A Most Hospitable Benedict Option
Building the Benedict Option: A Guide to Gathering Two or Three Together in His Name by Leah Libresco. Ignatius, 2018. Paperback, 163 pages, $17. Reviewed by Gracy M. Olmstead Nobody was meant to be a loner. In the Garden of Eden, God said that it was “not good for...
Hope When There’s Nowhere to Hide
A Quiet PLace Directed by John Krasinski. Paramount, 2018. Run time: 90 minutes. Reviewed by Ryan Shinkel Apocalypses are one way to get religious at the box office. End times unveil moral character as wheat from chaff: the hopeful sacrifice for a better future while...
The First Church of Cinema
By Jacob Bruggeman The human soul is hungry for beauty; we seek it everywhere—in landscape, music, art, clothes, furniture, gardening, companionship, love, religion, and in ourselves. No one would desire not to be beautiful. When we experience the beautiful, there is...
The Presence of the Counterkingdom
The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis by Alan Jacobs. Oxford University Press, 2018. Cloth, 280 pages, $30. Reviewed by Adam Schwartz John Henry Newman once dubbed the Christian Church a “counter-kingdom.” As the historical embodiment of...
The Unexpected Political Philosopher
Faith and Politics: Selected Writings by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI). Ignatius Press, 2018. Paperback, 269 pages, $19. Reviewed by Casey Chalk Poor Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. The retired pope isn’t even dead yet, and pundits speak endlessly of his legacy....
The Love of Living
James V. Schall, S. J. David Yost mentioned a famous essay of Robert Louis Stevenson, “Aes Triplex.” He said that it was a favorite of Chesterton and assumed that I had read it. I had not. But the better-late-than-never doctrine certainly holds in this case. It...
The Life Behind the Dance
Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of Time by Hilary Spurling. Hamish Hamilton, 2017 (Knopf 2018). Hardcover, 509 pages, $29.70. Reviewed by James Baresel Over four decades ago the novelist Anthony Powell asked his friend Hilary Spurling if she was willing to be his...
What We Once Knew About Global Influence
Oceans Ventured: Winning the Cold War at Sea by John Lehman. W. W. Norton & Company, 2018. Hardcover, 368 pages, $28. Reviewed by Francis P. Sempa There are still many foreign policy “experts” who refuse to credit the policies of President Ronald Reagan for the...
A Woman Who Reads
Book Girl: A Journey through the Treasures and Transforming Power of a Reading Life By Sarah Clarkson. Tyndale Momentum, 2018. Paperback, 288 pages, $16. Reviewed by Ashlee Cowles What does it mean to be a woman who reads? This is the primary question Sarah Clarkson...
There are metaphorical hills on which I would be willing to die. The Oxford comma is one of them.
So easy to forget that the best way to educate yourself is to read great works of literature and philosophy, then talk about them. Bring back the salon!