A newly available compilation of Rahner’s writings on the arts, edited and translated from the original German by Gesa Thiessen, traces Rahner’s thinking about the phenomenon of inspired enthusiasm.
Benjamin Ivry
Benjamin Ivry has written biographies of Francis Poulenc, Maurice Ravel and Arthur Rimbaud and has translated many books from French.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Contemplating eternity: Bishop Gumbleton’s life of witness
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton appears in ‘No Guilty Bystander’ to be an institutional “lifer,” resolved to remain part of a gradually evolving system but reserving the right to dissent when he sees fit.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: A Jesuit cardinal in Roman high society
A new collective tribute by a baker’s dozen of erudite specialists adds up to an erudite, if in some parts abstruse, overview of the remarkable life and ecclesiastic career of Cardinal Sforza Pallavicino.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
French playwright Moliere’s fraught relationship with the Catholic Church: A fresh look on his 400th birthday
Molière faced opposition from church figures during his life over his controversial works. Four centuries after his birth, what religious themes and tensions can be found in his plays?
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
How Catholic Was Gustave Flaubert?
Gustave Flaubert’s prose reflects a lifetime of grappling with religious and spiritual themes. He saw his Catholicism as a singular form of asceticism, allied to his vocation as a writer.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Thomas Merton, unfiltered
Patrick Collins gives a close read of Thomas Merton’s correspondence in “A Focus on Truth: Thomas Merton’s Uncensored Mind.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
The history of a Christmas classic, ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’
“O Come, All Ye Faithful” is a song almost everyone knows. But where did it come from, and why is it so popular?
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
Remembering Sister Megan Rice: the ‘Joan of Arc’ of the anti-nuclear movement
“Please have no leniency on me,” Sister Rice once said at trial. ”To remain in prison for the rest of my life would be the greatest honor you could give me.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: The rituals of a Brooklyn Catholic community
‘Lifeblood of the Parish’ is an ethnographic look at Italian-American communal rituals in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Remembering Margaret Snyder, Catholic feminist pioneer
A prominent figure in United Nations efforts to help women in Africa escape poverty, Margaret Snyder was inspired by her parents and by Catholic mentors from her hometown.