Civilized Reader

Civilized Reader:
“If youth knew;
if age could”

by Paul Connell

In times of cultural transition such as our own, we would do well to heed the words of the great…

Post /

Read More

Oedipus the Detective

by Sean Fitzpatrick

The murder mystery is as old as murder. When the blood of Abel cried out for justice, the all-seeing Judge took…

Post /

Read More

10 Christmas Stories Every Father Should Read to His Children

by Sean Fitzpatrick

When St. Nick drives his miniature sleigh full of toys drawn by eight tiny reindeer to the snowy housetop, and drops…

Post /

Read More

Why The Worst Christmas Story is Worth Reading

by Sean Fitzpatrick

There are few Christmas stories that begin with a scene so ragged and rich as a threadbare, moth-gnawed Santa Claus who,…

Post /

Read More

Christmas

by Sean Fitzpatrick

One Christmas was so much like the other, in those years around the sea-town corner now, out of all sound…

Post /

Read More

Gravediggers, Goblins, and How Dickens Discovered Christmas

by Sean Fitzpatrick

Christmas has become a humbug. Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge was a sour soothsayer for our times. By and large, Christmas is a humbug these…

Post /

Read More

What Are You Reading This Summer? Excellent Drivel

by Sean Fitzpatrick

Reading in the dog days should never be dogged reading. Just as summer is for recreation, so also is it for…

Post /

Read More

Paper or Plasma? How Are You Reading This Summer?

by Sean Fitzpatrick

Summertime is a favorite time for some favorite reading—but in these times, and in these summers, the issue is not…

Post /

Read More

“Spring and Fall” Under an Old Ash Tree

by Sean Fitzpatrick

As we cross the solar border into summer, many may remark that this past spring was not very spring-like. With…

Post /

Read More

Heathen Holiness: Padraic Colum’s Nordic Gods and Heroes

by Sean Fitzpatrick

Winter is the season for readers. Bitter cold and polar darkness drive people beneath quilts and by hearthsides where the book…

Post /

Read More

Rip Van Winkle and the American Phantasy

by Sean Fitzpatrick

The ghosts that haunt the lonely corners of the globe have ever managed to play an uncanny and incalculable role in…

Post /

Read More

What Are You Reading This Summer?

by Sean Fitzpatrick

The return of summertime every year often recalls the years that will never return: the golden days of youth. The energy,…

Post /

Read More

The Birds: When the Wind Changes Overnight

by Sean Fitzpatrick

For all their disagreements, scientific fact and science fiction are in agreement concerning the viral quality of fear. Men tend to…

Post /

Read More

The Writing Is on the Web

by Sean Fitzpatrick

With the unfolding of spring comes a renewed awareness and appreciation for life. It is peculiar, though, how the observation of…

Post /

Read More

The Divine Tragedy of Achilles

by Sean Fitzpatrick

As the heroes of The Iliad are slain in blood, Homer gives each of them an epitaph in poetry, that they may die…

Post /

Read More

Learning by Light and Darkness: A Review of A Lantern in Her Hand

by Paul Prezzia

If philosophy is a preparation for death, as Socrates says, then the same can be said of education, at least…

Post /

Read More

The Vampyre Bicentennial: Should Catholics Be Wary?

by Sean Fitzpatrick

Full disclosure: I have been scarred by vampiric literature. It happened when I was a boy. My mother learned of an…

Post /

Read More

The Vulgar Morality of Tam o’ Shanter: A Tale by Robbie Burns

by Sean Fitzpatrick

January 25 marks the birthday of Robert Burns (1759-1796), the national poet of Scotland, and is observed worldwide with the Robbie Burns…

Post /

Read More

Jungle Fever: Reading for the Heart of the Summer

by Sean Fitzpatrick

There is something distantly primal and tribal about summer, when sunny days and sultry nights seem to unconsciously conjure up the…

Post /

Read More

Captain Blood and the Real Pirates of the Caribbean

by Sean Fitzpatrick

It was bound to happen. Even the venerable and visceral occupation of piracy has fallen to the vicissitudes of the movies….

Post /

Read More

The Center for the Restoration of Christian Culture is a project of The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts.

Phone: (603) 880-8308
Fax: (603) 880-9280
Contact via email


Copyright © 2024 Thomas More College of Liberal Arts. All rights reserved.