‘Joyous atheists’: the ultimate oxymoron?
If you are a book reviewer, you sometimes have the slightly hollow feeling that you are ringing the changes in the phrases and adjectives you use. To increase this sense of merely peddling breathless...
View ArticleI love to admire this beautiful God-made world but I wish we could see beyond...
There is something lovely over at The Guardian today, namely a photo gallery of the winners of the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition. While I know nothing about photography, I do like a...
View ArticleShould Catholics avoid erotic romance novels?
A friend has forwarded me the blog of US priest, Fr Thomas Berg. It seems he answers readers’ questions at AskFather@CatholicDigest.com Here he is answering the question, “Should a Catholic read racy...
View ArticleDownton may not ‘do God’ but it certainly does anti-Catholicism
Under the radar of other more pressing news, the story that Downton Abbey does not do God has also emerged. I stopped watching Downton a long time ago, but even then it was clear to me that the absence...
View ArticleThe tragedy of Anita Brookner’s novels
All lovers of the English novel will be feeling sad at the news that Anita Brookner has died. It strikes me that Miss Brookner’s writing summed up our age where other louder and showier voices failed...
View ArticlePornography lessons? Not at my school, says Catholic headmaster
The headmaster of Downside School has spoken out against suggestions that pornography should be taught in schools. Following comments by the broadcaster and journalist Dame Jenni Murray, in which she...
View ArticleFanny Burney: the Jane Austen contemporary who really did despise the lower...
I have just finished reading Evelina, Frances Burney’s first novel, a book that was greatly enjoyed by Jane Austen and is, in some ways, a source book for some of Jane Austen’s own writings. Fanny...
View ArticleThe Christian sense and sensibility of Jane Austen
This year marks the bicentenary of Jane Austen’s death, at the age of 41. What sort of Christian was this imaginative and highly intelligent woman? Jane was both the daughter and sister of clergymen....
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