Christ descended into hell to deliver His loved ones from their exile. He came to reward those who, from our first father, Adam, to His own foster-father, St. Joseph, had fought the good fight and had finished the race. The second reading from the Office of Readings for Holy Saturday is taken from an ancient homily on Christ’s [...]
James Matthew Wilson judges American poet John Martin Finlay “practically the only contemporary writer to practice a genuinely metaphysical poetics.” A sinner and a man of imperfect ear, trite phrasing, and occasionally wayward philosophical judgment, Finlay was nevertheless a man whose pursuit of God who is Truth and Love demands our admiration. The Wayward Thomist: [...]
Thomas Aquinas’ cosmology and doctrine of the soul are vitalistic. Everything has a particular soul to it, and these souls have particular life-forces destined for particular ends. As a whole, the cosmos is meant to reflect and embody the graces of God: his beauty, love, and goodness. Such is to what all things are ultimately [...]
Paradoxical as it may seem, it remains true that man is perfect in exact proportion to the subjection he gives his superiors, to that subjection given the Supreme Being who is the First Cause and Last End of every creature. As a matter of fact, there cannot be atheism. Man may vociferously deny that he [...]
Following the example of St. Thomas, in addition to performing corporal works of mercy, we should not neglect the spiritual works of mercy. Like Thomas, we must counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, and admonish the sinner. “It is better to give alms than to treasure up gold. For almsgiving delivers from death, and it [...]
We cannot give our souls, or the souls of our neighbors, to the pagan Caesar. But the modern Christian can obey a tyrant, insofar as he is just. In fact, this is difference that Christianity brings to politics. Every particular decree of our leaders can be judged as either usurping God’s authority or rightfully, humbly [...]
Today, threatened by the new barbarism and the new paganism, we would be wise to postpone speculative reasoning and look to Thomas Aquinas for his example of true reverence before the Holy Eucharist, concentration and recollection in prayer, perfect obedience, love of poverty, and passion for sacred music. The Story A few months before his [...]
I contend that the Middle Ages were neither religious nor secular because the religious and the secular are two features of a single construction: the modern, Western social architecture of “Church” and “State,” “private” and “public.” The societies of the Middle Ages had a different architecture based on different assumptions and different concepts, ultimately on [...]
Without contemplation, St. Thomas Aquinas’ "Summa Theologica" is seen as a great stained-glass window, but from the outside. But with contemplation, his masterwork is seen, as if from the inside, iridescent with all the brilliance with which he was able to write, thanks to the Holy Spirit who guided his every word and his every [...]
Do you believe in a higher power, something that transcends the “human organism”? If this question is trivialized or ignored, we enter the very sound and soul of despair. Anthropology is the scientific study of human beings. Philosophy, literally translated, is the love of wisdom. Philosophical anthropology, then, is the scientific study of humans for [...]
The woman's life was meant to be lived at least on a human basis of justice. In the divine life of charity, she attains her fullest development, her fullest happiness; for here justice and love rule, not strength. On such a basis, she has open to her a life of fullest perfection, the kind of [...]
We may say that the world for Thomas Aquinas does not merely have but is blessed with intelligibility, just as man is blessed with reason. Nature’s beauty is not confined to the senses but extends to the mind. “Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has [...]
Editor’s Note: Author Siobhan Nash-Marshall recently passed away. Please enjoy this wonderful essay, one of many she penned for us. I have escaped the City, as I do every year in Summer. I know that this sounds trite, and perhaps even a tad snobbish, like a line from The Great Gatsby. But that heat that [...]
Literature is important because it takes us beyond the facts to the truth. It shows us who we are as human beings and as human persons. We could go even further by insisting that literature is not merely important but necessary. Without literature or, more specifically, without the ability to see literarily, we will be [...]