Voices
The Rev. James Martin, S.J., is a Jesuit priest, author, editor at large at America and founder of Outreach.
Of Many Things
My reading habits have recently taken a surprising turn. Despite the Jesuit training that introduced me to such recondite authors as Karl Rahner, Edward Schillebeeckx and Hans Urs von Balthasar (don’t theologians have great names?), I now find myself reading books no longer than 10 or 20 pages
Television
One of the givens about religious life is that after spending so much time in studies, and with so many friends working in schools, the year seems to end in the summertime, rather than at the end of December. As a result, one naturally tends to reminisce as soon as the mercury begins its annual clim
James Martin, S.J., on finding time for God
Of Many Things
Every time I see a movie (which is a lot) and a priest or a nun appears on screen (which is not a lot) I steel myself for the worst. Though directors, screenwriters and actors have of late been able to furnish moviegoers with convincing portrayals of, among other difficult subjects, middle-aged toba
Television
Woe to those who produce Jesus movies, for their worries will be many. The first task of a producer is to cast a credible Jesus. Such an actor must look at least something like the Everyman edition of Jesus: big, mysterious eyes, brown hair and full beard (with the notable exception of Willem Dafoe
Of Many Things
Channel surfing a few months ago, I was mildly astonished to come across a rerun of Davey and Goliath, the Eisenhower-era claymation series produced, as I recall, under the auspices of the Lutheran Church. For those of you who weren’t TV-addicted children in the 1960’s, Davey and Goliath
FaithFeatures
From 2000: In a "multicultural" society shouldn’t anti-Catholicism be a dead issue?
Television
Only last year pundits were pronouncing the sitcom on its last legs. After all, "Seinfeld" and "Home Improvement" were gone, and even popular shows like "Frasier" seemed increasingly tired. (How often can you watch Niles pursue Daphne, Frasier avoid Lilith and Eddie act
Of Many Things
An older Jesuit once told me he felt that priests have a much harder life than laypeople. We’re always "on call," he explained, and have so many responsibilitiescelebrating Masses, hearing confessions, living in community, preparing homilies and the like. Laypeople can set their own
Arts & CultureBooks
Is there a more remarkable spiritual writer today than Kathleen Norris And how full of paradoxes she is quot containing multitudes quot to take a leaf from Walt Whitman Coming from what she calls a quot thoroughly Protestant background quot her meditations have been both widely read and grea