Beaver Pond
Gently we walk the path by beaver pond, amid bracken and brush, we are whirred by Egyptian-like plagues of blue-eyed, winged invertebrates. Not enough to break branch…
Multyfarnham Abbey
Sandstone speckled stone walls, in eventide communicate sun’s daily worship. Atmosphere is tensed by sweat of brow and hands of prayer. As pilgrims our hearts and minds…
What The Person Means
David Walsh’s Person Means Relation (hereafter, Person) is a singular and captivating philosophical sonata on the human person. It is worthy of careful attention by both scholars…
Common Good Capitalism and Democracy: Thomas Spragens’s “Capitalism and Democracy: Prosperity, Justice, and the Good Society”
Thomas A. Spragens. Capitalism and Democracy: Prosperity, Justice and the Good Society. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2021. Professor Spragens specializes in modern…
Language, Friendship, and Communion: Eastern and Western Perspectives
What we share as human beings are the unique ability for language and the capacity for friendship. These are like windows opening us up to our essential…
The Capable Human Being: Giving and Receiving in the life and Thought of Paul Ricoeur
French philosopher Paul Ricoeur (1913–2005) was born in Valence, Drôme. He came from a devout family of Huguenots (a Protestant minority). He was orphaned at an early…
Emmanuel Levinas: Horizons on the Face of the ‘Other’
Emmanuel Levinas (1905-1995) was a French Jewish philosopher born in Kaunas, Lithuania. He studied philosophy in Strasburg, France. In 1940 he was captured by the Nazis and…
Simone Weil on the Grace and Gravity of Who We Are
Living like caged birds Simone Weil (1909-1943) was born to Jewish parents in Paris. She entered the École normale supérieure, university of Paris in 1928. Afterwards, Simone taught…
Stairway to the ‘Other:’ Edith Stein’s Insights on the Person
We go for our people Edith and Rosa Stein both died at Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland in 1942. The story is told how when the Nazis…
Who am I? Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Journey to the Center of the Person
Who am I? In a poem written before his execution at Flossenbürg concentration camp, Dietrich Bonhoeffer asks ‘Whom am I? This or the Other?’ He explains how…
A Narrative of Fraternity for our Times: How American abolitionist Frederick Douglass connected with an Irish Politician
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass witnessed the beginnings of the Irish famine horrors firsthand. He arrived in Ireland in 1845, at the invitation of the Hibernian Anti-Slavery Society, the…
The Priority of the Person: Political, Philosophical, and Historical Discoveries
The Priority of the Person: Political, Philosophical, and Historical Discoveries. David Walsh. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2020. For ‘unsuspecting readers:’ In the…