So here’s a recent piece that asks the musical question, “Hitchcock: Monster or moralist?” It’s moments like that I most miss the common sense of G.K. Chesterton who wrote: The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and
A wag has said, “The good news about the Catholic Church is, it’s like a big family. The bad news about the Catholic Church is, it’s like a big family.” And this is pretty accurate. The Church, like the family and real life, is messy. That’s okay though, because Christianity
Some time ago my kids got a computer game called Myst. Myst is a very curious game. There are no instructions, no rules, and no commentary offered at the beginning of the game. You find yourself plunked down into a strange environment on a mysterious island. You do not know where you are
As Hans Urs von Balthasar has pointed out, “truth is symphonic“. Scripture generally reveals in precisely this symphonic way. It does not give us dictionary definitions of terms like “mercy” and then commit us to a static “this term means this and this only” understanding. Rather, it walks us around
Our culture doesn’t believe in forgiveness. Not really. Oh, sure, we say we do. But the reality is, we believe in mistakes and excuses. We will go to enormous lengths to explain away sin as a mistake or a psychological aberration or an error. But should our patience finally wear out, should
I once knew a Baptist who was sleeping with her boyfriend. She knew this was wrong, but consoled herself that she was “bringing her boyfriend to Christ”. She told me, “If I can just get him to salvation” (meaning “saying the Sinner’s Prayer and asking Jesus into his heart as
Writer Orson Scott Card has observed that one of the few places in contemporary culture where serious theological and philosophical reflection is still practiced is within the realm of science fiction and fantasy. The Matrix hammers home the truth of that observation. From a Catholic perspective, The Matrix is one of the most surprisingly
I’m one of those people who likes to have things reasonably orderly. I like knowing what’s going on and why. At the same time, I also recognize that the world is a very strange place and that (according to our faith) God is the creator not only of what is
We all know that religious believers are fools who will tell themselves anything to prop up their pre-conceived notions while atheists are hard-headed rationalists who look the evidence in the face and follow the Truth no matter the cost. Still, one’s faith in this common narrative of the Chattering Classes
Consider the following fictional advertising blurb for some fictional Catholic apostolate: “Support John Paul II Ministries! Marching out in the power of the Spirit to claim victory over the powers of Hell! Anointed! Dynamic! Making an impact on this generation in the all-powerful, all-conquering Name of King Jesus!” Odd, no?
It’s Christmas, that joyous time of year when the Mainstream Media (MSM) goes in search of apostate scholars to re-assure them that the gospel is all a bunch of hooey. Here’s a recent piece that appeared on MSNBC.com called “What is the Real Christmas Story?” It’s a roundtable discussion featuring
In my last column, I remarked that the surprise for many Evangelical converts to the Catholic faith is how much smaller Mary is to the Catholic than she is to the Evangelical. For the Evangelical, “the Catholic Mary” looms large as a kind of ur-goddess. The fear that pre-occupies the
Recently, I participated in an online conversation about the Blessed Virgin. As an Evangelical convert to the Catholic faith, I can empathize with the deep fears many Evangelicals have about Mary. It’s a terror that runs way down into the guts and marrow of many Evangelicals. It’s a deep, unreasoning
The six sides of the Mediterranean world faced each other across the sea and waited for something that should look all ways at once. The church had to be both Roman and Greek and Jewish and African and Asiatic. In the very words of the Apostle to the Gentiles, it
A common thread ties together the readings from Christmas till the end of January. On Christmas, of course, we have Jesus’ debut to the world at Bethlehem. On January 1, we hear about Jesus being seen by the shepherds. On the following Sunday, we see him being revealed to the
My friend Ludwig was troubled again. We had talked before about the Catholic understanding of grace, but he still found the notion of sacraments uncomfortable to his Evangelical bones. Ludwig said to me, “It seems to me that the Catholic image of grace is vaguely magical, as though grace is
One of the stranger features of contemporary culture is the oddity of Catholics who call the Magi as witnesses to the validity of astrology, while simultaneously dismissing the story of the Three Wise Men as a fable invented by the biblical writer. It’s an amazing example of our ability to
Acts 14 records an incident that sounds almost impossible to believe. While preaching in Lystra, Paul noticed a man who had been unable to walk since birth. So he miraculously healed him in front of the crowd. Luke tells us, “When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted
It’s almost that time of year again. Soon terrifying figures will be roaming our neighborhoods from door to door and the air will be filled with the sound of voices begging that we “treat” them to a gift they badly need and warning of “tricks” that could befall us if
As we begin Advent, the Church confronts us with Jesus’ teaching about the Second Coming. His disturbing warning is well-known in our post-Protestant culture: As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man. For as in those days before the flood they were
In a story that has “Academic Seeks Publicity Gig” written all over it, the New York Times breathlessly revealed a couple of months ago that some professor had found a stone with ink writing on it dating from shortly before the time of Christ (they guess). It’s broken and faded and lots of text
Experts in source-criticism now know that The Lord of the Rings is a redaction of sources ranging from the Red Book of Westmarch (W) to Elvish Chronicles (E) to Gondorian records (G) to orally transmitted tales of the Rohirrim (R). The conflicting ethnic, social and religious groups which preserved these stories all had
A Thanksgiving Mass reading from the gospel according to AmChurch: The Jewish feast of Passover was near. When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” He said this to
Recently, Dorling Kindersley (a British publisher of some very classy children’s books) did some research among 1,500 parents and children aged eight to twelve. The research showed two things: children are asking their parents the Big Questions—the questions people have asked since the dawn of time—and their parents regard such
“The TV is dead.” Do these words excite a feeling of freedom or a dread normally reserved for the end of the world? For many of us, probably both. Most of us are fans of this or that show. (I’m partial to Star Trek myself.) Yet the tube is on, not just
Advertisement
