen role he played. It was to prove a tragic end for an actor synonymous with the supernatural. When it did come, it was to be an exhausted finale to what by then [...]
The World and the Wardrobe
On the day C.S. Lewis died—November 22, 1963—the world was hardly in a position to take notice. The assassination of an American President, after all, had clearly and shockingly co-opted everything that day, including even the ending of a life unsurpassed for its sheer breath catching lucidity in defense of ordinary Christian belief. But history, [...]