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.
Catholic Book Club
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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25 years later, ‘Nickel and Dimed’ is as relevant as ever.
Between spring 1998 and summer 2000, Barbara Ehrenreich took jobs that paid minimum wage or slightly above in Florida, Maine and Minnesota. What she detailed was a world of people living on a financial razor’s edge, unable to afford healthy food or decent housing, but still holding down two and three jobs to try to make ends meet.
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What photos from the Artemis II astronauts say to us in a time of war
Maybe today—tonight—we should all take another look at “Earthset.” We need to feel anew a sense of identification with humankind and the planet as a whole.
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Tracy Kidder, biographer of a broken world’s ordinary heroes
Tracy Kidder, who died last week at the age 80, wrote on everything from true crime to computer design to retirement homes to genocide to Vietnam to pioneering figures in the world of medicine. He also told stories of hope and inspiration in several of his books, including the monumental ‘Mountains Beyond Mountains.’
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‘Your homework is to tell someone you love them today’: Colman McCarthy’s lessons in peace
Colman McCarthy, who died on Feb. 27 at the age of 87, had a well-deserved reputation for seeking out the underdogs in life—as well as for his determined lifelong stands against war, capital punishment, homelessness and the other seamy sides of contemporary capitalism.
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Remembering Bill Burrows: a scholar who supported—and critiqued—the Catholic missionary movement
When William R. Burrows died last week, many a theologian and missionary remembered him as an important voice—and a valuable intellectual support for many decades—for his work in publishing and promoting works in the study of mission.