Book Reviews – June 2019

The Catholic Writer Today and Other Essays By Dana Gioia. Reviewed by Ken Colombini. (skip to review) Raymond E. Brown and the Catholic Biblical Renewal By Fr. Donald E. Senior. Reviewed by Rev. John P. Cush, STD. (skip to … [Read more...]

Pope Benedict XVI’s Theology of Beauty and the New Evangelization

“I have often affirmed my conviction that the true apology of Christian faith, the most convincing demonstration of its truth…are the saints and the beauty that the faith has generated.”[1. Joseph Ratzinger, “The Feeling of Things, the Conte … [Read more...]

Division

It is good to begin one’s search for truth with the awareness that we are always limited in our possession of truth. That limitation does not mean truth is unattainable.    What Is Truth? by Nickolai Ge, 1890. From the earliest times, his … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Does the Church state that there is an ideal form of government? What Magisterial status does the teaching of the popes on contraception enjoy?  Can it be changed?  Must we believe it? Plato, St. Thomas Aquinas, and A … [Read more...]

Contemplation, Action, and the Good Life

Everyone is seeking knowledge, but is the knowledge they are seeking really worth the trade-off in terms of the life’s cost?      Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas Everyone familiar with the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition will recognize … [Read more...]

On “Whose God Is God?”

The problem is not with God. The problem is already located in the classical Garden in Genesis, the question of man preferring his own world to that more noble world that God has destined him for, and in which, being the kind of being he … [Read more...]

“It Belongs to the Wise Man to Order”: James Schall on Politics and Revelation

The wise man not only has the right order in his mind, but in his soul as well; he not only knows how he ought to live, but, more importantly, he does, in fact, live this way, in accord with what he is. Fr. Norris Clarke, the renowned … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Many politicians have claimed that though they are Catholic, they are in favor of a woman’s right to choose whatever is necessary for her reproductive health. Can you comment on this attitude? Some couples have chosen to practice c … [Read more...]

On Thinking the Actual World Out of Existence

The scanty conceptions to which we can attain of celestial things give us, from their excellence, more pleasure than all the knowledge of the world in which we live; just as a half-glimpse of persons that we love is more delightful than a … [Read more...]

Thinking as a Christian with Josef Pieper

In an age when society is again becoming highly polarized, it is important to remember that the lack of real communication causes a breakdown in civility, and an increase in ignorance.   During his long lifetime, Josef Pieper (1904-1997) … [Read more...]