A lifetime of re-reading Merton has convinced me that the existential note ringing through his body of work is key, not only to making sense of his wide-ranging thought, but to any real understanding of the man himself.
Theology
Posted inIdeas
The Faulkner novel that will help you better understand the Eucharist
The next time you go to receive Communion, you are not just remembering Christ. Rather, through the anamnesis of the Eucharist, you are living in the eternally present story of Christ’s sacrifice.
Posted inFaith and Reason
The ‘Manosphere’ and a church against extremes
The church must stop allowing itself to be used as a tool in the Christian nationalist extremist resurgence in the United States today.
Posted inFaith and Reason
Faith, morality and the manosphere: A forum on male grievance and belonging
If Christian language, identity and even nationalism are being reshaped in a largely unmoored digital marketplace that blends masculinity, grievance and politics, how should the Catholic Church respond? Four scholars—Patrick Gilger, S.J., Margaret Felice, Susan Bigelow Reynolds and Peter Nguyen, S.J.—offer their reflections.
Posted inFaith and Reason
The ‘Manosphere’ and the formation of moral conscience
The Christian tradition has always affirmed asceticism, discipline and sacrifice. In the secular manosphere, however, these goods are severed from humility or empathy, as well as any sense of communion.
Posted inFaith and Reason
Adding a new script to the bro-sphere
How might the church respond to the situation in which we find ourselves? We ought first to see the manosphere for what it is: a group of people who share not an answer but a question. Second, we ought to be in the business of helping to write new social scripts—scripts that make an inclusive masculinity visible and attractive and accomplishable.
Posted inFaith and Reason
How the Catholic Church can address young men’s grievances
Our tradition tells us what God wants for us: a world of relationships and love where we do our best to cooperate with God’s grace as it helps us grow in virtue and holiness. The sugar high of online hate does not hold up against the deep nourishment of love, and it is our job to let adolescents know that there is a healthier diet available to them.
Posted inBooks
Review: Maritain’s artful scholasticism
Jacques Maritain’s thought can be intimidating to anyone without a strong background in theology or philosophy. But ‘The Christian Philosophy of Jacques Maritain’ can be a helpful introduction.
Posted inFaith and Reason
Not feeling celebratory as America turns 250? Read John Courtney Murray’s work.
Not since Murray’s death in 1967 have national events made his thought more freshly relevant than today.
Posted inCatholic Book Club
New and familiar faces—and emerging voices—in American Catholic theology
Both the Catholic Theological Society of America and the College Theology Society held conventions in the past few weeks—a chance to evaluate the discipline of theology and honor outstanding scholars.