Culture

Books, film, music, ideas. Catholic life in the wider conversation.

The 500-year-old book that overwhelms its owners

the lost gutenberg by margaret davis atlantic, 304pp, £16.99/$27 what has been nicknamed “the commode”, “the whale” and “#45”? those of you ...

Finzi's choral works: from sorrow to the sublime

melancholy lingers about much of gerald finzi’s oeuvre. the sadness of his early life contributed, as did his later ill health. finzi’s musi...

Francis O’Gorman

Funeral eulogies? Save it for the wake

a priest in county cork has caused ripples by deploring the nature of some of the gifts brought to the altar during a funeral mass. these, s...

Argentina: Where did it all go wrong?

few things in the realms of the human psyche can prove quite so traumatising as the loss of a high status once enjoyed. the history of argen...

What it means to be an American Catholic

what is america? is it a land, molded by geology and industry, and pregnant with legend? is it a people, shaped by a common history and a sh...

Brandon McGinley

The week ahead: Little Sisters, St Augustine and an English martyr

the little sisters of the poor celebrate the 150th anniversary of their presence in philadelphia on saturday august 24. there will be a mass...

Intelligence is not enough

there’s a huge difference between being bright and being wise, between brilliance and wisdom. we can be highly intelligent, but not very wis...

Fr Ronald Rolheiser

Heretic of the week: The Count of St Germain

the annals of heresy give one many strange figures to contemplate. but definitely in the running for the title of strangest of all is the bi...

Charles Coulombe

This vivid guide to cathedrals forgets what they were built for

ships of heaven: the private lives of britain’s cathedrals by christopher somerville doubleday, 352pp, £20/$39.95 this is the book in which ...

The world's oldest music festival continues to fascinate

christmas came early to gloucester last week where, on a sultry august day before an audience in summer shirts and sandals, the cathedral ga...

Suddenly 'conspiracy theories' look all too plausible

much has been made in recent days of the prescient verisimilitude of stanley kubrick’s final film, eyes wide shut, which celebrated its 20th...

The treasures of Catholic Texas

given the size of texas – it’s the second largest us state, and three times the size of the uk – opportunities abound for finding hidden tre...

My metaphysical friend is running for president

yet more americans have been killed in mass shootings: 22 in el paso, texas, and 10 in dayton, ohio. it’s senseless. i love america but this...

The best of the web: Cathedrals, the Elgin Marbles, and junk news

what cathedral installations reveal at father ed’s blog, fr ed tomlinson asked why anglican cathedrals are putting tourist attractions in th...

Prize crossword 0605

cryptic across 7 house within diocese is retro brown (6) 8 nice fathers sacked in gorbachev’s plan for russian transport (6) 9 joint effort ...

How to… Understand the Assumption

the assumption of the blessed virgin mary has always been a teaching within the tradition of the catholic church and the orthodox church, wh...

The Catholic Herald

What remains of the 'Protestant work ethic' theory?

the wealth of religions edited by rachel mccleary and robert barro princeton, 160pp, £24/$29.95 i can only assume that i am the target of an...

Jonathan Wright

Olivier Roy: an impartial observer of Europe's crises

is europe christian? by olivier roy hurst, 112pp, £14.99/$19.99 everything seems to be about identity these days: politics, culture – even r...

Russell Kirk's fiction is unjustly ignored

the writings of catholic convert russell kirk exert no more than a marginal influence outside of limited circles, which is a common cause fo...

China and its critics should both take a close look at the past

in a recent article in this magazine, tim stanley upped the ante by suggesting that the government of china is “pure evil”. his observation ...

Lucien de Guise

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