Belief and the Public Square

By |2024-02-25T14:13:37-06:00February 25th, 2024|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, Communio, David L. Schindler, Essential, Faith, Featured, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Religion, Timeless Essays|Tags: , , , , |

Authentic human creativity offers an image of divine creativity. Its purpose-to bring about a civilization of love to give glory to God-can only be achieved when freedom is properly understood as the received gift by the Son from the Father. For David Schindler this trinitarian economy offers the only model by which any human economy, [...]

Russell Kirk & Pope St. John Paul II on the Redemption of Man

By |2023-10-22T07:38:12-05:00October 21st, 2023|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, Conservatism, Faith, Featured, Hope, Imagination, Russell Kirk, St. John Paul II, The Imaginative Conservative, Timeless Essays, Truth|

Pope St. John Paul II and Russell Kirk defended freedom within the limits of truth and its authentic or right use. They knew it was crucial to distinguish license and liberty. But they have different approaches to truth. As we discussed the work of Russell Kirk, written in 1954, revised in 1962 and 1988, I [...]

Pondering the Permanent Things

By |2023-07-12T15:41:27-05:00July 12th, 2023|Categories: Books, Catholicism, Culture, Dwight Longenecker, Faith, Senior Contributors|

In the wasteland of our contemporary culture, in both the church and the world, students and seminarians would do well to read Tom Howard. His essays will give them a fresh perspective, deeper insights, and a broader vision. Pondering the Permanent Things: Reflections on Faith, Art, and Culture, by Thomas Howard, edited by Keith Call [...]

The Romance of Faith & the Challenge to Secularism

By |2023-07-08T19:13:22-05:00July 8th, 2023|Categories: Blaise Pascal, C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Faith, G.K. Chesterton, Imagination, Michael De Sapio, Moral Imagination, Philosophy, Senior Contributors|

It’s usually only the rationalists and skeptics who find their way into the great surveys of thought. But religion always rises from the ashes. This is thanks in no small part to the imaginative thinkers who revealed Christianity as what it always was, although not always ideally expressed by us: a thing of mystery, romance, [...]

Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”: Faith Triumphant

By |2023-05-25T17:03:36-05:00May 25th, 2023|Categories: Death, Faith, Fiction, Literature, Timeless Essays, Tradition|

It can be dangerous to depict evil. Accuracy might require getting too close to things best kept at bay. J.R.R. Tolkien once cautioned his friend, C.S. Lewis, concerning Mr. Lewis’ skill in depicting evil. Anyone familiar with Uncle Screwtape or Perelandra’s Un-man will know to what Mr. Tolkien alluded. There is an uncanny comprehension of [...]

Faith and the Pragmatic Test

By |2023-05-13T14:14:12-05:00May 13th, 2023|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, Faith, Michael De Sapio, Philosophy, Senior Contributors|

If American philosopher William James offers no systematic defense of religion as Aquinas did, that was never his intent; what he does is show that faith is in tune with man’s nature, experience, and aspirations. That, it seems to me, is nothing to disparage and indeed something to celebrate. Preparing a study guide recently for [...]

Reason, Faith, & the Struggle for Western Civilization

By |2023-01-12T17:25:19-06:00January 12th, 2023|Categories: Christianity, Faith, History, Philosophy, Pope Benedict XVI, Reason, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization, Western Tradition|

It is a bright note of hope, set against the present daunting darkness, that shines throughout Samuel Gregg’s “Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization,” both illuminating the past and shedding much-needed light on the present situation. Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization, by Samuel Gregg (256 pages, Gateway Editions, 2019) “The [...]

Benedict XVI on Science, Philosophy, & Faith

By |2023-01-02T19:13:58-06:00January 2nd, 2023|Categories: Catholicism, David Deavel, Faith, Philosophy, Pope Benedict XVI, Science, Senior Contributors|

While Benedict XVI may not himself have made great contributions to the natural sciences, he made what is much more important: a contribution to understanding a world in which the truth is one, is God’s, and, from atoms to archangels, is capable of being seen as connected. A great deal has been written about the [...]

How We Split the World Apart: The Separation of Faith & Philosophy

By |2023-05-21T11:28:46-05:00November 29th, 2022|Categories: E.B., Eva Brann, Faith, Philosophy, Religion, Senior Contributors, St. John's College, Theology, Timeless Essays|

This is an edited version of a conversation between Eva Brann, the longest-serving tutor at St. John’s College, and Hamza Yusuf, President of Zaytuna College, recorded in March 2019. You can listen to the full podcast here. Hamza Yusuf: We’re really fortunate today to have with us, I think, one of the treasures of our [...]

The Necessity of Faith

By |2022-07-11T17:09:41-05:00July 11th, 2022|Categories: Faith, Michael De Sapio, Senior Contributors|

At worst, “faith” can become a bland word standing for little more than a vaguely pleasant and praiseworthy feeling; thus, people are described as having faith in themselves, faith in life, etc. This is a debasement of the term, however. Properly, faith is the state of soul and act of will that accepts and hopes [...]

Thoughtful Theism: Redeeming Reason in an Irrational Age

By |2022-05-18T16:23:53-05:00May 18th, 2022|Categories: Books, Catholicism, Christianity, Faith, Featured, Reason, St. Thomas Aquinas|

Contrary to conventional wisdom, this age’s crisis is not one of faith. If anything, there is plenty of faith around, in both good and bad things. What we lack is that which since the Middle Ages has been seen as a complement to faith: reason. Thoughtful Theism: Redeeming Reason in an Irrational Age by Fr. [...]

On Nature and Grace: The Role of Reason in the Life of Faith

By |2022-03-22T18:57:00-05:00March 22nd, 2022|Categories: Christianity, Essential, Faith, Nature, Peter Kalkavage, St. John's College, St. Thomas Aquinas|

We may say that the world for Thomas Aquinas does not merely have but is blessed with intelligibility, just as man is blessed with reason. Nature’s beauty is not confined to the senses but extends to the mind. “Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has [...]

A More Enlightened View of the Enlightenment

By |2023-02-25T13:52:42-06:00February 28th, 2022|Categories: Books, Europe, Faith, History, Michael De Sapio, Senior Contributors|

Joseph T. Stuart shows us that the relationship between the Enlightenment and Christianity was not strictly one of opposition and conflict. Rather, the Enlightenment was a general program and set of ideas that influenced all sectors of life, including religion itself. Rethinking the Enlightenment: Faith in the Age of Reason, by Joseph T. Stuart (351 [...]

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