The Bach Moment
James V. Schall, S. J. Recently, I wandered into Barnes & Noble on M Street in Georgetown intending to purchase the new Compendium of Catholic Social Doctrine. They did not have it. To save money, if that is the purpose of life, I should have left at that moment....Making Good Republicans
The American Republic: Primary Sources edited by Bruce Frohnen. The Liberty Fund, Inc. (Indianapolis, Indiana), 752 pp., $25.00 cloth, $12.00 paper, 2002. WHAT SHOULD BE TAUGHT to American undergraduates and law students to make them good republicans? The...Taking to Tolkien
A Hidden Presence: The Catholic Imagination of J. R. R. Tolkien Edited by Ian Boyd, C.S.B and Stratford Caldecott. The Chesterton Press (Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey) 185 pp., $5.95 paper, 2003.It is an exciting time to be an admirer of J. R. R....John Jay: Man of Order, Justice, Freedom
John Jay: Founding Father by Walter Stahr. Hambledon & London (London) 482 pp., $29.95 cloth, 2005.John Jay arguably is the least known of the most significant Founding Fathers. Yet at one time, he was considered by many to be the logical successor to Washington...A Baptist Perspective on Tolkien’s Catholic Evangelism
The Gospel According to Tolkien by Ralph C. Wood Westminster/John Knox Press (Louisville, Kentucky), 169 pp., $14.95 paper, 2003.It is a remarkable irony and a sign of the times that a book written by a Baptist professor at a Baptist university and published by a...From Welch To Rand: Getting It, Buckley-Style
Getting It Right by William F. Buckley, Jr. Regnery Publishing, 2003. 311 pp., $24.95 cloth.“In your heart you know he’s right.” The slogan, of course, dates from the 1964 failed presidential campaign/crusade of Senator Barry Goldwater. Surprisingly,...A Call to Contemplatives
The Church and the Land by Fr. Vincent McNabb.IHS Press (Norfolk, Virginia), 195 pp., $14.95 paper, 2003.Few in our time have heard of Father Vincent McNabb—Irishman, Dominican theologian, leading light among the Distributists, and man of paradigmatic character....A Musical Century Revisited: The Neo-Romantic Aesthetic from Bloch to Flagello
Voices in the Wilderness: Six American Neo-Romantic Composers by Walter Simmons. Scarecrow Press (Lanham, Maryland), 419 pp., $60.00 cloth, 2004.In this persuasively argued and passionately committed book, musicologist Walter Simmons makes his discussion of six...Spilt Religion: Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials
His Dark Materials (complete trilogy) by Philip Pullman. Alfred A. Knopf (New York City, New York), cloth, 2000.Although Philip Pullman’s trilogy of fantasy books for children, HisDark Materials, is barely known in the United States, that is set to change. The...
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!