What is history if not a “survey,” and what are historians if not chain-bearers? Have you reckoned a thousand acres much? —Walt Whitman, Song of Myself History records that in 1763 two guys surveyed a demarcation line separating Pennsylvania and Maryland as well as bits of Delaware and West Virginia. The surveyors were Charles Mason [...]
Poetry offers a unique antidote to the superficiality that dominates American culture. Poetry calls us back to tradition and calls us out of the shallows into the deeper water of human experience. It draws us toward transcendence. It is tempting to decry our age as the worst of times. Anyone who has studied history, however, [...]
When one dares to enter the country of other men’s souls in quest of understanding about the nature of virtue, he enters a dangerous world. When one dares to enter the country of other men’s souls in quest of understanding about the nature of virtue, he enters a dangerous world, especially when that world is [...]
The classic television show "Columbo," like the great novel "Crime and Punishment," is a classic, and rightfully so, because it too penetrates to the heart of a modern heresy and exposes it for the lie that it is. This is the Nietzschean idea of the "ubermensch": the superman who can transcend ordinary law. Selecting a [...]
I find George Bernanos’ classic novel, "The Diary of a Country Priest," an unsatisfying tale that incarnates Bernanos’ own bleak vision of life, whereas Francis Kilvert’s diaries are delightful, and the real incarnation of a life of faith and service in the countryside. Francis Kilvert In 1979, I went to study theology at [...]
What Willa Cather did in "O, Pioneers!" was create an American Myth, the difficult—slow but steady—story of a pioneer, a Swedish woman, Alexandra, who yearns to love the land and succeeds in doing so. Every once in a while, slow and steady wins the race. One of America’s greatest literary regionalists, Nebraskan Willa Cather (1873-1947), [...]
Despite her rather profound and intense Catholic artistry, Willa Cather was not a Roman Catholic, though many during her life presumed she was a practicing one. How else could she grasp the essence of the faith—in all its beauties and in all its failings—so majestically? “I am amused that so many of the reviews of [...]
Poetry, often called the thinking man's meme, has faded from popular culture. Still, Catholics could greatly benefit from exploring the works of poets who lived heroic, faith-filled lives. Were one to conduct a survey of modern-day Americans, taken at random, it is likely that not one in a hundred would have heard of the poet Richard [...]
J.R.R. Tolkien poured his heart and deepest sense of what “right” reality meant into his subcreative work. His world of Middle Earth is based on monarchy, tradition, obscure and yet profoundly meaningful rituals involving sacred and elevated languages. It is peopled by kings and peasants, wizards and sorcerers. Its economy is distributist. The men of [...]
Great literature does not pass away, nor does it lose its relevance, because, like the wise virgins of Scripture, it remains loyal to the Bridegroom and the unchanging truth that He teaches and the unchanging truth that He is. Like the saints, the Great Books are alive. Gertrud von le Fort's "The Wedding of Magdeburg" [...]
Who says there are gods? Russell Amos Kirk does in “The Last God’s Dream,” a long, complicated tale that challenges us to reflect once again on both God’s agency and mercy. All of Russell Kirk’s stories have been grossly neglected over the years, so it would perhaps be redundant to describe “The Last God’s Dream” [...]
It is an intimate art, the translation business. But it is the art of creatures like we humans, who live always on the border of matter and spirit, trying to marry together the infinite and the finite, the spiritual and the earthly, the eternal and the temporal. On January 11, 1940, the Italian writer and [...]
When it comes to considering America’s greatest writers, it would be foolish to ignore Willa Cather as a contender. Indeed, it is quite possible that her 1925 novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop is the great American novel, rivaling anything that came before or since. Yet, Cather was consistent. While not at the level of Death Comes, her 1913 O Pioneers and [...]
In Evangeline's quest of the Bride for the Bridegroom, of the lover for her true beloved, we are reminded of the soul’s quest for Christ, who is the Bridegroom of all bridegrooms. The figure of Evangeline Bellefontaine is as elusive as the figure of Gabriel Lajeunesse, the man to whom she was betrothed and whom [...]