Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Chaos and Old Night

Home
Catholic

appreciations and criticisms

Select a Category Advent/Christmas alarms and discursions American history appreciations and criticisms Arts and entertainment Catholic Church G.K. Chesterton Illinois J.R.R Tolkien Lent Nazi watch politics religion Uncategorized

Select a Month July 2021 June 2021 January 2021 November 2020 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 August 2019 July 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018

July 2021

July 07, 2021

A most unselfish way of giving pleasure

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain New York: HarperCollins, 2017 (First Harper Perennial Edition) 312 pages,...

June 2021

June 30, 2021

There is more to a police procedural than catching bad guys

Line of Duty (2012 – ) Created by Jed Mercurio The more I watch police...

October 2020

October 13, 2020

Begging—and answering—the question

A few days ago I published a piece in which I explained how a Catholic...

August 2020

August 13, 2020

Begging—and answering—the question

A few days ago I published a piece in which I explained how a Catholic...

July 2020

July 06, 2020

No time like the present for ‘Stranger Things’

WARNING: Spoilers Stranger Things starts with a top-secret government lab at which an experiment goes awry....

January 2020

January 27, 2020

God commands us to love

The first batch of beer I ever brewed was in the home of a Muslim....

January 17, 2020

Christopher Tolkien, rest in peace

I have just a few quick words about Christopher Tolkien, who died Thursday, aged 95....

December 2019

December 07, 2019

Reflections on the readings for the Second Sunday of Advent

Advent is a season of expectation, of waiting, in hope. The most well-known Advent hymn...

August 2019

August 16, 2019

Gleams of light

Thursday night, Stephen Colbert sat down with CNN's Anderson Cooper for an hour-long discussion (it...

May 2019

May 21, 2019

A beautiful film

Tolkien (2019) Directed by Dome Karukoski Written by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford Rated PG-13 (for...

April 2019

April 15, 2019

“Heaven and earth may pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

Jesus' words, from Matthew 24:35, were what first passed through my mind when I saw...

April 11, 2019

How Daenerys should have invaded Westeros (MAJOR SPOILERS)

Season 8 of Game of Thrones premiers Sunday. The anticipation is enough to make any...

March 2019

March 25, 2019

The link between Nazareth and Mount Doom

Today, we celebrate two events, one fictional and one real. The fictional event is the...

March 18, 2019

The press vs the Presidency: old war, new battles

Robert Mueller’s investigation into Donald Trump’s campaign for president started as a snowball. It is...

March 05, 2019

This Lent, winter is coming

Lent is a dreary time. From Ash Wednesday to the Triduum, we count the days...

December 2018

December 03, 2018

The season of Advent

G.K. Chesterton wrote beautifully of Christmas, both in poetry, such as “The Christ-Child in Mary’s...

November 2018

November 14, 2018

The crown of the Christmas feast

The Christmas pudding is the crown of the Christmas feast. It has no equal. Before...

November 04, 2018

A hard life; a good life

The week of October 22, as I wrote here, one of President Trump’s supporters mailed...

October 2018

October 24, 2018

Harrowing and beautiful

Fear is the relinquishment of logic, the willing relinquishing of reasonable patterns. We yield to...

September 2018

September 22, 2018

Happy Hobbit Day

I nearly forgot to wish everyone a Happy Hobbit Day. Hobbit Day is September 22,...

September 18, 2018

A Pope Like No Other

“When Christ at a symbolic moment was establishing His great society, He chose for its...

July 2018

July 27, 2018

Prepare for winter

Game of Thrones, the TV adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice...

June 2018

June 14, 2018

Discover G.K. Chesterton

Today, June 14, 2018, was the 82nd anniversary of the death of G.K. Chesterton. I...

June 14, 2018

Anthony Bourdain, R.I.P.

In Las Vegas, as long as you’re gambling, the drinks are free. In Granada, Spain,...

May 2018

May 24, 2018

‘Is politics fantastic?’

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember...

May 17, 2018

In the arena

Before Friday, May 4, the last arena rock concert I attended was The Who, in...

May 15, 2018

Tom Wolfe, rest in peace

If you read one book by Tom Wolfe, it should be The Right Stuff. What...