Philip Jenkins

If the Ministry of Truth had devoted their full attention to obliterating the memory of Harry Sylvester, his elimination from the public consciousness could not have been more total. Born in 1908, Sylvester seemed by the 1930s set for a career as a Major Catholic Writer. After graduating from Notre . . . . Continue Reading »

Though prophecy rarely lends itself to empirical verification, one exception might be an observation of St. Vincent de Paul’s, writing about the year 1640. This was one of the grimmest periods of European history, the most desperate days of the Thirty Years’ War. In those awful days, Vincent . . . . Continue Reading »

Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality By Leigh Eric Schmidt HarperSanFrancisco, 352 pages, $26.95 Where two or three Americans are gathered, they will sooner or later discuss religion. In blue states and cities, the tone of the conversation normally resembles that of worried Londoners . . . . Continue Reading »

Human Accomplishment:  the Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 BC to 1950.by Charles Murray.Harper Collis.  668 pp. $29.95 Charles Murray has an admirable penchant for tackling very ambitious topics, and, in the process, raising challenging questions. Those qualities are . . . . Continue Reading »

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When the Pope visited the United States last fall, the media indulged in a predictably frenzied examination of the general state of “crisis” in the American Catholic Church. Oddly, though, few reporters devoted space to what only a few years previously would have been described as the . . . . Continue Reading »