In the opening line of James Joyce’s Ulysses, stately, plump Buck Mulligan bears “a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.” Holding the bowl aloft he declares, “Introibo ad altare Dei.” Mulligan, in this symbolic action, expresses Joyce’s critique of Christianity: a combination of sadism, the razor, and narcissism, the mirror . . . Continue Reading »
One of the strangest claims often made by purveyors and consumers of today’s popular atheism is that disbelief in God involves no particular positive philosophy of reality, much less any kind of religion or creed, but consists merely in neutral incredulity toward a certain kind of factual . . . . Continue Reading »
Going the rounds on Facebook this morning is “Legalize Polygamy! No. I am not kidding.” by Jillian Keenan on Slate. She observes that “Two-parent families are not the reality for millions of American children. Divorce, remarriage, surrogate parents, . . . . Continue Reading »
This is the end—for me, the beginning of life. —Dietrich Bonhoeffer (from his last recorded words) Words to a prison friend, spoken in haste. Gestapo men had come to transfer him, Low Sunday, sixty-seven years ago Today. The next morning, he’d be hanged with others. No question who . . . . Continue Reading »
This is just my two cents on the pop culture scene. I am guilty of not watching television and being routinely clueless about the pop culture scene. Here, I lurk in wonder at who the hell has time to watch TV programs regularly. What I will do is catch up with some show friends rave . . . . Continue Reading »
Andrew Ferguson informs and amuses at The Weekly Standard about that other orthodoxy in, “The Heretic: Who is Thomas Nagel and why are so many of his fellow academics condemning him?” It is longish, but I liked it and for possibly unnatural reasons, thought some of you might like it, . . . . Continue Reading »
Christianity illuminates disability through vocation and the cross. Continue Reading »
My friend’s six-year-old son wanted to be God the Father in the Christmas pageant. He reasoned that he was too old to play the second person of the Trinity, whose part in any case had been assigned to a doll. Continue Reading »
Pope Paul VI was carried and sustained by his faith, something much stronger than anything in this world. Continue Reading »
Good preaching generally involves a tone of authoritative proclamation, but the use of microphones encourages a quieter, conversational tone from the pulpit.
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