The Pope Francis bookclub post will run on Wednesday, since the chapter seemed apropos for the beginning of Lent. In a time when Hollywood is producing gritty remakes of well nigh everything, it might be appropriate to look back at one of my favorite works on how to live in an irrevocable corrupt world. Today, at Ethika Politika, I’m discussing the tragic love that the Demon Barber of Fleet Street still bears the Moral Law in Sweeney Todd. Bond’s Sweeney, when... Read more
This month, Jen Fulwiler’s randomized saint assigner spun up St. Ulrich of Augsburg for me, who was apparently the first saint to be canonized. That’s not the first saint to be recognized, but in 933, he was the first to be officially canonized by the pope, instead of having veneration root itself solely through the consensus of the laity. St. Ulrich is the saint who will be ushering me into Lent, but I’ll confess I’m a little unsure what to do with... Read more
— 1 — I enjoyed the heck out of this collection of famous first lines from classic novels, diagrammed by the Reed-Kellogg method. And that link wound up leading me down a very enjoyable rabbit hole on the history of linguistics and sentence diagramming. — 2 — Perhaps this is the appropriate time to mention that, when I was in high school, I wanted to start a nerdy band called The Strict Grammarians that would sing pop-y love songs... Read more
I’d never read or seen Coriolanus before a group of friends and I went out to see Tom Hiddleston as the eponymous lead in an NT Live broadcast. During intermission, one of my friends leaned across our block of seats to say, “I’ve guess this is the methadone to my House of Cards addiction.” In Coriolanus, the title character is a great general, but flounders when his friends try to elevate him as a Roman Consul. His apparent arrogance and disdain for the... Read more
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is on the horizon, and, not 24 hours after the American Atheists announce that they’d registered for a booth, they were unceremoniously ejected by the organizers. Over at my day job, I interviewed both Dave Silverman, head of the American Atheists, and Edwina Rogers, leader of the Secular Coalition for America. They’re both self-described conservatives, and they talked about why atheists should want to reach out to conservatives and vice versa, as well as... Read more
PEG has a great essay up on the odd way our culture has settled into talking about marriage: But the problem is that [“marriage is awesome“] is an inversion of the Biblical theology of marriage. The root is Protestant. In his urge to torch his own vows, Luther built an exalted theology of marriage as the summit of Christian life (completely ignoring Paul, #solascriptura). The Protestant communities, separated from the apostolic Church, lost the great gift of the Holy Spirit... Read more
In 2014, I’m reading and blogging through Pope Francis/Cardinal Bergoglio’s Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus. Every Monday, I’ll be writing about the next meditation in the book, so you’re welcome to peruse them all and/or read along. When Pope Francis described the experiences of the prophets, an inheritance to which we are called, I didn’t recognize myself in this description of their plight. These experiences of our ancestors in the faith should encourage us greatly. When we realize we are... Read more
The release of Kerry Weber’s Mercy in the City: How to Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Visit the Imprisoned, and Keep Your Day Job is well timed for Lent. If you’re of a mind to, you could finish this slim spiritual memoir before Ash Wednesday and let it inform your choices of sacrifices. Weber, a Mercy Associate and managing editor at America magazine, decides that for Lent, she’ll try to practice the seven Corporal Works of Mercy: To... Read more
Over at my day job, I’ve gotten to write about two of my major hobbyhorses recently. First in “Did We Mess Up on Mammograms?” I got to gloss the big study on the efficacy of breast cancer screening, nerd out about history/philosophy of medicine, and design an infographic. While we remain torn between the old recommendation and the new, it’s tempting to stick which the more interventionist option. Doctors and patients would like the comfort of knowing they did something even if what... Read more
I’m so pleased with the way in which my Catholic sensibilities were referenced in this conversation between two affianced friends of mine in California: Me (It made sense at the time I think): You have a head and therefore you are cute Alicorn: Poofs are cute Me: Sufficient, not necessary Alicorn: Naked mole rats aren’t cute Me: They aren’t? I know those star nosed ones aren’t cute Alicorn: Those are different but neither is cute Me: Spiders have heads, but... Read more
Unequally Yoked
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