Everybody probably knows by now about B.B. King’s death. Fewer of you might be aware that another member of our artistic royalty passed away on the same day: the Catholic poet Franz Wright. Franz too knew the blues. He paints them with Catholic imagery in such a way that it makes you see Catholicism in a new way. It also makes you look at your failings (or are they victories in weakness?) in a new way. His poetry is “complete... Read more
I feel responsible for purifying the minds of my readers from the defiling they experienced at the hands of Michael Novak’s wayward analogy yesterday: the modern corporation as Isaiah’s Suffering Servant (Man of Sorrows). If you haven’t seen it, dare you look here? Jody Bottum’s An Anxious Age came to my rescue with a quote from Cardinal Ratzinger’s Introduction to Christianity (by the way, a book banned upon its publication by Cardinal Wyszynski in Warsaw for being too liberal). I’ve taken the liberty... Read more
Omnis analogia claudicat. Analogies limp. I think Aquinas said that. Religious language, especially the Catholic imagination, relies upon analogies between creation and the Creator in order to explain the latter. Our language always fails in this endeavor, which is why theologians say it is lame, it limps. I’m going to moderate the discussion Consecrated: Life as a Religious (facebook event page link) at the UW Newman Center tomorrow. I suspect there will be something of a discussion of where American Catholicism stands... Read more
Kevin M. Johnson is founder and director of The Inner Room. Formed in the summer of 2008, The Inner Room is a Roman Catholic lay association focusing on Christian contemplation and continuing theological education that result in works of compassionate service in the world. The Inner Room is recognized by the Hartford archdiocese and is also a member of Pax Romana – an international Roman Catholic lay association recognized by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Laity. Kevin received his... Read more
Obsessively discussing the demise of Europe is one of the favorite preoccupations of those on the American far right. For them Europe is the heartless technocracy that they don’t want in America. Whether is accurate is neither here nor there. Nor will we go into the heartlessness of America. Instead we’ll take a look at a video by Norman Davies, the Oxford historian whom we tapped in our discussion of Soviet-Russia’s indispensable role in winning World War II, a victory... Read more
Tom Brokaw’s great myth-building volume, The Great Generation, seeped into the American consciousness a couple of decades ago. The book is an implicit indictment of the American present by comparison to the disinterested and unequivocally heroic efforts of the World War II generation. Everything in America has to be the greatest, so it’s no surprise this book sold so well and then colored American perception of the past ever since. In classically American Evangelical fashion Brokaw describes his writing process... Read more
Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com and a consulting editor at the University of Pennsylvania Press. In recent years, he has taught critical writing at Penn and worked as a senior editor at Newsweek/The Daily Beast. Until December 2014 he was a contributing editor at The New Republic. Linker is the author of The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege and The Religious Test: Why We Must Question the Beliefs of Our Leaders. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street... Read more
Have you heard the one about the atheist arguing that atheists are more moral than Christians by the standards of Christianity morality? According to this precooked narrative the atheists do all the good works Christians should, plus, to ratchet up the degree of difficulty, they defend things outside the Christian canon–like gay marriage and abortion. More often than not, these atheists dogmatically believe in liberal democracy to the point where they are willing to defend it by torture, even though... Read more
The interviews are coming. The interviews are coming! Shh . . . Thursday this week will feature an interview with Damon Linker of The Week Magazine talking about political theory and his conversion to Catholicism. Tuesday next week will feature Kevin M. Johnson of Daily Theology and The Inner Room talking about practices of silence and their fundamental importance for maintaining our sanity and our connection to God. What follows is a sneak peek of the Johnson interview by way... Read more
Despite popular prejudices I am no enemy of RadTrads. For example, I’ve come to appreciate Rorate Caeli’s recent post-colonial turn. What seems clear is that political radicalism and liturgical traditionalism can, and frequently do, feed off of each other. Take, for example, the May Day episode from this Dorothy Day obituary: She herself always said Peter Maurin was the real founder. He was a Frenchman, an old supporter of Le Sillon, who combined an untroubled adherence to Catholic dogma with a... Read more
Cosmos The In Lost
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