The Odyssey of Saint Augustine
In 430 A.D., with the Vandals laying siege to the city of Hippo, Augustine of Hippo died with Count Boniface by his side. The Roman general was…
Justice Returns to the Sources
The Art of the Good. Valentin Tomberg, translated by Stephen Churchyard and James T. Wetmore. Angelico Press, 2021. Fiction will never really be able to compete…
Being Called Beyond the Wall
The Four Wise Men. Michel Tournier (Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1997). The gospel stories are about movement—Jesus comes to a town, crosses to the…
Christians, Jews, and The Great Rift
I prefer to think of that world-historical-fault-line as a long, reparable misunderstanding. Whether or not that’s the right view, personally I want to patch it up. Yet…
Notes on Pope Pius IX and Science in Light of the Syllabus of Errors
Introduction Few in the Roman See have elicited such strong emotions and evaluations, both in his own era and in ours, regarding guidance of the Catholic church…
Science and Religion Revisited: A Provocative Lesson for Today’s Christians
For decades, now, debates on “Science versus Religion” have remained by and large inconclusive.[1] Could this be due to the debates’ having been systematically framed conceptually by…
John Courtney Murray and the American Civic Psyche
We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition. John Courtney Murray, S.J. London: Sheed & Ward, 2005. Reading John Courtney Murray’s famous work, We…
Hebraic Exceptionalism and Western Exceptionalism
Western civilization is back in vogue, or, at least, is starting to have defenders again in the midst of civilizational malaise, crisis, and desecration. But what is…
Etienne Gilson’s The Metamorphoses of the City of God
The Metamorphoses of the City of God. Etienne Gilson, translated by James G. Colbert. Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2020. In Etienne Gilson’s The…
Christianity and Globalism
Human culture owes its existence to the shedding of innocent blood. However, Christianity reveals the scapegoat mechanism. The supporters of Jesus defied the majority and vocally protested…
My First Teaching Non-Anxiety Dream
I don’t know how many academics and former academics have teaching anxiety dreams, but mine followed me even after stepping down from active faculty status. You can…
Love and Other Conversions
Sometimes individuals change not only their belief systems but their deepest selves and life orientations. Conversion, in the empirical sense, usually refers to a person’s newfound acceptance…
Notes on Early Marx, Religion, and Recent Scholarship on Marxism and Religion
Introduction St. Augustine’s City of God offers a vision of harmony that serves as a lasting contrast with the conflict model of reality espoused by the Dialectical…
Remembering the American Century: George Weigel’s Not Forgotten
Not Forgotten: Elegies for, and Reminiscences of, a Diverse Cast of Characters, Most of Them Admirable. George Weigel. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2020. Eerily debuting almost…
Resisting a Secularized American Founding
Did America Have a Christian Founding? Separating Modern Myth from Historical Truth. Mark David Hall. Nashville: Nelson Books, 2019. The argument over what it means to…