Perhaps no author’s name has appeared in ‘America’ more often than Flannery O’Connor’s over the years, from a 1956 editorial through to a story just last week.
James T. Keane
James T. Keane is a Senior Editor at America.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Author Pat Conroy’s message for struggling Catholics: ‘I left the Church but she has not left me.’
Pat Conroy was the epitome of the “Southern Writer” for many years and called by some “the most beloved American writer of his generation”—and was also a God-haunted Catholic who wrote often and deeply about religious faith.
Posted inFaith, Scripture Reflections
Irony, in the Gospels and in life
A Reflection for Thursday of the First Week of Lent, by James T. Keane
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Catherine Mowry LaCugna’s feminist theology of the Trinity inspired a generation
Catherine Mowry LaCugna, who died in 1997 at only 44 years of age, brought new life to Trinitarian theology and inspired a generation of scholars.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Saints, souls and spirituality: Remembering theologian Larry Cunningham
Lawrence “Larry” Cunningham, a longtime professor of theology at Notre Dame University and a well-known writer on spirituality, sainthood and more, died on Feb. 20, 2025.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
William Stringfellow: The modern prophet who helped hide Daniel Berrigan from the FBI
Throughout his life, William Stringfellow was the modern incarnation of an Old Testament prophet, calling out lies and hypocrisy and demanding fidelity to the commandments of God.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Al Smith and the first Catholic run at the White House
A century ago, Al Smith was a force in American politics—and the first Catholic to mount a major run at the White House. And if he is to be believed, he didn’t know what an encyclical was.
Posted inFaith, Scripture Reflections
Genesis and… Jurassic Park?
A Reflection for Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, by James T. Keane
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
R.I.P. John Coleman, S.J., distinguished sociologist (and parish priest)
One of the nation’s most distinguished sociologists for many years and an expert on the relationship between religion and public life, the Rev. John A. Coleman died on Jan. 17, 2025 in Los Gatos, Calif., at the age of 87.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Octavia Butler: A Black science fiction writer who predicted today’s dire headlines
Octavia Butler, the Black science fiction writer who died in 2006, did not just create imaginary worlds with parallels to ours. Sometimes she created worlds that are eerily a little too much like our own.