Life is hard. Everyday we wake up and do it again, coffee in hand moments after dusting ourselves off from a half-sleepless night. We work; we try to pray. But, in the end, each day is often hard. The abstractions of faith dominate most discussions of the religion that’s supposed to keep us grounded. Politics, in many cases, is much the same. Who can retain faith and hope under such circumstances? Who can face down a corrupt, fallen world and... Read more
Poetry began my love affair with literature. Discovering Donne, seeing the ways in which language could be shaped, torn, and exploded, these propelled me from a kid who didn’t read to a doctoral student in an English department. My family did not (and does not) care that much for books; I was no different. I wanted to be a child psychiatrist; I wanted to help people, to get inside their heads and figure out what made them tick. That was... Read more
It’s weird to be a young man in times deemed “frightening” or “aberrant.” Does the child growing up in a warzone think war is anything but normal? Can a young adult think Trump is “strange” when the dynamics behind his presidency—and the opposition to it—seem to have been in play since at least 2008, if not 2004? Still, if I abstract from my fairly limited experience, I can see that these are odd times—odd times that can teach us lessons... Read more
If Catholicism came to Latin America with conquistadors, evangelicalism has found its way southward through men in suits hawking some combination of Pentecostalism and the prosperity gospel. The relationship between elites, highly Americanized pastors, and the contemporary rise of right-leaning politics in the Global South is no accident. It has definite historical origins that have affected both the rise of Jair Bolsonaro and the recent regime change in Bolivia. Whatever one’s opinion on Evo Morales, it behooves us as people... Read more
For it is the Church that gives birth to all, either within her pale, of her own womb; or beyond it, of the seed of her bridegroom—either of herself, or of her handmaid. But Esau, even though born of the lawful wife, was separated from the people of God because he quarreled with his brother. And Asher, born indeed by the authority of a wife, but yet of a handmaid, was admitted to the land of promise on account of his brotherly good-will.... Read more
I am in the midst of writing a dissertation. This often (including in my case) produces a certain relationship to reading and writing: namely, it can make people (me) disinterested in works of art, literature, film, and the like. The academic world is not generally one in which “thinking” prevails. I do not mean that there are not many smart academics (most are very intelligent!); rather, I mean that, in an academy that prizes publishing above almost all else, the... Read more
I am a Slovak-American. This means I care about something that, I imagine, fairly few of my fellow human beings do: the differences, if any may be said to exist, between Czechs and Slovaks. Until 1993, part of the same country (Czechoslovakia), these now separate nations differ in ways typically reduced to stereotypes: Slovakia is more religious, more agrarian, less educated, and, well, generally, less “developed.” There is some truth to these claims (though they are by no means unassailable... Read more
It is here and He is risen. Kanye West’s new album, Jesus is King, hit shelves (or really Spotify) a few short days ago. Never mind that the media has no idea what to do with it (Slate called the lyrics “weak”; while AV Club thought it proper to tell us what the Church of Satan thinks of Yeezy—go figure). Suspicions aside, some see this, along with Justin Bieber’s notorious conversion, as last gasps, even renewals, of the Fourth Great... Read more
As of late, I’ve seen a few discussions of modern college education on both Twitter and Facebook. The positions I’ve seen many people take really alarm me. I’m not talking about the (at this point expected) position taken by many older, more-conservative Catholics, that young people should mostly go to trade school and not worry about sinking their and their parents’ money into fancy degrees. No. What I’ve seen has been Left-leaning, young, orthodox Catholics arguing that the freshman college... Read more
Earlier, I was listening to episode six of Know Your Enemy, a podcast about Right-side politics in the United State. As the title suggests, the show is meant for Left-leaners, is intended to help them understand what exactly is going on in this country in the Year of Our Lord two thousand and nineteen. In this case, the hosts were discussing the recent National Conservatism Conference, a gathering of many elite conservatives—Yuval Levin, Peter Thiel, Yoram Hazony, Daniel McCarthy, Patrick... Read more
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