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To Go A-Christianing
Throughout the first half of the seventeenth century, while the Barbary corsairs ranged freely around the Mediterranean, these pirates also sailed by the dozen up the [English] Channel and even into...
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King Francis
Just arrived in this morning’s email is this broadcast from Sandro Magister’s Chiesa: “Francis’ Patient Revolution.” Reading it, patience is the last quality that comes to mind: There was no agreement...
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A Domestic Annunciation
To clear the palate from all things synodal, let us go look at a painting. One in particular deserves a place of honor. Among the loveliest images of Mary that we hold as our own, none delights me...
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All Hallow’s Eve 2014
Balmoral Castle, 1874. It was a Halloween to remember. Queen Victoria planned an elaborate party, taking charge of designing every element of the night herself. Something in the incongruity of that...
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The America Today Murals
Conservatives whaled me for “degrading” America, purists for representing things, and the radicals were mad because I didn’t put in Nikolai Lenin as an American prophet....
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What Is In A Name?
Every so often some wit writes to advise me of the exquisite consonance between my postings and my last name. So indulge me for a bit while I take a quick run through a complex etymology. Leave out...
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The Vanity of Melancholy
Since social propriety demands that wives wear mourning for their husbands, it is fair that they be reimbursed for their mourning clothes . . . . Since she is legally required to wear mourning but not...
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Michael Hull, Ex-Pat
Now is it official. There is no need for more speculation about the whereabouts of Michael Hull, the disappearing pastor of Manhattan’s Guardian Angel parish and director of the Sheen Center.Charles...
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National Endowment for the Arts & Crafts
It has been ten years since The Onion published its spoof of controversies over NEA-funded antics. By the time it appeared in 2004, audiences were pretty well accustomed to what Hilton Kramer once...
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Hatred of the Church in Ireland
Here in my email this morning is an unhappy note from a Carmelite priest serving in a suburb of Dublin. He is terse. “Hatred of the Church in Ireland” is his only comment. No more words are needed...
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A Tale of Three Centers
Transparency is more appealing in concept than in practiceat least as it applies to backstage doings at the Sheen Center. Judging from email responses, the Sheen is a great yawn to readers of First...
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Our Paleolithic Brother & His Art
The hand is the window on to the mind.Immanuel KantEarly man is our brother, body and soul. We beckon to him down the void of time, craving a glimpse of that epochal moment the human creature...
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Advent With Alfred Delp
Before bishops take possession of their dioceses they are to take an oath of fealty either to the Reich Representative of the State concerned, or to the President of the Reich, according to the...
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Father Delp: A Postscript
The life and witness of Alfred Delp are less familiar among First Things readers than I had thought. Several wrote to say they had not heard of him at all. Others asked why he should have been...
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Killing Sex To Save It
The conjugal act. I wince when I hear that phrase or see it in print. It is a wooden expression that trumpets discomfort with sexual expression, even distaste. A standard textbook phrase, it reduces...
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Consider Toy Soldiers
Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys’ games and books. Full...
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E.T.A. Hoffmann, Enchanter
With liturgical regularity, Christmastide brings the magic of The Nutcracker. This is the perfect season for it. By December, the year’s worth of adult disdain for all things enchanted has reached a...
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Francis & Political Illusion
There is a great temptation today to confuse sociological evolution with spiritual progress, and Christians are the first to succumb to that temptation. Nevertheless, the Bible expressly tells us that...
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Remembering Jacques Ellul
We do live in history, and this age is hard to bear.Jacques Ellul, Hope in Time of AbandonmentTo be of one’s time means to attend to the nature of the times. It means resisting the siren call of the...
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Beauty, Balthasar, & Boilers
Beauty is my business as thoroughly as trouble is Raymond Chandler’s. Still, you will never catch me talking about “the beautiful.” I have no idea what it is or what it might look like. A...
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