Powers’s chosen subjects—in cassocks or nay—are inevitably All-American, and his stories are careful studies of American mid-century life and ambition.
James T. Keane
James T. Keane is a Senior Editor at America.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
God’s grump: The irascible Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh’s reputation has endured for almost a century as other novelists have fallen out of fashion. It wasn’t because everyone thought him a jolly fellow.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
The God-haunted fiction of John Irving
John Irving writes characters who, like Flannery O’Connor’s American South, seem somehow God-haunted.
Posted inFaith, Scripture Reflections
Jesus Christ, the master of irony
A Reflection for Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time, by James T. Keane
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Do you love sci-fi and religion? You’re not alone.
Science fiction and religion might not seem like the most natural of bedfellows—but religion is usually a prominent theme in most contemporary sci-fi.
Posted inExplainer, Faith
What Catholics need to know about Kazakhstan before Pope Francis’ visit
Kazakhstan, which Pope Francis will visit tomorrow, is largely an unknown country to many Catholics around the world. Here is a brief introduction to the country and its small Catholic community.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
R.I.P. John W. O’Malley, S.J.: The dean of Catholic historians who helped save Vatican II from ‘oblivion’
A mentor for a generation of scholars of American Catholic history, John W. O’Malley, S.J., died Sept. 11, 2022, at the age of 95.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
The Catholic faith (and pessimism) of J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world was in many ways a direct reflection of his understanding of reality.
Posted inExplainer, Faith
Pope John Paul I will be beatified on Sunday. Who was he?
Pope for only 33 days, John Paul I is known both as “The Smiling Pope” and “The Forgotten Pope.” On Sept. 4, he will be beatified. What were his life and papacy like?
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Remembering Frederick Buechner, an American C.S. Lewis
With the death of Frederick Buechner earlier this month, the nation lost one of its most profound novelists—as well as a spiritual writer of great depth and range.