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Hildegard of Bingen: Saint of the Universal Church

It’s an age of widespread cultural and ecclesial malaise: the State encroaches ever more into the affairs of the church; the clergy is indolent and ineffective, oft corrupt and unchaste; the laity is poorly catechized; and Gnosticism advances. It’s the twelfth century, into which a Teutonic prophetess stepped, prepared to confront the spirits of the age with visions from on high. … Continue Reading »

The Residue of Death

The dead are not really dead. They hang around to pester us. Not as ghosts, no; I don’t believe in ghosts. Nor do I mean the dead “live on” in our memory and in our hearts, nor even necessarily”as I’ve noted before”that they now have “gone on” to a “better place.” This isn’t the time to go all metaphysical, anyway. No, I mean they all leave residue behind that commands attention and occupies mammoth periods of time and sometimes space, stretching, as far as I can see, endlessly into the future… . Continue Reading »

Occupy and the Injustices of Inequality

Many conservatives have objected to the Occupy Movement’s focus on inequality by pointing to its refusal to offer an overarching analysis or slate of policies. This objection is, of course, hardly original to the movement’s conservative detractors. Indeed, even its most outspoken supporters have often lamented that Occupy lacks a coherent position and a decisive direction. Yet despite these and other obvious problems with the Occupy Movement, we should not be too quick to dismiss its criticisms of our contemporary economic circumstances… . Continue Reading »

Biblical Illiteracy and Bible Babel

One of the disappointments of the post-Vatican II period has been the glacial pace of the growth in Catholic biblical literacy the Council hoped to inspire. Why the slowdown? Several reasons suggest themselves. The hegemony of the historical-critical method of biblical study has taught two generations of Catholics that the Bible is too complicated for ordinary people to understand: So why read what only savants can grasp … Continue Reading »

Evangelicals and the Coming Romney Victory

A new poll from Virginia, a key swing state, suggests that evangelicals will help put Mitt Romney in the White House this November. It has become a truism in recent years that evangelicals are critical to our national elections. As New York Times reporter Erik Eckholm pointed out on April 14, evangelicals accounted for nearly one-fourth of all ballots cast in recent presidential elections… . Continue Reading »

My Thanks to Charles Colson

I never met Charles Colson. But the ministry he started played a pivotal role in my life. I don’t know that I would ever have gotten involved in prison ministry some 20 years ago were it not for Prison Fellowship. At that time I was a grad student. I had gradually formed a desire to be involved in what I term “Matthew 25 ministries””feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned. For whatever reason, it was visiting the imprisoned that drew my attention… . Continue Reading »

What October Baby Could Have Been

October Baby, a movie with a blatantly pro-life theme, deserves support and its makers praise for their courage and vision. That said, I give October Baby a “B minus” grade. But this movie could have been an “A.” Why did this admirable effort fall short of being a much better film? First of all, if I say October Baby deserves at least a “B minus” grade, this means the movie, in some important respects, worked very well. Rachel Hendrix’s performance as Hannah, the anguished late-term abortion survivor, was strong and believable. Her boyfriend Jason, played by Jason Burkey, was an engaging and sympathetic character… . Continue Reading »

Sex and the Seamless Garment

In his now-famous address at Fordham University, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, the late archbishop of Chicago argued that “the pro-life position of the Church must be developed in terms of a comprehensive and consistent ethic of life.” Consequently, the Church should not just focus on fighting abortion, but also the nuclear arms race, capital punishment and poverty; and promote health care, immigration reform and benefits for the unemployed… . Continue Reading »

Sin, Redemption, and Spider-Man

God so loved the world that he gave his only son. God so loved me that he has given me three sons. And last month, they discovered superheroes. Not a moment too soon, it turns out, as apparently overnight what I used to think of as our respectable middle-class home has become an alarming hive of after-school crime (or as my boys call it, “trouble”). So they fearlessly answer the call every afternoon, bounding around the house and the yard with hand-towel capes safety-pinned around their necks… . Continue Reading »

The God Who is Worldly

Summarizing a central argument of his Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, Ross Douthat told Ken Myers in a recent interview, “A lot of the most influential theologies in American life today are theologies that take various worldly ends as their primary end.” Prosperity preachers turn seven-figure incomes and slick cars into sacramental marks of God’s favor. Oprah religion reduces God to a guarantor of “personal psychological well-being.” Nationalisms of the left and the right invoke God to sanctify policy agendas… . Continue Reading »

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