By Alethia Diener Her makeup was immaculate. Her hair was swept up in a stunning bun, she wore a skirt and classy heels, and as this young mother sat in front of me in church, her straight back and clenched jaw revealed her desire to be The Mom Who Does Things Right And Is In Control. When her toddlers fussed, she grabbed their tiny wrists … Continue reading “No Bad Parts”: An Augustinian Return to Self Through Wonder
By Frederick Woodward Heroism, by nature, tends toward a tragic dichotomy. All throughout human memory, the pattern has remained relatively fixed. A man attains popular immortality, or else he is forgotten a few generations after he dies. The two conditions are not mutually exclusive — one can precede, or follow the other. Popularized, forgotten, redeemed again — these words sum up the cycle of virtually … Continue reading Forgotten Heroes: The Polish Catholic Men that Shaped the American Revolution
By Samuel Hilgeman On the Road to Emmaus, two men walk with God: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself… And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him” (Luke 24). Reason without worship leads to death. In the modern western world, the great skeptics of the human tradition seek to build … Continue reading Man as Homo-Adorans
By Frederick Woodward The horror novel is a unique subset of the fiction genre. In some ways, it can be understood as confronting the whole of reality more directly than many other types of storytelling, for it deals more intimately with the negative constants of our existence: evil, corruption in men, and the perversion of the natural order. The intent here is not to disabuse … Continue reading The Horror Novel as a Means to Conversion
By Campbell Collins In his new book, Fire on the Altar: Setting Our Souls Ablaze through Augustine’s Confessions, C. C. Pecknold presents a “Catholic understanding of Augustine” (3) and thereby helps readers’ “souls to be set ablaze by that fire which burns for us in heaven and upon the Church’s high altar” (14). Pecknold’s approach is, perhaps, peculiar. The book is neither fish nor fowl: … Continue reading Fire on the Altar: A Review
By Alethia Diener In The Fellowship of the Ring, surprised at his trust for the mysterious Strider, Frodo tells the strange and rugged man he would expect a servant of Sauron to “seem fairer and feel fouler,” to which Strider responds, “I look foul and feel fair. Is that it? All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.” Encapsulating … Continue reading Look Foul and Feel Fair: Why All Churches Don’t Need to Be Beautiful
There are two things that guide humanity: reason and love. Humans alone can use language and rational deliberation, as Aristotle observes: “All men by nature desire to know.” In his philosophy, we determine through reason how virtue is a tempered response between two extremes. It leads to eudaimonia—happiness in life—through this kind of rational deduction, and makes up the telos of human existence. In this … Continue reading Love and Logos: The Wind and Sail of Human Existence
“What a piece of work is man, How noble in reason…/ and/ yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust.” Hamlet’s mournful declaration in Act II, scene 2 opens the audience up to his deeply despondent view of human nature. The prince of Denmark, fresh off his mother’s wedding to his uncle, looks at the world through graphite-colored glasses. Throughout the play, he is … Continue reading Shakespeare and the Psalmist: How Hamlet Echoes Psalm 8
Is “theosis” Biblical? What does it mean to become more like Christ? Is there anything to genetic determinism? Are our bodies a part of us that is transformed through life in Christ? Continue reading Conforming to Christ: Epigenetic Changes and the Idea of Theosis
At the end of his short work on prayer, the north African theologian Tertullian wrote something surprising about non-human animals: “The whole creation prays,” he said. Cattle and wild beasts pray, and bend their knees, and in coming forth from their stalls and lairs look up to heaven, their mouths not idle, making the spirit [or breath] move in their own fashion. Moreover the birds … Continue reading Personifying the World
Hillsdale Forum 