On Blood Moons and Babylonian Whores
by Brandon D. SmithApproaching Revelation as a prediction of imminent catastrophe is far from how John intended his audience to understand his vision. Continue Reading »
The Scandal and Allure of the Priesthood
by Philip TartagliaThe priesthood—like the Mass, the Church, and God—must be set apart, no matter how much it scandalizes the secular world. Continue Reading »
Questions of Competence
by George WeigelA recent article in La Civiltà Cattolica grossly misrepresented American religious history; what kind of vetting did it get? Continue Reading »
Make Hell Hot Again
by Marc BarnesI have a problem with hell that goes beyond squeamishness. The problem is one of inserting the damned into God’s endgame, his final fix—creation brought to its triumphant completion. Doesn’t the presence of everlasting torment put a damper on the success story? I went to Aquinas for . . . . Continue Reading »
My Shamanic Healing
by Matthew SchmitzWhen I last visited New Orleans, the Robert E. Lee Monument was being used as an altar. Two voodoo priestesses, turbans atop their heads, scattered gunpowder and grave dirt on the granite plinth. With splendid indifference to those who had erected the memorial, they summoned their gods through an . . . . Continue Reading »
Letters
by VariousR. R. Reno is sympathetic to nationalism because he sees it as a reaction against disenchantment (“Return of the Strong Gods,” May). While I agree that “the banishment of love from our politics is creating the populism that presently troubles us,” it doesn’t strike me that this populism . . . . Continue Reading »
Briefly Noted
by Nathaniel PetersOn the Road to Vatican II: German Catholic Enlightenment and Reform of the Churchby ulrich l. lehnerfortress, 414 pages, $49 On the Road to Vatican II focuses on German and Austrian theological debates in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as examples of the Catholic Enlightenment. Historians . . . . Continue Reading »
Dying of Despair
by Aaron KheriatyOn November 4, 2014, sixteen-year-old Cameron Lee, a popular, athletic, straight-A student at Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California, leapt in front of a commuter train. His suicide note provided no clear reason for his act; there were no apparent signs of mental illness, and he was . . . . Continue Reading »
Observe His Prayer
by Shalom CarmyAt the outset of Moby Dick, Father Mapple preaches to a congregation of whalers. His text is the Book of Jonah, and it stands out as one of the most enjoyable fictional sermons of all time. After God has assigned him the task of preaching repentance to the city of Nineveh, Jonah flees “with . . . . Continue Reading »
The Jew’s Lament
by Cole S. AronsonThe Ninth of Av commemorates the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem, catastrophes whose repercussions are still endured by Jews today. Continue Reading »
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