An ancient Greek legend tells of Alexander the Great confronting the Gordian Knot, which no one could untie. An oracle prophesied that whoever untied it would rule the East. Alexander drew his sword and cut it in half. In another version, the knot was tied around a chariot pole; Alexander slipped the pole out, and...
The word “plagiarism” comes from the Latin plagiarius, meaning “kidnapper.” I’ve known writers who’ve referred to a book or a poem or a play they’ve written as their “baby.” And if somebody had pilfered their text, they’d have considered it tantamount to child abduction. The word, rendered as plagiary, didn’t find its way into English...
sometimes wonder whether Thomas Aquinas, whose feast is today, hasn’t been ill-served by being so universally praised – and therefore less really read. Please don’t misunderstand. He’s the GOAT (“Greatest of All Time,” in sports parlance) among Christian thinkers. And – except for a few names like Plato and Aristotle – among all human thinkers,...
This is a red-letter day for the United States of America. We come to the end of a deeply divided, often bad-tempered – someone might even say venomous – national contest. The Constitutional order held, the vote was clear, and today there will be yet another peaceful transfer of power between two parties, despite little...
Before he leaves office, Joe Biden will not be meeting with Pope Francis as planned. The Los Angeles wildfires put an end to that – or so we’re told. But the original plan got me curious about such meetings and what they mean. It’s a complex but, at least sometimes, significant history. If you were...
don’t make any great claim to virtue, but one vice that I’ve (mostly) avoided is the itch to predict the future. Especially around the New Year, when people – even Catholics – despite warnings from Scripture and Jesus Himself (“sufficient to the day”), often offer themselves as prophets, sometimes even something closer to soothsayers. Not...
I’ve often written here about painting. Now, I want to write about music, a subject about which I’ve no expertise, although I do have 6,261 tracks on my iPhone. Act I of Noël Coward’s “intimate” comedy, Private Lives, begins with an off-stage orchestra playing some innocuous tune, to which it “returns persistently,” and occasions this...
Given all the toil and trouble of the human race in a fallen world, it’s only right that we look to some peace on earth and goodwill to men in this season. There’s certainly no excess of brotherhood and fellow feeling during the rest of the year. And let’s stipulate: It’s not just our happening...
Among the many things that the current Church seems no longer awake to is a crucial trinity: the Church Militant, the Church Penitent, and the Church Triumphant. If you didn’t learn about those three growing up, they’re not so hard to understand. The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it, simply, under the rubric The...
The re-opening of the Cathedral of Notre Dame this weekend reminded me of an experience I had there over a decade ago – and has stayed with me ever since. I was in Paris to give a lecture on my book about the twentieth-century martyrs. (The sequel, on the 21st-century martyrs, will be published in...
I’m pretty sure I was in a Christmas pageant when I was a little boy, probably at the Worthington (Ohio) United Methodist Episcopal Church, where I also sang in the children’s choir. I’ve never been able to read music (except drum notations), and I can’t carry a tune. But I could listen and imitate, although...
The post-election crowing and whinging are both already wearying. The race is decided. What matters now is not endless analyses of how or why the winners won (that’s best left to journalists, political consultants, and other practitioners of dark arts). What matters is what they will do. I expect a lot. But before the recent...