Writers like George Orwell and Isaac Asimov—and Pope Leo—remind us that we should never let technology take away our human dignity.
James T. Keane
James T. Keane is a Senior Editor at America.
Posted inScripture Reflections
Rethinking the notion of a divine gift
A Reflection for Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time, by James T. Keane
Posted inCatholic Book Club
Gordon Zahn’s influence on Catholic just war teaching
Gordon Zahn’s influence on Catholic views toward state-sponsored violence, conscientious objection, pacifism and discipleship reached far beyond American shores in his long career of activism.
Posted inCatholic Book Club
Why Pope Leo’s new encyclical quotes Gandalf: Literary images of hope and faith in ‘Magnifica Humanitas’
Throughout “Magnifica Humanitas,” the two images used to represent the choice before us are of the Tower of Babel and Nehemiah’s slow reconstruction of Jerusalem. You can guess which one our Augustinian pope prefers—along with folks like J. R. R. Tolkien.
Posted inCatholic Book Club
Bob Dylan at 85: Forever young?
Bob Dylan will be 85 this week. While ‘America’ didn’t always offer him the coverage he deserved, many of our writers have found much to love in his music and other artistic works.
Posted inBooks
What America’s editors said about communism and the Berlin Blockade
In 1948, the Soviet Union initiated a blockade of the Western zone of the city of Berlin. ‘America’’s contributors and editors took that conflict very, very seriously.
Posted inScripture Reflections
God as friend or as judge?
A Reflection for Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter, by James T. Keane
Posted inBooks
Mexico’s James Joyce: Remembering Carlos Fuentes on a complicated holiday
Carlos Fuentes, sometimes called “the Joyce of Mexico,” “the Balzac of Mexico” or “the Faulkner of Mexico,” was a wizardly innovator of language and narrative and is universally recognized as one of Latin America’s literary giants.
Posted inCatholic Book Club
The poets, priests and politicians of Ireland’s Easter Rising, 110 years later
110 years after the Easter Rising, Ireland’s history and literature of resistance still inspire.
Posted inCatholic Book Club
Trump, Pope Leo, William F. Buckley and John XXIII: An overview of Popes and Politics in America
A literary spat between ‘America’ and William F. Buckley 65 years ago is proving to have been eerily proleptic in light of Mr. Trump’s war of words against the pope and the latter’s assertion of church teaching on just war.