Is hell empty? Pope Francis hopes so. Among the thinkers of the past century who speculated it could be so was Hans Urs von Balthasar, a favorite of the past two popes and a prominent theologian of his time.

John W. Donohue, S.J., an associate editor of America from 1972 to 2007, was described by one Jesuit on staff as "a living rule. Were the Society of Jesus ever to lose its Constitutions, we would need only look to him to see how our life should be lived.”

George Dunne, S.J., never backed down from a fight or a perceived injustice in a long career as a priest, academic and activist.

C. S. Lewis was gifted with an expansive imagination—but much of his spiritual writing doesn't flinch from the hard realities of life.

Was there ever a scholar of more varied interests and fields of expertise than C. J. McNaspy, S.J.?

Though Mary Karr might not consider herself a conventional writer of spiritual autobiography, her three memoirs have made this poet and professor a standard-bearer in the genre.