The centennial of James Baldwin’s birth is an invitation to join the ranks of “the relatively conscious” who will help the nation engage in the metanoia needed to become the country that Baldwin constantly believed and hoped it could become.
Faith and Reason
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
Latin chant or folk music at Mass? A debate on what makes liturgy ‘reverent’
One of the recommendations of the first meeting of the Synod on Synodality was to explore ways to improve the quality of liturgies. America asked two contributors to reflect on how we worship.
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
For Catholics to overcome our differences, we must embrace the ‘grace of self-doubt’
The God who has subordinated himself to the human condition in the historical figure of Jesus is the perfect exemplar of epistemic humility, and hence discipleship of Jesus entails the free acceptance of the grace of self-doubt.
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
A brief history of the corporal works of mercy
The works of mercy are the practices that Christian disciples collectively engage to respond to the needs of others. Both the Beatitudes and the works of mercy are our pathways, one inner, one outer, to lead us into fellowship with the poor in spirit.
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Heaven and hell in post-Vatican II Catholicism: How to move from fear to love
There is no bigger question for Catholics today than this: Why should anyone become or remain Catholic?
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How being vegetarian for 50 years has made me a better Catholic priest and teacher
Five decades of vegetarian diet has changed me, for the better, I think: simpler, more natural, more connected to the smaller and larger life forms around me.
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How Jacques Maritain went from antisemite to Catholic champion of the Jewish people
The intertwined stories of Jacques Maritain and ‘Nostra Aetate’ underscore the need for Christians, now more than ever, to repudiate and combat antisemitism.
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As the Democratic Convention opens in Chicago, lessons from an eerily similar year: 1968
Public events take place today in 2024 that are eerily comparable to situations in another critical year: 1968. But our current situation, like 1968, is a moment when our faith can make a difference in history and in our own memories.
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What can Bernard Lonergan teach us about the Catholic Church’s digital mission?
The thought of the Canadian theologian Bernard Lonergan, S.J., can help us understand the church’s latest pastoral field: digital mission.
Posted inFaith and Reason, Politics & Society
Celebrities: We don’t care who you’re voting for
It is not selfish to do what you are good at and then to show a degree of humility about other things—including politics and other fields of expertise.