A Catholic literary culture that works in continuity with its rich heritage will give us a contemporary literature that both gazes unflinchingly at the messiness of our present moment and artfully works out its characters’ salvation or damnation.
Faith
Posted inDispatches, Faith
Catholics cite God, not homilies, as reason for attending church
Compared with other Christians in the United States, Catholics are more likely to attend church to please other family members—and are significantly less likely to go because they “find the sermons valuable.” Those were among the findings of a Pew Research Center poll released in August. Pew interviewed 4,729 U.S. adults, including 844 self-identified Catholics, […]
Posted inFaith, Of Many Things
There is no civil war in the Church. Jesus already won.
Who do we mean when we say “the church”?
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
James K. A. Smith’s Theological Journey
James K. A. Smith has spent much of his energy thinking about alternative communities and the politics of Jesus—about what role Christians should play in the American political project.
Posted inFaith, Features
How to Choose the Right Godparent
The work of choosing and being a godparent can lead to hurt feelings, dashed expectations—and the occasional influx of unexpected grace.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Georgetown Prep president: Working for hope in a season of contempt
“In their efforts to be men who show respect, men who seek to serve, men who want to offer hope, our students offer witness that bad behavior and cynicism do not have to be the end of this story.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
The Burden of Suffering, the Weightiness of Love: Kate Bowler and Theodicy
Kate Bowler’s memoir is an elegant theodicy exactly because it is not an explanation. It is a story of human suffering. It is the account of a human person who believes and struggles in her belief as she tries to appropriate the depths of suffering in the midst of an illness that may end her life.
Posted inFaith, Features
A clergy sex abuse survivor’s story and its lessons for restoring faith
Danny was in eighth grade when he was abused by a priest. His life was never the same again.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Sen. John McCain: Known as a veteran but also a man of quiet faith
The longtime Arizona Republican senator, reared in the Episcopal Church, attended a Southern Baptist megachurch in his later years. He viewed himself as a Christian but had “a distrust of the religious right and a faith that is too public, too political.”
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
We must place our hope not with power or authority, but with abuse survivors
On the Feast of the Assumption and following more revelations of sexual abuse, a priest reflects on the hard work required for the church to “come to perfection.”