Amanda Shaw

First Things readers in the DC area might be interested in an international symposium on natural law, hosted by Catholic University’s Center for Law, Philosophy and Culture . Beginning this Thursday evening and continuing through Sunday afternoon (March 27-30), the symposium will include . . . . Continue Reading »

Easter Wings by George Herbert Lord , who createdst man in wealth and store, Though foolishly he lost the same, Decaying more and more, Till he became Most poor: With thee O let me rise As larks, harmoniously, And sing this day thy victories: Then shall the fall further the flight in me. My tender . . . . Continue Reading »

Macbeth is Shakespearean tragedy at its scariest. It opens with a crash of thunder and a flash of lightening, with a hurly-burly of fog and filthy air, with three spellbinding wicked witches¯and it only gets worse from there. Notoriously difficult to produce, Macbeth has been christened . . . . Continue Reading »

Glory be to God for dappled things , writes Oxford Jesuit, Gerard Manley Hopkins, breaking into verse that echoes St. Francis’ “Canticle to the Sun.” Physical creation proclaims God’s glory, reflects his simultaneous gentleness and might, and reminds us of his loving . . . . Continue Reading »

A small but intriguing book just arrived in the mail: Rodney Clapp’s Johnny Cash and the Great American Contradiction: Christianity and the Battle for the Soul of a Nation . Known for such legendary songs as “Ring of Fire” and “I Walk the Line,” Cash, particularily in . . . . Continue Reading »

It’s not George Weigel’s Witness to Hope , but, at one-fourth the length, this book is a brief and inspiring reflection on the life of John Paul the Great. Written by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, A Life with Karol: My Forty-Year Journey with the Man Who Became Pope (Doubleday, 2008) . . . . Continue Reading »

As Ryan notes , the Catholic Church, according the Pew report , has lost the greatest number of believers in recent years. But the “unaffiliated” . . . faith? denomination? ecclesial community? . . . has burgeoned to 16 percent of the U.S. population, making it “the . . . . Continue Reading »

No health insurance premiums, no copays, no deductibles, and no coverage limits. I grew up under the care of military medicine—Balboa and Bethesda naval hospitals—and from the perspective of the pocketbook, free health care is rather nice. Then, as a college student I spent a semester in . . . . Continue Reading »

Last week I commented on Terry Eagleton’s “intriguing ramble” on Peter Conrad’s Creation . A reader, Tracy Altman, writes in to clarify, noting that when Eagleton speaks of creation as a “dismal truth,” he may be obliquely critiquing the Romantic notion of human . . . . Continue Reading »

Art, Virgil says in Dante’s Divine Comedy , is the grandchild of God: God forms man in his own image, and we imitate this creative act. To put it differently, art reflects creation and creation reflects God. But literary critic Terry Eagleton isn’t so sure. Did God create the artist, or . . . . Continue Reading »