Thomas Merton taught me to value self-denial, but a bout of depression forced me to question whether asceticism was the healthiest response to my life.
Soviet novelist Vasily Grossman is not often thought of as a religious thinker. But his Armenian travelogue shows a different, more numinous side of his work.
Easy Rider is a lasting work of art not only because it reflects the “spirit of the Sixties,” but because it depicts a bona fide tragedy that transcends its time.
Evangelicals have embraced Donald Trump, despite his obvious moral deficiencies. They do so not so much out of hypocrisy, as out of a sense of being under siege.
For me prayer is concrete, a form of work. Politicians, though, have a different job, and in the wake of mass shootings, they have a duty to take action.
The veneration of relics is a hard thing for many Catholics of this time and culture to wrap their minds around. But the practice is humanizing, not superstitious.
The idea of religious liberty was not simply the product of the Enlightenment. It has ancient origins, going back to early Christians suffering persecution in Rome.
