Saving Chesterton from the Chestertonians

A Tribute to Gregory Baum

When one thinks of Marshall McLuhan—literary scholar, communications theorist, celebrity—Catholicism doesn’t necessarily spring to mind. Not that his biographers have avoided it. The prevailing versions of McLuhan as Catholic include: ardent convert; heir to G. K. Chesterton; religious reactionary opposed to Vatican II; apocalyptic visionary or Catholic Cassandra. Yet McLuhan’s Catholicism is not so neatly categorized.

The Canadian cardinal, subject of this 2010 web exclusive, is regularly mentioned as a successor to Benedict. He is scholarly and spiritual and he knows how the Vatican operates. But what about the world outside of Rome?

The Catholic vision of Canadian author David Adams Richards

  Fighting about religion in politics is very un-Canadian.