The Time Being: W.H. Auden on Joy, Suffering, and the Space After Christmas
This year, more than any other year, my social media feed has been flooded with jokes about the limitless, uncountable, unmeasurable stretch of time between Christmas and…
Getting to Know the Older Eric Voegelin
Eric Voegelin is one of the most prominent political theorists of the 20th century. Many theorists associate his name with the following works: The Political Religions (1938),…
VoegelinView Year in Review
2023 has capped off an important year of transformation for VOEGELINVIEW. Our change into a public journal of the arts and humanities, cultural and intellectual criticism, and…
Another Odyssey
Odysseus Mad Odysseus makes us row To certain death at double speed. How much further have we to go, Till into sea our lives last-bleed? War is…
A Message from David Walsh
Dear Friends, I apologize for interrupting the always welcome interlude between Christmas and the New Year, but the days of tranquillity may also provide an opportunity for some…
What is a “Conservative” Catholic?
70 years ago, Frederick Wilhelmsen, the enigmatic philosopher and prolific Catholic writer, took to the pages of Commonweal to describe, in a symposium on the topic, “The…
Leroy Anderson: Musical Genius in Miniature
What would the Christmas season be without Sleigh Ride, the beloved orchestral chestnut by Leroy Anderson? It’s one of those festive selections endlessly piped into our ears on…
Persephone’s Prayer
In Greek mythology, Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, rescues her daughter, Persephone, from eternal winter in Hades and restores her to the land of the living…
A Christmas Carol Reflection
May Christmas be a time of good cheer for you, your family, your loved ones. During this ingathering of family and friends, stories are usually shared about…
The Spiritual Architecture of Handel’s “Messiah”
George Frederic Handel is one of the most recognizable names in classical music, even if most people only know his name for the Hallelujah Chorus of “Messiah.”…
The Art World’s Greatest Scandal: An Unveiling of the Salvator Mundi
Reading Alex LaFollette’s Selling Leonardo: The Art World’s Greatest Scandal, A Memoir began by taking me back to a night in 2017. It was the night Leonardo…
Has The Whole World Been Blessed?
Let’s start where the story starts. Abram is living in Ur of the Chaldees when, without explanation or preamble, God – the God of history – says…
Tolkien’s Theology and the Creation of Middle-earth
Back In the late 1960s, when I was a young teenager and an aspiring hippie of the Tolkienesque persuasion, it was fashionable to be seen with the…
How Christian Schools Can Save the True Meaning of Christmas
It’s a regular Wednesday afternoon in mid-December, and I walk to the teacher’s lounge to pick up copies of books. Upon entering the teacher’s lounge, lo and…
Luminous Darkness
This luminous darkness gently guiding, Past dim deluding lights that deform sight, In dancing stillness lies meaning, hiding, From the vapid visions of passing light. The silence…