A violent assault on a famous author revives an ugly history: the fatwa against Salman Rushdie.
History
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Look back: America magazine’s love affair with J.F.K.
America’s editors shy away from endorsing political candidates—but J.F.K. proved a hard case, both during his life and in the decades since.
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
Interview: To understand world history, study the Jesuits
Markus Friedrich is passionate about Jesuit history—how it is studied, how it should not be studied and about its larger importance today.
Posted inFaith, Last Take
Remembering Vin Scully: Legendary Dodgers announcer, occasional philosopher and devout Catholic
Where have you gone, Vin Scully? A nation turns its lonely ear to you.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Joan Didion, Wendell Berry, Sally Rooney: Summer review for the Catholic Book Club
A very sunburned literary editor looks back on some Catholic Book Club columns of yore.
Posted inArts & Culture, Vantage Point
From 1981: John Kennedy Toole and the myth of fame
This story has no moral, only a great joy for Mrs. Toole, and a great sadness.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: The history of Yellowstone, our greatest national park
Readable, well researched and carefully documented, ‘Saving Yellowstone’ does not get bogged down in minutiae in its history of the park.
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
How popes became so powerful—and how Pope Francis could reverse the trend
The papalization of the church reached its most robust form in the first half of the 20th century, but it might be seeing its twilight under Pope Francis.
Posted inArt, Arts & Culture
The ‘Hot Holy Ladies’ who fought for the faith — and the Jesuits — in Reformation England
A new exhibit at Stonyhurst College is a powerful testament to the role women played in maintaining the faith through dark times.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Fintan O’Toole’s personal history of Ireland traces the fall of Catholicism and rise of capitalism on the Emerald Isle
Fintan O’Toole reflects on the last 64 years in Ireland—a time when Irish life was almost completely transformed.