Arts & Letters

A selection of recent articles on this topic

My Father’s Father’s Body

Stephen Kampa

My grandpa built a go-cart out of junk:An old lawnmower engine, scraps of metal, A cupboard door,…

In Praise of the “New Alarmism”

Charles J. Chaput

Let’s start with two simple facts. All of us have limited time. Most of us have limited…

​Comfort Food

Claudia Gary

Lentils and barley,water and salt,split peas and pasta—pure to a fault— stir until clouded,season to taste,boil and…

The Rise of Dystopian Nonfiction

K. E. Colombini

I have been fascinated by dystopias since my youth—a youth full of sci-fi movies with grim visions…

Getting to Larisa

David Bentley Hart

Plotinus: Myth, Metaphor, and Philosophical Practiceby stephen r. l. clarkuniversity of chicago, 336 pages, $55 Probably nothing…

The K-T Boundary

Robert W. Crawford

The Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary is a distinct layer in the rock strata laid down about 65 million…

The Persecution of Professor Esolen

George Weigel

Professor Anthony Esolen is a bright jewel in the crown of Catholic higher education in the United…

Books for Christmas 2016

George Weigel

Take a stand against the electrification of reading and consider the following, in properly bound form, as…

Tinsel, Frankincense, and Fir

Dana Gioia

Hanging old ornaments on a fresh cut tree,I take each red glass bulb and tinfoil seraphAnd blow…

Letters

Various

No Authority As a practicing general pediatrician, I appreciated Dr. Leonard Sax’s article “Don’t Ask the Kids”…

Escaping the Narcisphere

Chris R. Morgan

The Selfishness of Others: An Essay on the Fear of Narcissism Kristin DombekFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 160…

​Aristotle and the Elections

John Cuddeback

Elections can make you wonder about where you live. It can be frightening to share so little…

The Gospel According to Jack Chick

Samuel D. James

Jack Chick passed away last week. If the name sounds obscure, would it help if I mentioned…

Suzuki Method Uberparenting

Betsy VanDenBerghe

My oldest child started piano lessons back in the nineties, due to somewhat base parental motives. A…

A Flurry of Owls

Brian Doyle

Once again a child asks me suddenly What is a poem?,And once again I find myself riffing…