Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Rubens The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Pearl of the Human Race, celebrates the crowning achievement of a life well-lived—the most well-lived life, in fact. It is obviously more than this complimentary recognition offers, but it can’t be less than that. What more shall we … Continue reading Assumption and The Lachrymose Covenant
The worst thing I could do would be to lie to you, to myself, about where this all began. I could spin a yarn about my conversion, but that would be either an exercise in historical ressentiment or a tepid cataloging of events and complaints. Yet, should I deign to speak of a “reflective-narrative assessment,” … Continue reading On Becoming Catholic
“In fact, while the climate of widespread moral uncertainty can in some way be explained by the multiplicity and gravity of today's social problems, and these can sometimes mitigate the subjective responsibility of individuals, it is no less true that we are confronted by an even larger reality, which can be described as a veritable … Continue reading Towards a Thanatocene Spirituality
C.S. Lewis narrates the psychology of self-deception in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He presents an ambiguous anthropology that is distinctly non-Augustinian, where deviance and wickedness are divorced from inherent evil: “You mustn’t think that even now Edmund was quite so bad that he actually wanted his brother and sisters to be turned into … Continue reading The Eschatology of Turkish Delight
In a helpful companion, The Best Poems of the English Language: From Chaucer Through Robert Frost, its editor Harold Bloom describes William Morris (1834–1896) as a “gifted lyrical and narrative poet.” It’s an uncontroversial description but perhaps a tad laconic, as is the rest of his two paragraph summary of Morris’ poetic reputation. Nevertheless, Bloom’s selection … Continue reading Edenic Memory in Morris: Allegory in “A Garden by the Sea”
