This week’s article at The Imaginative Conservative is an abridged version of a chapter from my book The Romance of Religion This is why the hobbit (and Alice’s rabbit) lived down a hole. The hole was the entrance to the underworld. This is why Dante went through a dark wood and found a hole down into the underworld. This is why Neo goes into the alternative world in The Matrix, and why Batman lives in a cave. The heroes were all going... Read more

Let me say right up front that I hope hell is not eternal. I hope God finds a way to offer his forgiveness even to those who are in hell. In fact, I’ll jump on the speculative theological bandwagon and propose that God’s mercy–since it is everlasting–will extend even to hell. I know I am treading on thin ice theologically, but let us affirm for the sake of argument that God is not willing for any to perish (2 Pt... Read more

  My post for Aleteia this week compares the preaching method and message of Billy Graham and Pope Francis. I sometimes think the Pope is more Evangelical than Billy Graham. Like most Evangelicals of his generation, Graham was famous for inviting people to turn from their sins and have a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” Time and again Pope Francis uses similar language. Echoing his two predecessors, Francis invites his hearers to the “encounter with Christ.” For both Billy Graham... Read more

As Kentucky clerk Kim Davis does jail time I have been thinking all day about her case compared to St Thomas More. What should a Christian do when their conscience clashes with the law of the land? When they actually work for the government the situation is different than that of an ordinary citizen. Thomas More was expected, as Chancellor of England, to affirm the King’s supremacy and condone the  King’s illicit marriage. He could not do so in his... Read more

I finally got the chance to watch Little Boy –the family film that came out in theaters last summer and is now released on DVD When his dad enlists in the army and disappears to fight the Japanese, seven year old Pepper Busbee’s world is shattered. Wanting to get his Dad back, he learns that magic won’t work, so he turns to faith. A kindly priest played by Tom Wilkinson explains that faith involves not just prayer, but helping others. Pepper’s big challenge... Read more

In Catholic theology “invincible ignorance” is simply the lack of knowledge about the faith for which a person is not held responsible. So, for example, primitive people who have never heard the gospel, infant who have yet to learn,  and people who because of mental illness or disability cannot learn the faith. The term has entered popular culture however, to refer to a person who stubbornly refuses to acknowledge facts, data or reasoning. In our popular culture a huge number... Read more

My article this week at Imaginative Conservative is a discussion of morality in movies–using two examples of film noir to show how good and evil can be treated in filmic storytelling. The smart thing about film noir is that we identify with an ordinary good character who is drawn into evil. We are thrilled as we share his fear of being caught, and we dread the punishment with him. The intriguing part of Double Indemnity is that we see ourselves as ordinary people like Walter... Read more

Yesterday’s post on universalism deserves a follow up. If there is such a place as hell, and we are assured by the gospel and by common sense that there is, who will go there and why? Does God send people to suffer for all eternity in hell? Why would he do that if he is a God of everlasting mercy and love? Sending people to be tortured forever doesn’t really fit with an all loving God does it? If there... Read more