The Tension of Belonging
Alienation has been a central concern for philosophers since at least the early nineteenth century. But the thinker who gives us perhaps the most compelling account of…
Reading the Song of Songs with St. Thomas Aquinas
For all that he wrote, for all the centuries that he has been carefully studied, Thomas Aquinas is still not well understood. There are many reasons for…
The Unity of Faith and Reason in Christian Theology
Grant Kaplan begins his theological essay with a seemingly innocuous postulate: the meaning of the terms "faith" and "reason," he asserts, have shifted throughout the 2,000 or…
The Politics of Edmund Husserl
Charles de Gaulle once famously proclaimed that he "always had a certain idea of France." On a recent trip to that enchanting country, I had the chance…
Mythos and History: A Review of Matthew Boulter’s “Repetition and Mythos: Ratzinger’s Bonaventure and the Meaning of History”
Matthew Boulter. Repetition and Mythos: Ratzinger's Bonaventure and the Meaning of History. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2022. History, as popularly conceived, is the collection of “facts”…
Seat of Faith or Seat of Reason? James Jacobs’ “Seat of Wisdom”
James M. Jacobs. Seat of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy in the Catholic Tradition. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2022. When analyzing any philosophical…
What Can Saint Thomas Aquinas Teach us About Politics? A Review of William McCormick’s “The Christian Structure of Politics”
William McCormick. The Christian Structure of Politics: On the De Regno of Thomas Aquinas. Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2022. It has long been…
Nathaniel Scudder, Our Forgotten “Founding Father”: A Review of David Fisher’s “Calvin’s Crusaders in the Wars That Made America”
Calvin’s Crusaders in the Wars That Made America: The Story of Nathaniel and Isabella Scudder. David T. Fisher. Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2021. It has often…
A Man Fully Alive: Augustine’s Conversion and Eric Voegelin’s Metaxy
Saint Augustine of Hippo lived a life in tension. Tossed about by the caprices of circumstance, wracked with intellectual doubt and inward temptation, his soul was in…