|
Professor, Artist, Editor, Publisher, Translator, Holy Man, Gentleman, Friend to a Multitude, and a Helluva Companion for Laughter and Story
Published in The Catholic Thing February 1, 2010
February 02, 2010 :: Filed in: The Catholic Thing
Our friend Ralph has slipped behind the clouds, out where the Sun is brightest. He will still be with us.
I can't think of any man in our time who accomplished more in one lifetime, in more different spheres, with a wider array of talents. He seemed to be laughing all the time. No one was so steady a gusher of puns, not least in the titles of his novels: On This Rockne, Frigor Mortis, The Emerald Aisle . . . even in his introduction to the philosophy of St.Thomas Aquinas, his guide for “Peeping Thomists.”
A dinner with Ralph was a feast of stories. Also, probes by him to follow up on his curiosities. Also, seeking your opinions. Tales of the latest “progressive” outrages, followed by kind words for the particular persons being singled out. New projects he was thinking of, and what do you think of this? Puns, of course, and an endless appetite for new funny stories and the telling of the latest of his own
Read more »
Michael and Karen: A Love Story
Published by Hadley Arkes in The Catholic Thing September 2, 2009
September 02, 2009 :: Filed in: The Catholic Thing
Michael Novak, after considerable strain, decided to leave the seminary in Rome; he would head back home to America and to graduate work at Harvard. In time he would draw a worldwide audience for his writings in theology, philosophy, economics, politics, even sports. But he would arrive at Harvard to begin his graduate studies, in his late twenties, with an accomplishment rare for graduate students: a novel already published. The Tiber Was Silver was the story of a young seminarian, written with all of the color and the authenticity of one writing from within the experience actually lived.
In the novel, the young seminarian, Richard McKay struggles with the question of whether he is truly fitted for the priestly life. He responds to the doubts registered by his superior, Padre Bracciano, and he admits that: “He was worldly. He did love art, love the cities, love people: everything captivated him! Governments, reforms, proposals, everything about the earthly city.”
The young seminarian meets an attractive young woman, an artist, and he is evidently drawn. The challenge facing the writer was to convey just how much Richard, the seminarian, was attracted and yet how plausible was his decision not “to go over the wall” and turn away from the priesthood to the world of marriage.
But Michael did himself go over that wall. And just a few years later he met that young artist in Cambridge. They met for lunch, as she was seeking advice from a young Catholic as earnest as she was, and she was indeed, as the novel anticipated, arrestingly attractive. This was Karen Laub, sprung from Iowa. She had been schooled at Carleton College, and she was returning from Europe, where she had studied painting with Oscar Kokoschka in Vienna. The lunch extended into dinner, and into a conversation that would go on until the hours of the morning.
Read more »
"Caritas in Veritate" Symposium
Published in The Catholic Thing Online July 8, 2009
July 08, 2009 :: Filed in: The Catholic Thing
The four main ideas in the new Encyclical Caritas in Veritate are communion, gift, caritas, and truth. Undoubtedly, this is the most theological, most specifically Catholic, of all social encyclicals since 1891. Its aim is to show the divine context of political economy and the drama of its upward-leaping tongues of fire: its inspiration, its aspiration.
Read more »
Why Did God Command Evil Deeds?
Published in The Catholic Thing May 4, 2009
May 05, 2009 :: Filed in: The Catholic Thing
Two different persons have told me recently that they cannot accept a God who commanded Moses and others to do evil. One challenge came by email, and the other came from my fifteen-year old granddaughter. They asked me to explain how I can accept a God who commanded Moses and others in the Old Testament – good people – to do bad things? Among many examples, God ordered Moses and his army to execute the Midianites, not only the men, but the women and male children. The virgin girls they are to keep for themselves. Initially, the Israelites resisted this command, and Moses had to give the harsh order again.
Read more »
Mushy Christianity
Published in The Catholic Thing February 10, 2009
February 12, 2009 :: Filed in: The Catholic Thing
One of the greatest of recent seductions by that wily devil Screwtape – perfectly fitted to the times – is to puff a tiny sugar crystal of Christianity into sweetish airy cotton candy. “IN-clusiveness!” he will insist. “Christianity is about nothing if not IN-clusiveness.”
Read more »
The Use of Religious Studies
Published in The Catholic Thing January 15, 2009
January 15, 2009 :: Filed in: The Catholic Thing
Nothing is less certain over time than the certainties of successive generations. Each generation tends to be wrong in a different way.
Read more »
The Adventures of Catholic Social Doctrine
Published in The Catholic Thing June 5, 2008
December 17, 2008 :: Filed in: The Catholic Thing
"Catholics know in their bones that history is strewn with ironies and tragedies, strange twists, monstrous actions by deranged individuals, the lassitude of the good, the collapse of the center, the rapidly spreading infection of destructive ideas. Even saintly leaders acting with good intentions have sometimes brought about ugly consequences they did not intend."
Read more »
Two Public Policy Proposals: Catholic Social Thought in Practice
Published in The Catholic Thing June 17, 2008
December 17, 2008 :: Filed in: The Catholic Thing
"The person and the common good are the two main normative inspirations of Catholic Social Teaching."
Read more »
Four Great Gifts Italy Has Given America
Published in The Catholic Thing August 26, 2008
December 17, 2008 :: Filed in: The Catholic Thing
Now that another several hundred thousand Americans have come back from spending part of their summer in Italy, they may be in a special mood to reflect on what we owe to the great Italian cities: four contributions in particular - a sense of civic beauty; bold and creative individuals; the Stoic ethic of ancient and medieval Rome; and the crucial social role of civic and religious associations.
Read more »
God as Beneficent Father? A reply to Heather Mac Donald
Published in The Catholic Thing September 23, 2008
December 08, 2008 :: Filed in: The Catholic Thing
During our hour-long Templeton Conversation at the Harvard Club (September 17), Heather kept coming back to this question: “What is the evidence for your statement that God is a loving, beneficent father?” I do not think I answered her well, so let me try again.
Read more »
A Historical Change in Guidance Systems
Published in The Catholic Thing October 8, 2008
December 08, 2008 :: Filed in: The Catholic Thing
Some social democrats and socialists, especially in Western Europe, view the current financial crisis in America with a certain gladness. They think this may discredit “democratic capitalism,” and confirm the superiority of social democracy.
This stance returns our public conversation to the questions of the 1972 electoral campaign, during which a significant number of left-wing American thinkers and activists began to rebel against statist institutions, habits, and ways of looking at things propounded by the New Left, and the many promoters of the large omnivorous state.
Read more »
How to Ready Onself to Pray
Published in The Catholic Thing November 18, 2008
November 18, 2008 :: Filed in: The Catholic Thing
I am not very good at prayer, although I try to be praying all the time, like breathing. (In fact, I have at times asked God — when I am too ill or too tired to think in words — to take my breathing as a prayer.) It is an inner conversation, wordless often, marked just by attentiveness. Every detail of every event is speaking. It comes forth from the creative insight of God.
Read more »
Do Atheists Reject Without Understanding?
Published in The Catholic Thing November 4, 2008
November 04, 2008 :: Filed in: The Catholic Thing
May I offer a friendly suggestion, simply as a possibility to be explored? It may be that the ideas of God presented by atheists are so incredible that their own reputation for good sense is discounted. Whatever the reason, atheists — even when they are given control of all levels of education and free rein for proselytizing — have been unsuccessful in persuading others of their view of life. Could it be that atheists’ ideas of God are so far off that they injure the credibility of their testimony?
Read more »
|
No One Sees God
