My brother Jack in Reno has a television set with about 26 channels on it. After switching to all 26 channels in rapid succession a couple of times one evening, I just about decided that when it comes to what is worth watching on TV, 26 times zero still equalled zero. Indeed, my dear mother … Read more
During last spring’s academic semester, I taught a course in Classical Political Thought. One of the texts we used in this course was Leo Strauss’s On Tyranny, which is based on Xeneophon’s Hiero. The classical treatments of tyranny, of course, are in Plato and Aristotle, but Xenephon is also of great value, especially in the … Read more
In his Autobiography, G.K. Chesterton, who as he tells us was in despair as a young man, decided finally that he had had enough of this pessimistic thought and had decided to revolt against it. He found very little help from the standard sources, he recalled: But as I was still thinking the thing out by … Read more
In an old Peanuts sketch, from a book Scott Walter once gave me, Linus and Charlie Brown are seen walking across the countryside. Linus says to Charlie, “I have a theological question. . . .” Next, they are seen, caps on, leaning on a stone fence, as Linus continues: “When you die and go to … Read more
Dennis Bartlett, in San Francisco, lent me his copy of A Spiritual Aeneid, which is Ronald Knox’s autobiography, first published in 1918. Dennis has a 1958 Sheed & Ward edition with a Preface by Evelyn Waugh. I actually intend to return this book someday. As I also have an edition of The Pastoral Sermons of … Read more
“For who will dare to say or believe that it was not in God’s power to prevent both angels and men from sinning? But God preferred to leave this in their power, and thus to show both what evil could be wrought by their pride, and what good by His grace.” —St. Augustine, City of … Read more
One Saturday afternoon in Washington, I chanced to buy a day-old Washington Times on K Street. Walking up 20th Street, I noticed an article entitled, “Virginia ‘Prohibition’ Cramps Life on Campus.” “Oh, those poor dears,” I thought to myself, “how can they possibly survive in such austerity?” Coincidently, I had been reading Aquinas on the … Read more
In Woody Allen’s film, Manhattan, someone remarked to Allen, playing the part of a somewhat confused intellectual, “Just who do you think you are — God or something?” Woody Allen turned pensive for a moment and replied, “Well, a fella has to have a role model of some sort, you know.” Almost the whole of … Read more
In G.K. Chesterton’s essay, “Dickens and Christmas,” we read that “in fighting for Christmas, he [Dickens] was fighting for the old European festival, Pagan and Christian, for that trinity of eating, drinking and praying which to moderns appears irreverent, for the holy day which is really a holiday.” What strikes me about this particular passage … Read more
Book III, Chapter 7 of St. Augustine’s Confessions is entitled, marvelously: He Deplores His Wretchedness, That Having Been Born Thirty-Two Years, He Had Not Yet Found Out The Truth. In a culture whose public (oftentimes even ecclesiastical) doctrine, is theoretical “pluralism” — that is, that there is no “truth” but one’s own private feelings — … Read more
My brother-in-law, Jerry Vertin, in Steven’s Point, Wisconsin, has a collection of Gilbert and Sullivan records. While I visited this summer, I was listening to the Yeoman of the Guard, which came with a printed libretto. In Act I, I came across the following passage of Jack Point: My masters, I pray you bear with … Read more
On Pentecost, 1986, John Paul II published a fundamental encyclical, Dominum et Vivificantem, on the “Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the World.” This encyclical is meant to be the third part of a series on the Trinity — still, as Frank Sheed used to remark, the most fascinating of topics to … Read more
For a course I gave recently on political philosophy and natural law, one of the books I had wanted to read, or reread, with my good class was C. S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man, a book I realized I had not taken a look at for some time, though its powerful theme has almost … Read more
The other day I received from Terry Hall at Catholicism in Crisis something of an assignment. During Lent, it seems, Terry had been reading The Private Prayers of Lancelot Andrewes. A certain passage kept recurring in them which went, in the Morning Prayer, “A good answer at the dreadful and fearful judgment seat of Jesus … Read more
Eric Voegelin’s thesis that Gnostic ideology is dominant in the modern mind, including the religious mind, because of the weakness of Christian faith, has been much on my mind of late. In a sense, nothing is more curious than the susceptibility of apparently free, intelligent Christians to ideologies, which have parodied or replaced Christianity, even … Read more
The typical farmer in the U.S. understands the real problem: abundance. Food production is now so great and food stocks in the world so high that U.S. farmers are suffering economically. Agriculture yields per-acre have continued to rise throughout most of this century and this has been accomplished with a rapidly decreasing proportion of the … Read more
April 9, 1773, was Good Friday. For breakfast, James Boswell and Samuel Johnson had “tea and cross-buns.” From their morning repast they went to the lovely Church of St. Clement Danes, where Johnson had a “seat.” During the service, Boswell carefully observed Johnson and judged his demeanor to be “solemnly devout.” Boswell went on: “I … Read more
In Rome, on November 9, 1985, John Paul II addressed the sundry presidents and rectors of Jesuit colleges and universities in the world. (L’Osservatore Romano, English, Dec. 2, 1985.) The Pope began by praising university work and expressed his gratification for those who engage in it. He noted the special relationship that historically has existed … Read more
During a coffee break at the Old Post Office Building in Washington, I chanced into a conversation with Mr. Marcus Cohn, the noted communications lawyer, and Mr. George Farr of the Staff of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Mr. Cohn was congratulating Mr. Farr because he was, like Mr. Cohn, sporting a bow tie. … Read more
Tom and Barbara Donohue—now in Los Angeles—I had known during my early Roman days, when Tom was in the legal division of the Navy at the Embassy on the Via Veneto. When I came to Georgetown in the late 70s, they—such was my good fortune—had me look up Don and Connie Kerwin, old friends of … Read more