William Barrett is hardly remembered in Catholic academic or literary circles, though his Catholic novels offer richly textured stories that avoid the sensational and sentimental.
Literature
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
An atheist walks into a Catholic convent: Charlotte Wood on her novel ‘Stone Yard Devotional’
Wood’s earlier novels contain explicit social critiques, but ‘Stone Yard Devotional’ does its intellectual heavy lifting at an arm’s-length distance. “I wanted to write a book that doesn’t teach or explain or condescend,” she told America in an interview over Zoom in February.
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
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 inArts & Culture, Poetry
The Emily Dickinson poem about love that you should read
By force of her imagination and skill, Emily Dickinson could take the measure of solitude, opprobrium and even damnation.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: A priestly ministry on hockey skates
‘Hockey Priest: Father David Bauer and the Spirit of the Canadian Game’ shows the interplay of spirituality and sport in the world that Father Bauer helped create.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Philip Berrigan’s prophetic ire
‘A Ministry of Risk,’ a collection of the writings and speeches of the late Phil Berrigan (1923-2002), is a provocative anthology destined to leave most readers bewildered, challenged and perhaps even a little angry.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: André Aciman’s formative year in Rome
The novelist and memoirist André Aciman chronicles his formative year in Rome as a teenager in ‘Roman Year.’
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: ISIS killed her son. She met them face to face.
‘American Mother,’ Diane Foley’s and Colum McCann’s story of Foley’s life and that of her son, James Foley, is written with a mother’s love, her eventual understanding of hostage situations and her desire for others to understand the struggle she faced.