Documentary filmmaker Cameron O’Hearn's "Mass of the Ages" argues that in the abbreviation of the Roman Catholic liturgy after Vatican II, there was much left out of the Traditional Latin Mass. In an essay about Pope Francis’s recent legal document restricting the practice of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), I wrote that his legislation, though [...]
The true secret of Sir Percival in "The Woman in White" is both compelling and rich in significance—if we have the sensitivity as readers to perceive it. “He’s obviously a werewolf.” That was the unanimous opinion of the university students with whom I attended a performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s adaptation of The Woman in [...]
The next utopia will simply be a new way of life—a “new world order” if you like. It will guarantee the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people through progress and pragmatic solutions. Moral considerations will not apply. While living in the UK, I observed a curious difference between the New World and the [...]
It is true that we can’t say with certainty what will happen in the future because it will depend on the choices we make. But we can be almost certain what will happen in the future based upon what we know about the past. It’s not often that I find myself disagreeing with G. K. [...]
Michael Jahosky argues in his new book that J.R.R. Tolkien engaged in the telling of a parable, and that the great author wanted to create Christian art and mythology, not Christian propaganda. The Good News of the Return of the King by Michael T. Jahosky (230 pages, Wipf and Stock, 2020) Scholar Michael T. Jahosky [...]
How close are Confucian ideas to the American conservatism of our day? Confucius himself is known in Chinese tradition as the “Model Sage for Ten Thousand Ages.” Thus, Confucius and his disciples and later followers held that there are indeed “permanent things,” to borrow the telling phrase employed to such great effect by Russell Kirk. [...]
Manners are not artificial rules for controlling people's lives. They are the commonsense guidelines developed over time by Christian peoples to facilitate the practice of virtue. Courtesy books made this process easier since they helped create good habits early in children's souls before vices could gain a foothold. To the "woke" crowd, teaching civility and [...]
Spinoza has appeared to build upon the edifice of the ancients and the medieval scholastics, but he has actually taken the floor out from under us, so that “God” and “man” no longer mean quite what they did. A wise man has written a book called God or Nothing—the title a profoundly pithy expression of [...]
For Sam Koenen That sheep are sheep, and food for wolves or worse, That cricketsong dies with the autumn sun, In your eye summed up all the universe. It would perplex you to see justice done. But then, the Thracian bondsman's bitter eye Owes its sad prudence to life’s long abuse: There's runtish truth by [...]
The illustrious ancients, when they wished to make clear and to propagate the highest virtues in the world, put their states in proper order. Before putting their states in proper order, they regulated their families. Before regulating their families, they cultivated their own selves. Before cultivating their own selves, they perfected their souls. Before perfecting [...]
Laughter is indeed divine, but it is also a great mystery which continues to elude the grasp of the philosopher and the mystic. “There’s nothing worth the wear of winning,” wrote Hilaire Belloc, “but laughter and the love of friends.” These words are personal favourites and have prompted much contemplation, as an earlier essay of [...]
Heroes and saints are not necessarily easy to get along with, since they answer a higher call that puts them at odds with the world around them, even those closest by. It is not easy to fit the hero into ordinary life, but without these primordial figures, we would not hope for more in human [...]
Fr. Joseph Koterski was a good Jesuit in a hard time to be one, but he made it look so easy. The reason was no doubt his great love, which bears all things, believes all things, and hopes all things. “An old friend and a very good man. A good Jesuit when it was hard [...]
This book is full of observations about friendship—discerningly borrowed and observantly original; it is a credible descendant of those wonders of human perspicacity, Aristotle’s books on friendship. One of those borrowed observations is that “the point of being friends is to charm each other.” Willing Dogs and Reluctant Masters: On Friendship and Dogs by Gary [...]