Holy Mary, Drenched in Symbolism
E.W., The Economist
Habits of Mind
Anthony Grafton & James Grossman, The American Scholar
A Weapon for Readers
Tim Parks, The New York Review of Books
Crib has to go, says court in France after atheists challenge Catholic region’s tradition
The Tablet
Lila: A Dissenting View
Linda Moore, Books & Culture
Oxford Dictionaries Adds ‘Duck Face,’ ‘Man Crush,’ and ‘Lolcat’
Katy Steinmetz, Time
Future Perfect
Iwan Morus, Aeon
Women Who Love Angels
Judith Cofer, Poetry Magazine
“The continued success of the Amish in transmitting their culture to the upcoming generation” has been Richard A. Stevick’s interest for years. His most recent book on the topic, a second edition of Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa Year (Johns Hopkins UP), focuses particularly upon the challenges new information and social technologies pose to Amish communities. Continue Reading »
When I was a child,” Marilynne Robinson began an early essay, “I read books.” Lila Ames, the eponymous protagonist of Robinson’s most recent novel, did not. If not for a single year of schooling, she might have never learned to read at all. When she wanders, at age thirty, into Gilead, she is ashamed of the clumsy childishness of her own penmanship. Continue Reading »
Yesterday I drew attention to the unfortunate fact that the Biology Department at the University of St. Thomas was directing its students toward pro-abortion activism. Okay, that was a bit too strong. I should have written “listed.” The Biology Department’s website listed NARAL and Planned Parenthood as volunteer opportunities. Continue Reading »
Militants Destroy Iraqi Convent
Sam Hardy, Hyperallergic
The Purest of Lines: Isao Takahata’s Final Bow
Michael Toscano, Curator
Pelicans in December
J. Allyn Rosser, Poetry Magazine
I used to think that the annual Christmas Wars were strictly an American thing, like corn dogs and attorneys’ contingency fees. Only in America, I thought, do people seriously argue about whether to allow Christmas trees in public parks or to permit public school choirs to sing “Silent Night” at holiday concerts. The issues become more and more bizarre. This year, a Maryland school district decided to remove even a reference to “Christmas” in the school calendar–as though the reference amounted to religious oppression and removal would make people forget what holiday comes round every 25th of December. Continue Reading »
The Biology Department of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota publicizes volunteer opportunities on their webpage.Good idea. We should all be encouraged to serve the common good as best we can. Continue Reading »
The famous phrase “wall of separation of church and state” today enjoys the status of legal precedent, but here’s a curious fact. The phrase comes from the letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Connecticut Baptists who feared that state politicians would suppress them. When the Baptists received the letter, however, they didn’t celebrate and publicize the statement. They didn’t even record it in the minutes of their proceedings. “They pretend it never existed.” Continue Reading »
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