Divine Reading

By |2025-03-08T18:29:06-06:00March 8th, 2025|Categories: Bible, Books, Catholicism, Christianity, Prayer|

Whatever other methods of prayer we may at times find helpful, we must never forget and always turn back to the Scriptures as the Christian prayer book par excellence. Lectio Divina – Divine Reading In vocal prayer, despite the time given to brief moments of silence, we have been doing most of the talking. However, [...]

The Bard of Greenville

By |2025-03-08T17:39:21-06:00March 7th, 2025|Categories: Art, Beauty, Catholicism, Christianity, Culture, Dwight Longenecker, Joseph Pearce, Literature, Senior Contributors, Wokeism|

Dwight Longenecker Father Dwight Longenecker will be no stranger to readers of The Imaginative Conservative. Apart from the numerous essays that he has written for this illustrious journal for more years than I care or dare to remember, he has written many excellent books. As with the essays, so with the books. They [...]

Throwaway Elbows

By |2025-03-06T17:02:41-06:00March 6th, 2025|Categories: Baseball, Catholicism, Sports|

Today, as we wash off yesterday’s ashes, we stand six weeks away from Easter. The long winter of sin is thawing; a new day is dawning as the Resurrection approaches. Easter and springtime seem to go together, and with the approach of spring comes yet another reason for hope—Opening Day. While Opening Day may bring [...]

Yuja Wang Takes on Rautavaara’s Piano Concerto

By |2025-03-06T18:01:11-06:00March 6th, 2025|Categories: Audio/Video, Music|

Einojuhani Rautavaara Yuja Wang was the star we’d all come to seeat San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall last Sunday afternoon. A change in programming had rewarded us in dividends; she’d be performing not just one but two piano concertos. For most of the audience, I’m guessing, it was Ravel’s intense Piano Concerto for [...]

TV Stars Who No Longer Shine

By |2025-03-06T08:35:02-06:00March 5th, 2025|Categories: Catholicism, Joseph Pearce, Senior Contributors, Television, Unsung Heroes of Christendom|

Malcolm Muggeridge and Marshall McLuhan are two now-mostly-forgotten TV stars who converted to Catholicism. In the current issue of the St. Austin Review, Daniel J. Mahoney writes of Malcolm Muggeridge, describing him in the title of his essay as a “vendor of words, scourge of ideology, Catholic convert, and witness to the truth.” In introducing Muggeridge [...]

“On the Incarnation” & the Fresh Breath of Style

By |2025-03-04T13:53:30-06:00March 4th, 2025|Categories: Books, Christianity, Sainthood, Theology|

If you are unfamiliar with theological classics and want an easeful entryway, here is what you should do: run to On the Incarnation, a short treatise written by St. Athanasius of Alexandria in the fourth century, in the English translation done by Sister Penelope Lawson in 1944. It features an introduction by C S. Lewis, [...]

T.S. Eliot and Reconversion on Ash Wednesday

By |2025-03-05T06:18:14-06:00March 4th, 2025|Categories: Ash Wednesday, Christianity, Faith, Imagination, Literature, Poetry, T.S. Eliot, Timeless Essays|

T.S. Eliot’s “Ash-Wednesday” helps us to consider our earthly transience, just as Ash Wednesday reminds us of this same fact that our time on earth is passing. Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita . . . There is something telling about man’s tendency to view his life as a journey, for journeys convey the [...]

After Weber: Michael Novak & the Theology of Economics

By |2025-03-03T17:13:16-06:00March 3rd, 2025|Categories: Books, Catholicism, Economics, Theology|

Often placed, more or less justifiably, in the lineage of John Courtney Murray S.J. (1904–1967), Michael Novak (1933–2017) distinguished himself through systematic efforts in the direction of building a theology of economics. At the risk of making a statement that may seem too daring, I believe that Michael Novak’s work can be considered one of [...]

Vivaldi and the Cello

By |2025-03-04T11:56:06-06:00March 3rd, 2025|Categories: Antonio Vivaldi, Audio/Video, Christine Norvell, Culture, Music, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi’s music is timeless. Performed within the orchestral world, period films, and popular culture today, his works and melodies are recognizable, even to a movie crowd. Yet his work was often discredited in his lifetime because he was prolific. Composers and critics alike believed that Vivaldi’s sheer quantity of production outweighed his quality. Vivaldi and [...]

The Songs of America’s Wars

By |2025-03-02T13:47:11-06:00March 2nd, 2025|Categories: Audio/Video, John Willson, Music, Timeless Essays, War|

American wars produce songs of hope, encouragement, nostalgia, longing, sadness, and humor. Only one war produced a stirring song of triumphalist heresy. The war that made us independent gave us “Yankee Doodle,” a frivolous tune that threw back in the face of the Brits a term they had used to belittle us. The most popular [...]

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