There was a time when the Church shaped Western high art, particularly art music, as distinct from folk or pop music. That era has been over for centuries, yet the impetus for composers to engage with spirituality has endured. There has been no shortage of scholars in recent decades endeavoring to . . . . Continue Reading »
The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in Spain, is receiving record numbers of pilgrims this year. Continue Reading »
This month it's The Count of Monte Cristo, the Hapsburgs, and a foray into Sinclair Lewis.
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The feeling of peace and irresponsibility that spreads through me as the train heaves itself out of the station is a special joy. Continue Reading »
As Matthew Arnold feared, the “Sea of Faith” has retreated—but not evenly. While fashionable atheism, or nebulous spirituality, prevails among intellectuals, religiosity continues to abide among the vast majority of Americans. Dialogue between these two audiences is all too rare, as can be seen in a literary marketplace divided between maudlin dross like Heaven is for Real and vitriolic screeds like Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion.
. . . as a sort of baptized feng shui would get to me, too, after a while, I think. This cruciform decorating mania of Jody’s reminds me somehow of a day I spent in Little Walsingham years ago. This Norfolk village, as you may or may not recall, rejoices in the title of “England’s . . . . Continue Reading »
A highwayside memorial. An American thing? Or just a southern? . . . . Continue Reading »
Picking up where we left off.Smith County, Tennessee, where we stopped for gas and lunch, was the scene of some unplanned evangelizing on our part. That is, I don’t know that we evangelized anyone, exactly, so much as simply engaged in pleasant and informative conversation. Possibly the people . . . . Continue Reading »
Some days ago, I promised you all an account of our adventures on the road between here and Memphis, and you know how I hate to keep people waiting. There is much that I could tell you about the state of Tennessee, admitted to the Union in 1796, a hundred years before Utah, for example, attained . . . . Continue Reading »
Really it’s a travel diary, and I’d forgotten all about it. In the summer of 1993, expecting our first child, my husband and I spent three weeks in France and Germany. Our aim I suppose was to prove to ourselves that having children wasn’t going to tie us down. We’d been . . . . Continue Reading »
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