Wiker does a great job of placing polarized, knee-jerk, talking point positions in the same space - refusing to be drawn into the poles. As a Catholic should, he looks for the via media - not a compromise, but a higher place where the tension between irreconcilables is resolved. His book is challenging, because it invites us to do the same as we develop our thoughts about the place of the human being in the natural order.
Read MoreDid you know Chesterton was trained as an artist? Many people know other facets of his thought, or enjoy his fiction without delving into what he thought about art-making, being a creator, or the role of the artist in the Church and society.: the whiteness of chalk, the value of doing things badly, the importance of framing, whether poetry should rhyme, learning to bear the tension of paradox, etc….
Read MoreG.K. Chesterton’s poem Gloria in Profundis strikes a different note in harmony with the Gloria in Excelsis Deo that the Incarnation rightly elicits. Together, they remind us to look through all things for glimpses of the glory of God.
Read MoreMight it be that some dark trends in popular culture are the manifestations of the inherent human need to grapple with the Four Last Things? Where the Church squarely faces up to the realities of death, judgment, heaven and hell, post-modern man faces a vacuum of unbelief in the very realities that most demand his attention. The rational, materialist mind – reduced as it is in power to bear the tension this produces – has one escape route left to him.
Read MoreEducation through imitation is an essential part of God’s design for growing in wisdom. We are created as images of God. Therefore, it is when we are imitating the true, good and beautiful that we are becoming what we should be, and that we are truly learning.
Read MoreChesterton was ‘spherical’ in more than the obvious sense. To be spherical is to move freely in the vast sphere of your own being. This is the quality of being at ease with oneself that Josef Pieper (in Leisure, the Basis of Culture) called true leisure.
Read MoreJoin Internationally acclaimed author and native Englishman, Joseph Pearce, on Thursday, September 30 at 7:30 pm at Chesterton Academy of St. Philip Neri for a talk on “The Evangelizing Power of Beauty: Converting the Culture.”
Read MoreFor the drama club, we will have bi-weekly meetings in the evening and will use that time to learn basic theater concepts, play theater games, have short lessons and get to know each other. A few weeks into the semester, I will be casting for The Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
Read MoreThrough all my experiences and travels, one thing has become clear to me: we must prepare our children better for the culture that awaits them. The environment that will confront our sons and daughters is incredibly hostile, much more so than when I was younger, just ten to fifteen years ago. And after my experience at KU, I am convinced that we need to be laying firmer foundations at an earlier age. We must reach our children in junior high and high school and provide the ‘solid food’ of our intellectual heritage, as Bishop Barron is constantly saying.
Read MoreA Christian education is a human education, for a Christian is, in the end, a fully human man: “a man alive!” (St. Irenaeus).
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