Americans bought two billion books last year, more than seven for every man, woman, child, and alternatively gendered reader from sea to shining sea. The jubilant purveyors of these figures reassure us that only a quarter of those books were “mass-market paper-backs”—which is to say, typeset trash. But why the fact that a mere half-billion … Read more
One of the great philosophical gossips of all time, Diogenes Laertius, reports a pointed conversation that took place in the ancient world. Someone, he says, once asked a certain Arcesilaus why it was that people from various philosophical schools moved to Epicureanism, but no Epicurean ever converted to another philosophy. Arcesilaus replied tersely: “Because men … Read more
National Cultures are strange things. Those of us impudent enough to talk about the way that the United States or some other nation seems headed face a big hurdle. How can you characterize what more than a quarter of a billion strangers are thinking, feeling, and doing at a particular moment? Anyone who has puzzled … Read more
This month marks the 35th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council. It was on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 1965, that Paul VI officially and solemnly closed perhaps the greatest Catholic event in the last 100 years, declaring, “This immense and extraordinary assembly is disbanded.” In middle age, like … Read more
Among the pagan myths, none had a larger echo in Christian culture than the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Orpheus was a musician and poet who could move not only human beings but even rocks and trees. These powers were clearly a symbol of art’s capacity to order the world and reveal the beauty in … Read more
“Private property has really harmed Individualism, and obscured it, by confusing a man with what he possesses. It has led Individualism entirely astray. It has made gain not growth its aim. So that man thought that the important thing was to have, and did not know that the important thing is to be. The true … Read more
One of the most amusing moments in the run up to this election came when a reporter asked George W. Bush the name of his favorite political philosopher. No one, not even the most rabid Bush supporter, remotely supposed that the Texas governor has spent much time with the works of John Rawls or Leo … Read more
As we enter the silly season of another presidential campaign, the conscientious Christian finds himself, as in most things, situated in the midst of a delicate paradox. On the one hand, we have seen a string of real-life absurdities in recent politics that exceeds the imaginative powers of the great humorists. Phrases like “It all … Read more
André Malraux, the courageous and large-hearted French Resistance fighter who later served as minister of culture under Charles de Gaulle, is often quoted as having said, “The 21st century will be religious, or it will not be at all.” No thinking person can disagree. But in the opening pages of his memoirs, Malraux recounts a … Read more
We have just reenacted the resurrection of Christ at Easter and are waiting in the in-between time for His ascension and Pentecost. In such an atmosphere, the weary Catholic Culture Warrior in a morally decaying America has no reason to feel embattled, much less embittered. The main things of the faith are secure and the … Read more
A petition in a litany written, I believe, by Cardinal Merry del Val, wisely asks: “From rashly entering the clergy, free us Jesus.” The problem is less common today than in his time. But we have a whole host of people rashly ready to step into pseudoclerical and other highly sensitive roles for which they … Read more
As I Was walking in Washington, D.C., during the coldest day in January, a prayer suddenly entered my mind for whomever would be sleeping outside that night. I do not normally worry about strangers. Indeed, I’d just been furiously daydreaming about how to explain to contributors why a capital city research institute could do even … Read more
The other day, I was working in my office at home when my ten-year-old daughter, Natalie, came in. On the age-old child’s understanding that all adults sitting quietly are really waiting for something to do, she started poking into various things and asking me about them. There’s not much in an older person’s library to … Read more
Repentance is good for the soul. In the past few decades, the Church has been called upon from various quarters to repent for her misdeeds over the 20 Christian centuries. And John Paul II has openly admitted some of the faults of Catholics: the Inquisition, the Galileo fiasco, the Church’s acquiescence in the brutalities of … Read more
No one knows the date of Christ’s birth, neither the year nor the day. For most of human history, people have not been as careful about time as we are—even when it involved the most influential man who ever lived. But whoever decided during the long years of the Church’s persecution by the Roman Empire … Read more
Honesty is the best policy—at least for us mere mortals who have to live with our neighbors and friends in ordinary relationships. For politicians and intellectuals, however, lies, particularly “big” lies, have spectacular benefits. In the twilight of the Clinton years, it takes a really big lie to make us sit up and take notice. … Read more
Is there a soul, so innocent in this fair land who opens the morning paper expecting to find there what is going on in America and the world? Perhaps in some of the more provincial areas like New York City or Los Angeles, isolated tribes still retain the primitive belief that the local Times gives … Read more
I have only known two Mafia members in my life. One, whose son (an “accountant”) lives across the street from my mother and father, disappeared, then turned up frozen solid in the trunk of a car a few winters back. The other was one of the oddest human beings I have ever met. I only … Read more
Any thinking person today senses something wrong with modern society. Despite the phenomenal prosperity and security we enjoy, we intuit that things are just not right. We point to crime, family breakdown, or spectacular school violence. But particular issues do not get at a deeper question. Fortunately, a brilliant formulation has recently appeared from Francis … Read more
As we all learned at mother’s knee, we should not judge by appearances. Indeed, as our Lord told us, we are not supposed to judge in an ultimate sense at all. But an incarnational religion has to take seriously what the material world shows. I write in the immediate after-math of the horrible massacre at … Read more