Thomas Aquinas’ cosmology and doctrine of the soul are vitalistic. Everything has a particular soul to it, and these souls have particular life-forces destined for particular ends. As a whole, the cosmos is meant to reflect and embody the graces of God: his beauty, love, and goodness. Such is to what all things are ultimately [...]
In his lectures about three musical geniuses—Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert—Dietrich von Hildebrand shows how the integration of music with spiritual and philosophic insight can enrich our musical understanding. Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, by Dietrich von Hildebrand, trans. John Henry Crosby (109 pages, Hildebrand Project, 2025) When a distinguished Catholic philosopher discourses on three distinguished composers of [...]
Some guys have it and some guys don’t. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart obviously had it. By age eight he was already writing symphonies you can still hear on the radio. And there is no sign that the Mozart fad will blow over very soon. A couple of years later he was writing operas, which culminated, for [...]
The Transfiguration on Mount Tabor was a pre-enactment of what would happen to Jesus after the Resurrection, when he was glorified. The event not only pre-enacts what happened to Christ at his glorification, but what will happen to us too when the Holy Spirit penetrates us as Jesus was penetrated by the glory of God. [...]
Human beings are not simply producers; they are also lovers of beauty and contemplators of truth. They are wasters of time. The liberally educated person has a rich inner life that allows him to waste time well. As an undergraduate, I went for walks in rural Michigan. Sometimes alone, sometimes with others. Romantic walks, friendly [...]
"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 [...]
Father Nussbaum was under no illusion. Like all great missionaries he was thinking of martyrdom. He accepted it in advance, and even, deep in his great Christian heart, he hoped for it. He remembered all those who before him had wet this hostile soil with their blood. He thought of Father Mussot who, on April [...]
If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20) Developments in ultrasonic technology help us to clearly see that an unborn child is a human life deserving our love. Yesterday, on [...]
The waiting room was empty at 11:40 that day, that day of the appointment, the last appointment. Jack and I had been coming and going weekly for a good three months. There was first the diagnosis and then the treatment, palliative radiation. The cancer was invasive, cartilage in his right nostril which had expanded the [...]
Today Christians of all stripes are responding in defense of the embattled family, but our eventual success will be enabled by the image of the Madonna, the Mother of God, especially as the "Stabat Mater," the Mother standing beneath the cross of her bruised and broken Son, suffering more than any other human creature has [...]
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 [...]
How, exactly, does the Church propose to bring Christ to the world, demonstrating His presence among men in order that she might then transport them home to Heaven? Let us try to imagine a Church filled with Christ, overflowing with His presence and power. Not too difficult, is it? Is that not the customary, immemorial even, [...]
Contemporary composer Michael Torke’s music invites us to slow down the frenzied pace of our lives, to reflect on who we are as human beings, where we have been and where we are going. His is indeed music for the ages. We often lament the decline of culture, but I would submit that the decline [...]
What is America? Are we a nation or an idea? A recent essay by one Colin Woodard contends that we must choose one or the other. More than that, Woodard chooses to make his choice very clear, while also claiming to know the choices of President Donald Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance. America as a [...]