Category: Literature
Shakespeare the Chaste Christian
The case for Shakespeare’s Catholicism may be a bit shaky, but Anthony Esolen recently made a compelling case that the Christian virtue of chastity is indispensable for understanding his plays. He writes: There is an abundance of evidence to show that Shakespeare...
Italian Sonnet
I AM, the holy smoking fire, Burns bright on Sinai’s awful height; And tremors from His words of might Split wide the earth and shake the pyre Where goat and bull and Self perspire: Vain off’rings for the King of...
Soils for the Seeds of Doctrine: Chesterton’s Orthodoxy as the Antidote to Modernity
I have always thought that every academic–or wannabe, like me–ought have one or two hypotheses that are held very loosely, are somewhat defensible but impossible to prove, and just fringe enough to make academic parties interesting. One such hypothesis that...
Old and Relevant: Plato's Anthropological Principle
Perhaps the most famous dialogue penned by Plato is his far-reaching Republic. In this work he addresses the popular philosophy of his day—a philosophy that was promulgated by a group of teachers known to us as Sophists. The Sophists were...
Parents and Public School: Comments on Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye
I recently had the chance to read Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye for my Teach For America credentialing program at Loyola Marymount University. Reading the book in that setting prompted notice of the near absence of school in the novel....
C.S. Lewis was True to Himself
In 1954, C.S. Lewis was asked by the Milton Society of America to comment on his own life’s work. In his statement, Lewis insists that the explanation for such a span of genres, topics, and formats is found in the...
Bethlehem, by Charles Williams
‘Let us go a journey,’ Quoth my soul to my mind, ‘Past the plains of darkness Is a house to find Where for my thirsting I shall have my fill, And from my torment I shall be still.’ ‘Let us...
Carol, by Dorothy Sayers
The Ox said to the Ass, said he, all on a Christmas night: “Do you hear the pipe of the shepherds a-whistling over the hill? That is the angels’ music they play for their delight, ‘Glory to God in the...
The Nativity, by CS Lewis
Among the oxen (like an ox I’m slow) I see a glory in the stable grow Which, with the ox’s dullness might at length Give me an ox’s strength. Among the asses (stubborn I as they) I see my Saviour...
A Christmas Carol, by GK Chesterton
The Christ-child lay on Mary’s lap, His hair was like a light. (O weary, weary were the world, But here is all aright.) The Christ-child lay on Mary’s breast, His hair was like a star. (O stern and cunning are...