Henry T. Edmondson III 

It is through Kristin’s eyes that we understand the melancholy contours of Christian life, including the unavoidable hardships that fall upon the just and the unjust. Kristin’s is a lifelong adventure in understanding herself before God, a pilgrimage of her soul, which travels the distance of the novel—and her life—to learn the price of redemption. For the conscientious reader, the novel may serve as a literary examination of conscience.

Fr. Mike Johns

Gladiator presents a vision of heroic masculinity that is dependent upon sacrifice, a masculinity now utterly rejected and feared. We love Maximus because he is a virtuous warrior. He is a man of “strength and honor,” one who has cultivated within himself the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, to which the film makes explicit reference.

Maggie Phillips 

A nationwide network of Jewish day schools, called Tamim Academies, may provide a blueprint for sustainable, affordable, and dynamic diocesan Catholic education. Such a network can consolidate the administrative tasks that individual schools handle to help principals, pastors, and parents be less reactive and more proactive in supporting their schools in their missions.

Dr. Bernardo Gutierrez

The enterprise of scientific discovery is often played as a game of authority and political convenience. Candace Owens recently professed that she has now “left the megachurch of science.” The knowledge produced by science can and has tragically been misused for nefarious purposes with clear underlying ideological tints. While Owens’ strong proclamation is bombastic, some of the contemporary ways in which science is seen and used can virtually turn it precisely into that. (Léelo en español aquí.)

Lauren Meyers

Jesus’ Incarnation is the direct will of God. He is the generous initiator of our salvation, and Mary accepts this gift on our behalf. The virgin birth enables us to ponder an unfallen world, a world whose recovery is heralded by the birth of Jesus Christ. The celibate marriage of Mary and Joseph invites us to join their family—to become the brothers and sisters of Jesus. Through Mary’s continued virginity, we encounter the love of God through fraternal communion with Christ.

John Allen, Jr.

In pondering evangelical fortunes, there’s perhaps no greater contemporary case study than the religious transformation of Latin America over the last half-century. What the data seems to show is that the explanation for what’s happened in Latin America isn’t the platform, but the ground game—not ideological orientation, but street-level evangelical hustle.

Dr. Kody W. Cooper 

Edmund Campion’s witness and reasons remain valid today for Catholics to draw upon when fulfilling Peter’s injunction to “always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks for the reason for your hope” (1 Peter 3:15). While he was on the run as a fugitive Campion managed to write and clandestinely print the Decem Rationes (“Ten Reasons”), a tract outlining the reasons for his Catholic faith, upon which he was willing to dispute.

In recent days, our family has been dealt two blows. One was sad, the other was tragic. We mourn them both. Why does it have to be this hard? For some reason, over these dark and dispiriting days, these three Gospel scenarios are what have haunted me. What are these mystifying narratives telling me? We do not understand. 

Thomas Salerno 

When the trenches and killing fields were soaked in the blood of millions, the murder of one impoverished hermit in an isolated desert hut went unnoticed, just another unheralded tragedy of seemingly no consequence. Few would have predicted in 1916 that Charles de Foucauld would one day be recognized as one of the great spiritual masters of the twentieth century.

Dr. Richard Clements 

Andrew Klavan reports that the world was clearer, brighter, fuller, practically glowing—and all because of a little three-word prayer of gratitude uttered with some hesitance. We may not all experience his dramatic and immediate transformation; God’s grace comes in a way that is tailored to each individual person. But if we pray even a brief prayer of gratitude on a regular basis, things definitely will change. We will change.

Alejandro Terán-Somohano  

In Genesis, we find the origin story of all pagan origin stories: to believe that the order of the cosmos comes from the triumph of a power over all its rivals—that it is the powerful who determine what is good and evil—is the flawed thinking of fallen man, not the truth. Original sin is a turning away from reality. To turn back to Genesis is to return to reality, and it is the starting point for redeeming our culture, our politics, our economy, and our technology. We ignore the lesson of Genesis at our own peril.

Fr. Elias Carr

What makes human beings different from other forms of life? René Girard argues that religion explains human origins. He proposes scenarios by which protohumans might have become human—that is, a culture-making animal. He concludes that humanity is a child of religion, which emerges from the scapegoat mechanism, which provided a solution to the problem of unbounded violence that arose from humanity’s mimetic (imitative) desire.

Justin Kalan

Many contemporary Protestant analytic philosophers of religion deny the doctrine of divine simplicity. Much has been said on both sides of this debate in recent years. The typical objections include things such as the doctrine is unintelligible, it removes all contingency in the world, and it is incompatible with Scripture. Instead of rehashing this debate, here are three areas where the denial of this doctrine leads to difficulties in the area of apologetics.

Dr. Richard DeClue

In both Greek antiquity (philosophy and literature) and in Sacred Scripture, “the heart” symbolizes the core of the person, where one’s authentic thoughts and emotions reside and from which they proceed. A new encyclical was promulgated on October 24, 2024: Dilexit Nos, which means “He loved us.” The document is “On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.”

Andrew Tolkmith

Natural disasters bring with them a certain mysterious power to recalibrate a person’s understanding of what humans are and what they are for. We are, metaphysically, always engaged in disaster relief, and the question is not whether you managed to feed the hungry every once in a while but whether you took on the mode of life conditioned by feeding the hungry.

Dr. Christopher Kaczor

There is one way of praying that I’ve found minimizes such distractions—namely, praying like St. Augustine. He says that he writes not to human beings who would laugh at his follies and misdeeds; rather, he writes to the God of Mercy. I’ve found that putting pen to paper diminishes distractions in prayer better than anything else I’ve tried.