The Catholic Literary Revival

By |2024-03-16T20:38:00-05:00March 16th, 2024|Categories: Books, Catholicism, Christianity, Literature|

Catholic literature, when we discover it coming into being in the mid-nineteenth century, is a literature of protest against the course being followed by European society. Its writers were not very numerous, nor did the typical Victorian man see any particular significance in their opposition to Liberalism, the anti-intellectual Romantic aesthetic, scientific naturalism, and the [...]

Brutus: An Honorable Hero?

By |2024-03-14T15:33:19-05:00March 14th, 2024|Categories: Character, Herman Melville, History, Literature, Timeless Essays, Virtue, William Shakespeare|

In his last moments, Brutus voiced a sentiment about the ultimate tragedy of the virtuous life in those evil days, in which the good was punished and the evil rewarded. This does not make virtue worthless for the individual; it just may place him on the losing side. [E]veryone knows that some young bucks among [...]

Mircea Eliade & the Mythological Origins of Literature

By |2024-03-12T18:27:44-05:00March 12th, 2024|Categories: Literature|

Through his interpretive method, Mircea Eliade sought to keep open the path of metaphysics, and even mysticism, at a time when secular interpretations of culture—sociological, psychoanalytical, economical, and so forth—triumphantly dominated the scene of the human sciences. An erudite historian of religions and a passionate author of fiction well known in Romania, Mircea Eliade developed [...]

Fire From the Gods: Oppenheimer as a Greek Tragic Hero

By |2024-03-11T21:33:02-05:00March 11th, 2024|Categories: Death, Film, Greek Epic Poetry, Science|

Like the Greek tragic heroes of Oedipus and Prometheus, J. Robert Oppenheimer used his almost superhuman intellect and ability to achieve something that led not only to his own suffering, but also to the suffering of others. Americans today would do well to heed the lessons passed down from the Greek tragedians about the reckless [...]

Jane Austen, C.S. Lewis, Laughter, & Lent

By |2024-03-11T21:37:40-05:00March 11th, 2024|Categories: C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Dwight Longenecker, Jane Austen, Lent, Literature, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

C.S. Lewis' obscure essay, ‘A Note on Jane Austen,’ shows that it is Austen’s humor and humility that captures Lewis’ fancy and that directs us to a Lenten lesson. In his rule Saint Benedict advises that each monk should have a holy book to read during Lent. When searching for a holy book, we are [...]

The Banner of Trust: The Holy Land

By |2024-03-04T19:49:46-06:00March 3rd, 2024|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, Culture, Poetry, Sainthood|

For nearly two thousand years, the pilgrimage to the Holy Land has been the pinnacle of Christian religious experience and a byword for trust in divine providence. There is one place that captivates the pilgrim more than all the rest. Because in the most consequential of lands, it is the most consequential city this side [...]

Reading 100-Year-Old Books

By |2024-02-27T19:31:21-06:00February 26th, 2024|Categories: Books, Literature|

In February of 2022, I began a new tradition that I hope to maintain. It stemmed from a keen desire to become more familiar with the great literary works of the 20th century. So, last year I decided to read one work published or written exactly one century in the past. Thus, 2022 corresponded to [...]

Sir Martin Gilbert and the Inklings

By |2024-02-23T18:05:16-06:00February 23rd, 2024|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Christianity, Inklings, J.R.R. Tolkien, Oxford University, Timeless Essays|

Sir Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill, knew J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and the Inklings personally. At one memorable lunch, Sir Martin gave me his impressions of these great men and of the Oxford of their day. During my time at Hillsdale College—having arrived in the fall of 1999—the college hired a number [...]

The Humanity of Huck Finn

By |2024-02-17T17:29:52-06:00February 17th, 2024|Categories: Books, Christine Norvell, Fiction, Literature, Mark Twain, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays, Virtue, Wisdom|

Huckleberry Finn is no hero, though he does symbolize the American conscience at the time Mark Twain wrote, or at least the conscience Twain hoped for. Yes, "Huckleberry Finn" is a coming-of-age tale and a social criticism and satire, but it also asks crucial questions: Who actually changes? What type of American will change? Huckleberry [...]

St. Augustine and J.R.R. Tolkien

By |2024-02-15T20:13:18-06:00February 15th, 2024|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, J.R.R. Tolkien, Literature, Myth, Senior Contributors, St. Augustine, StAR, Timeless Essays|

As did St. Augustine as the barbarians tore through Rome’s gate on August 24, 410, at midnight, J.R.R. Tolkien looked out over a ruined world: a world on one side controlled by ideologues, and, consequently, a world of the Gulag, the Holocaust camps, the Killing fields, and total war; on the other: a world of [...]

Truth and Masks in Chesterton

By |2024-02-07T20:44:24-06:00February 7th, 2024|Categories: G.K. Chesterton, Joseph Pearce, Literature, Oscar Wilde, Senior Contributors|

"Orthodoxy" ends with Chesterton delving deep into the divine comedy at the heart of all things. If angels can fly because they take themselves lightly, does God take Himself lightly? In a recent essay, I wrote about truth and masks in the world and works of Oscar Wilde. As a follow-up, I’d like to focus [...]

“God’s Own Descent”: Dante, the Incarnation, & Frost’s “The Trial by Existence”

By |2024-02-06T19:56:27-06:00February 6th, 2024|Categories: Dante, Literature, Poetry, Robert Frost|

“The Trial by Existence” is an example of Robert Frost’s strong and brilliant reworking of Dante’s poetic tradition in his own work. He incorporates many of Dante’s images, but he also pushes past the ending silence of "Paradiso" by making the incarnate Christ the sight at the top of the mountain. But God's own descent [...]

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