Gilbert Meilaender

A recollection from my childhood: In the (relatively) small Midwestern town in which I grew up, many businesses would close on Good Friday from noon to 3:00 p.m. More than a few of the employees would spend that time in church before returning to work for what remained of the afternoon. At the time . . . . Continue Reading »

The year 2013 marks the twentieth anniversary of the release of Veritatis Splendor, surely one of the most significant encyclicals of Pope John Paul II. It offers a searching examination of the nature of the Christian life and Christian moral reflection. Although John Paul’s focus in the . . . . Continue Reading »

John Hall Wheelock, a minor twentieth-century poet”dubbed “the last romantic” in the title of his oral autobiography”captured movingly some of the reasons we desire more life, our sense (nevertheless) that a complete human life cannot mean an indefinitely extended one, and the . . . . Continue Reading »

What So Proudly We Hail: The American Soul in Story, Speech, and Song edited by Amy A. Kass, Leon R. Kass, and Diana Schaub ISI, 790 pages, $35 Writing early in the fifth century a.d. to bolster the spirits of Christians in chaotic political times, St. Augustine asked: “As for this mortal . . . . Continue Reading »

Unlike many in our society, I find myself becoming less rather than more inter-ested in the NCAA basketball tournament, otherwise known as “March Madness.” And I am surely one of very few who think that 64 teams is at least 32”and perhaps even 48”teams too many. (I don’t . . . . Continue Reading »

As the number of our years increases, as we age in that simple chronological sense, we also age in a more important and profound sense. Gradually but progressively our bodies begin to function less effectively, and that increasing loss of function makes us more vulnerable to disease and death. . . . . Continue Reading »

White Coat, Black Hat: Adventures on the Dark Side of Medicine by Carl Elliott Beacon, 213 pages, $21.95 Warning: Reading this book may make you afraid to take your medicine. And that, of course, in many cases could be unfortunate or, even, fatal. We must, therefore, retain a little more confidence . . . . Continue Reading »

In recent years those of us who are Lutherans have witnessed a steady stream of Lutheran theologians”many of them among our heaviest hitters”leaving the Lutheran communion of the catholic tradition to join either the Orthodox or, more often, the Roman communion of that tradition. We . . . . Continue Reading »

Cosmos, Life, and Liturgy in a Greek Orthodox Village by Juliet du Boulay Denise Harvey, 462 pages, $45 In 1974 Juliet du Boulay pub-lished Portrait of a Greek Mountain Village , an ethnographic study of the Greek mountain vil-lage, Ambeli, whose inhabitants’ manner of subsistent living was . . . . Continue Reading »

Gilbert Meilaender writes a letter to his old friend Stanley Hauerwas . Dear Stan, I read your memoir, Hannah’s Child , with pleasure and had the sense that you must have taken pleasure in writing it. I started it on a Saturday and finished it before the weekend was over, so you know it . . . . Continue Reading »