Is Middle-earth morally simplistic?

Peter Paul Rubens - Saint Michael expelling Lucifer and the Rebellious Angels, 1622 One of the criticisms sometimes brought against the sub-creation of J.R.R. Tolkien, Middle-earth, is that it is morally simplistic. This criticism seems so self-evidentially absurd that it's difficult to write a response to it. For one thing, this criticism was leveled against …

J.R.R. Tolkien on the Purpose of Life

"So it may be said that the chief purpose of life, for any one of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all the means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks. To do as we say in the Gloria in Excelsis: Laudamus te, …

The Lord of the Depraved: Amazon wants Westeros, not Middle-earth

"'Christopher was far more interested in preserving legacy than money.'  The movie-making business is a money-making business and it will do what needs to be done for those ends alone....If worshiping the modern dysfunctional view of sex means turning some characters gay or adding depraved sex scenes, then that’s what it will do." I wrote …

Historian Tom Holland examines the myth of ‘pagan’ Christmas

One thing for which I have little patience is Christians who refuse to celebrate Christian holidays because of "pagan" roots. I've written about this phenomenon before. The logic employed to say such things would receive an F on a college term paper. For example, too often the anti-holiday crowd uses the logical fallacy that correlation …

Pope Francis on living with eternity in mind

We know that it happens that, unfortunately, we forget the purpose of our life, that is, the definitive appointment with God, thus losing the sense of expectation and making the present absolute. When one makes the present absolute, he or she looks only to the present, losing the sense of expectation, which is so good, …

More bad reasons against voting third party

First off, let me say that I love Matt Fradd. I love his show and his humor and his cool Australian accent. I love his humility and his love for his fellow man and his charitable interviews and his desire for truth. I love the Pints With Aquinas podcast and will continue to be a …

Republicans are not Allowed to Dislike Third Parties

The Republican Party was a third party when it was formed in 1854. Abraham Lincoln was the first man from that party to become president in 1860. Like it or not, for good or for bad, the Republican Party changed U.S. history. Why can't something like that happen again? At the very least, Republicans can't …

Fratelli Tutti – An Encyclical for Our Times

I am caring less and less what others have to say about Pope Francis. When I read Pope Francis apart from any secondary commentary, I quite enjoy it and am always challenged to be a better Catholic. Therefore, when his new encyclical Fratelli Tutti was released, I rushed to read it before having the misfortune …

Book Review: Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick J. Deneen

Liberalism has failed because liberalism has succeeded. As it becomes fully itself, it generates endemic pathologies more rapidly and pervasively than it is able to produce Band-aids and veils to cover them. -- Patrick J. Deneen What book would garner endorsements from a spectrum of political opinions, ranging from President Barack Obama and Cornel West …

Is Trump really worth our support?

Ruth Bader Ginsburg died last Friday.  May she rest in peace, and hopefully she prepared her soul for eternity. With the opening of another Supreme Court seat, the presidential election will suddenly be ratcheted up to eleven.  Both sides will now be claiming the need to get "one of our own" into the Supreme Court. So …

Is Labor Day a Holiday?

“And only when they made a holy day for God did they find they had made a holiday for men.” -- G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy "A festival without gods is a non-concept, is inconceivable." -- Josef Pieper, In Tune With the World"Ubi caritas gaudet ibi festivitas" ("Where love rejoices, there is festivity"). -- St John Chrysostom …

Pope Leo XIII on Catholic Journalism

Longinqua, Encyclical On Catholicism in the United States, January 6, 1895http://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_06011895_longinqua.html "They who desire to be of real service to the Church, and with their pens heartily to defend the Catholic cause, should carry on the conflict with perfect unanimity, and, as it were, with serried ranks, for they rather inflict than repel war if …

C.S. Lewis: Advocate for Capitalism?

"What is actually the matter with the modern man is that he does not know even his own philosophy; but only his own phraseology." --G.K. Chesterton, The Common Man Recently I had the misfortune to read a rather annoying article on FEE (Foundation for Economic Education).  It was titled "C. S. Lewis: Free-Market Advocate" by …

G.K. Chesterton on Patriotism

Dale Ahlquist sums up bits of Chesterton's views on patriotism.  (1 Minute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RtRjpIXDzY

G.K. Chesterton on Advertising

It is really not so repulsive to see the poor asking for money as to see the rich asking for more money. And advertisement is the rich asking for more money. A man would be annoyed if he found himself in a mob of millionaires, all holding out their silk hats for a penny; or …

Saint Paul and Habakkuk 2:4: Evidence that Faith is a Life Lived and Not Mere Belief

I don't particularly like doing “word studies” of the Bible. I do not know Hebrew or Greek, and anyone who claims they do can simply tell me I'm wrong and that I do not understand the language. They can say, “The word is a past-perfect-noun-verb-clause-dative, and therefore the text clearly means yadda, yadda, yadda.” It …

Salvation: A One-Time Event or a Life Lived?

I was raised Evangelical Protestant. I said the “Sinner’s Prayer” when I was five in which I asked Jesus to forgive my sins and come into my heart to be my personal Lord and Savior. Is this the end of the story? Am I now “saved” and assured of my place in heaven? Is there …

A New Dawn, A New Creation

“On the third day the friends of Christ coming at daybreak to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realized the new wonder; but even they hardly realized that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a …

Letters on Liturgy by Fr. Dwight Longenecker – A Review

The familial debate within Catholicism about what make the best liturgical practices can get very heated indeed. And family quarrels can be some of the worst, especially for something as meaningful and important as our Catholic worship. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls the Eucharist the “source and summit of the Christian life” and …

Did the Bishop of Idaho ‘ban’ something or simply ‘choose’ something else?

The best lies are those that have a measure of truth.  A half-truth is actually more dangerous than a complete lie.  Say that Mr. Jones is in cahoots with Martians from outer space and it will be rejected outright because it is so obviously absurd.  But saying Mr. Jones “hates” fish when in fact he …