Science fiction and religion might not seem like the most natural of bedfellows—but religion is usually a prominent theme in most contemporary sci-fi.
Literature
Posted inArts & Culture, Vantage Point
From 1980: Science Fiction and Religion
In 1980, Dr. Willis E. McNelly, a pioneer in the academic study of science fiction as a literary genre, offered his thoughts to ‘America’ on sci-fi and religion.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Defend or defund the police? It’s more complicated than that.
Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown law professor who has volunteered as a reserve officer for the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, takes us behind the scenes of urban policing in her new book.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
The Catholic faith (and pessimism) of J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world was in many ways a direct reflection of his understanding of reality.
Posted inArts & Culture, Television
Review: ‘The Rings of Power’ will make you want to read Tolkien’s books again
The new “Lord of the Rings” prequel series is a confident, well-conceived and often gorgeous addition to the previously adapted work of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Remembering Frederick Buechner, an American C.S. Lewis
With the death of Frederick Buechner earlier this month, the nation lost one of its most profound novelists—as well as a spiritual writer of great depth and range.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Father Carl Kabat & the Plowshares Eight: What do we risk to speak the truth?
Father Kabat, who called himself “a fool for Christ,” spent more than 17 of his 88 years in prison for his activism against the U.S. nuclear weapons program. He died on Aug. 4.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Next time you go to an art museum, bring Jed Perl’s latest book. It will be the ideal companion.
Must art always promote a particular idea or ideology? Jed Perl argues that “the artist in the act of creation must stand firm in the knowledge that art has its own laws and logic.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Water is essential for life. Katy Carl’s debut novel reminds us that God is, too.
Katy Carl’s debut novel traces the slow growth of love between two people thirsting for something more out of life.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Motherhood and the impossibility of perfect work-life balance
Lara Bazelon’s ‘Ambitious Like a Mother’ raises (perhaps unintentionally) some interesting questions about gender, work, family and ambition—and how individual women (and men) who are blessed with options might want that four-way intersection to look.