by James V. Schall, S. J. | Mar 25, 2018
Aristotelian Interpretations by Fran O’Rourke. Irish Academic Press, 2016. Hardcover, 376 pages, $75. JAMES V. SCHALL, S. J. “The power of symbolic signification is possible only because the human mind has an unlimited openness to the entirety of reality, and can thus...
by James V. Schall, S. J. | Jun 25, 2017
In Anne Husted Burleigh’s book, A Journey up the River, she writes of the human home, its formation and functioning. It circles around three objects, each of which, in every human home, has its own history. These are the bed, the table, and the desk. The crafting of...
by James V. Schall, S. J. | Mar 26, 2017
On Looking: A Walker’s Guide to the Art of Observation by Alexandra Horowitz. New York: Scribner 2011. Paperback, 320 pages, $16.“We walk the same block as dogs yet see different things. We walk alongside rats though each of us lives in the dusk of the other. We walk...
by James V. Schall, S. J. | Dec 15, 2016
On the front page of L’Osservatore Romano, English, for November 4, 2016, we find two headlines occasioned by the Holy Father’s trip to Sweden on the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation. One headline reads: “On the Path toward Full Communion,” while the...
by James V. Schall, S. J. | Mar 28, 2016
“Giving one Catholicity, God deprives one of the pleasure of looking for it but here again He has shown His mercy for such a one as myself … who, if it had not been given, would not have looked.” —Flannery O’Connor, September 24, 1947, from A Prayer Journal (2013)A...
by James V. Schall, S. J. | Mar 27, 2016
Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture by Johan Huizinga. Beacon, 1950.“We must emphasize once again that play does not exclude seriousness.” —Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens, 1938. The classical Latin adjectives that we see associated with the Latin noun...