Author's Note: This essay is dedicated to the memory of Barbara J. Elliott, my friend and colleague at Houston Christian University. Her academic and spiritual mentorship of my daughter Anastasia led, in part, to her decision to, like Barbara and Peter Kreeft before her, cross the Tiber to Rome. The Mirror, the Mask & the [...]
We can thank God for Joe “X.J.” Kennedy and his love of the sound of words and the delight of putting them together. And you and I can keep giving his collections to young children in whom we hope to instill that same delight. For years, our go-to gift for new babies and young children [...]
Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty. If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. —from [...]
It is not often that I find myself quibbling with the great philosopher, Peter Kreeft. On the contrary, it is usually best to do with Dr. Kreeft what T.S. Eliot did with Dante. “I have just finished an article on Dante," Eliot wrote in 1920, "and I feel that anything I can say about such [...]
James Matthew Wilson judges American poet John Martin Finlay “practically the only contemporary writer to practice a genuinely metaphysical poetics.” A sinner and a man of imperfect ear, trite phrasing, and occasionally wayward philosophical judgment, Finlay was nevertheless a man whose pursuit of God who is Truth and Love demands our admiration. The Wayward Thomist: [...]
Robert Hugh Benson's "Initiation" is a novel which delves and dives deep into the mystery of suffering. Its theme, and the reader’s following of the purgatorial steps of the “initiation,” is perfect for those seeking to take the purgatorial steps on the Lenten pilgrimage to Golgotha. The literary reputation of Robert Hugh Benson, one of [...]
David Angten’s "The Medievalist" takes us into the grubby underbelly of Tinseltown, but there is a morality woven through the story that is convincing. A gripping, thought-provoking, entertaining, and fun novel, I hope it will not be classified as “Catholic fiction.” It's too good for that. Having somewhat of a public platform in these pages [...]
In “Ash Wednesday,” T.S. Eliot repudiated his ironic style along with his despairing and nihilistic view of the world. When he wrote it, he was turning from the hell of the wasteland of unbelief to receive his ashes and begin his long Lent. T.S. Eliot’s secret baptism in 1927 marked one of the most remarkable [...]
Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope I no longer strive to strive towards such things (Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?) Why should I mourn The vanished power of the usual [...]
In reflecting the strangeness of reality and the diabolical darkness of evil, Tim Powers’ "The Mills of the Gods" takes its place alongside other cautionary tales of fictional supernatural realism that prefigure and reflect reality. They show real-life figures in the light of the truth that exposes and vanquishes the diabolical darkness. Not facts first; [...]
One comes away from both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s "The Great Gatsby" and Evelyn Waugh’s "Brideshead Revisited" with an acute sense of the emptiness of the jazz age and the despair at the heart of all our delusions and decadence. One also can’t help but compare the lives of the authors themselves. On re-reading The Great Gatsby (thanks [...]
"That Hideous Strength" is, without doubt, one of the finest and wisest novels of the twentieth century, deserving its place in the canon of Great Books and contributing to the Great Conversation and the goodness, truth, and beauty of Christian Civilization. Over the past few weeks, in my two most recent essays for this illustrious [...]
Being memorably snowbound in a concentrated, deeply human circle of friends and family is a “Truce of God” in the middle of endless activity. What is it about stories told in this kind of context? What is it about memories that bring both a sense of poignant loss but also the joy of renewed presence [...]
Something in the path made him stumble, and he caught himself. Before him rose a heavy oak door, set in a tower of granite. It was like the keep of a medieval fortress, the heart of communal life in a bygone age. He grasped the wrought-iron ring with both hands and gave it a turn. [...]