“Apologetics, Christian or other, is always a risky enterprise,” the late Stanley L. Jaki once wrote. “Once caught in apologetic zeal, one can, especially if one is a historian, easily overshoot the target.” It was a characteristically shrewd insight, and one that might be applied to certain aspects of Jaki’s own remarkable career.
My review of Gareth Gore’s engrossing exposé of Opus Dei in U.S. Catholic.
“From a theoretical point of view, the search for a compromise between reason and religion marks the evolution of Christian thought and nourishes the philosophy of the church fathers, from Saint Augustine to Saint Thomas. Seen from the point of view of a modern scientist, these efforts have a kind of desperate, tragic grandeur. Other… Continue reading Carlo Rovelli on Reason and Faith
One of my favorite lines from one of Anthony Burgess’s greatest (and underappreciated) novels. “Mrs. Killigrew, whose husband played bridge all the time, discovered a passion for a man whose face was covered with warts. Why was this? In a story you had to find a reason, but real life gets on very well without… Continue reading Book Notes
Veteran Boston Globe columnist Scot Lehigh’s first novel, Just East of Nowhere, is a delightful surprise. Published this past summer by Islandport Press in Maine, Just East… is a little too easily described as a ‘coming of age’ story, a genre I frankly dislike. But in Mr. Lehigh’s telling, this is more of a mystery,… Continue reading Scot Lehigh’s Just East of Nowhere
