Brigid prevailed powerfully with the heathen because she was as human as the heathen. That is to say, she never ignored those roots of our being that are common to all humanity. One of the secrets of Patrick’s outstanding success as a missionary was his masterly solution of that evangelizing difficulty called the “adaptation” problem. [...]
For the vast majority of people the night of purification continues for their lifetime on earth. But the truth is that our final destination is union with God, in, with and through Christ, when what happened to him on Mount Tabor will begin to happen to us. The great Franciscan theologian Blessed John Duns Scotus [...]
Through Ben Reinhard’s book, readers can recognize more deeply the beautiful power of Tolkien’s enchantment and come to treasure it even more. The High Hallow: Tolkien’s Liturgical Imagination, by Ben Reinhard (184 pages, Emmaus Road Publishing, 2025) The title of Ben Reinhard’s book might lead one to suppose it is another specialty entry in the [...]
In essence, The Imaginative Conservative is a community of philosophers, dedicated to examining, understanding, and enjoying God’s creation. What better anthem for this journal than Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn’s remarkable Symphony No. 22 in E flat major, known as the “Philosopher” Symphony? Though the nickname was probably not Haydn’s, it was given to the work [...]
If pride might be said to be the making of God in our own image, a lesser form of pride is the making of our gods, our idols, into our own image. This latter form of pride, what might be called pride in the lower key, is made manifest in the multifarious ways in which [...]
The Ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven stuns the human mind. It is a terrific display of the glory, grandeur, and majesty of God’s power. The eternal Son of God, having taken on the flesh of humanity, now ascends to the heavenly throne to sit at the right hand of the Father. Jesus enters the [...]
The Ascension was a unique event because it was a first in human history. When Jesus was “taken up into heaven,” what really happened was that the door swung open for physical humanity to be divinized. By this action the physical was actually brought into heaven and a physical dimension was introduced to the spiritual [...]
What was it that this non-expert, the funny fat man, had to say? Why did his works become for many a sort of bible? How was it that an artist-turned-journalist was accepted as the idea man as well as the entertainer of people? The people who now know G.K. Chesterton most commonly know that physically [...]
Must Artificial Intelligence open the door to "that hideous strength" described by C.S Lewis? Time will tell, though I suspect the answer to the juggernaut that is Artificial Intelligence may well be the Babel scenario. In recent online postings, writer Rod Dreher has been commenting on various predictions of an apocalypse caused by Artificial Intelligence. [...]
During these days since the election of Pope Leo XIV, I’ve been reflecting on one of his many titles: Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church (Summus Pontifex Ecclesiae Universalis). It raises the question, what’s a pontiff? Pontiff comes from the Latin word pontifex. Breaking it down, pons means “bridge” and fex is a suffix which refers to the word that means [...]
It is the virtues—through God’s grace—that keep us on the straight and narrow path of morality, dignity, and freedom. And J.R.R. Tolkien, arguably the greatest mythmaker of our era, illustrated seven of these virtues in his books about the history of Middle Earth. To the headmaster, administration, faculty, parents, and, especially, to the Ascent Classical [...]
The 20th Century is marked by the loss of voices cut short in mid-song by war. There have been so many dark centuries in the history of Christendom that one hesitates to call any particular century the darkest of all. Some have been as dark as the 20th century, but none have been as deadly. [...]
This year, when my father’s name is announced along with others from World War II, I will step forward and place that red carnation at the base of his white cross. Mid-week I’ll load the Jeep with a few things including food for Cora Jolene, the Dog. We will make a pilgrimage, a road-trip, some [...]
Crisp in whites, eight men up, four on a side, slow-step the horizontal coffin across the flat expanse of our carrier, toward the edge. The decks are quieted. Crews of men in oil-spotted work clothes give a wide perimeter. The air hangs vacantly, with no women present to stitch that familiar dense knot, that compact [...]