Coincidentally: Table Talk
In October 1883 the poet and critic Matthew Arnold arrived in New York on the Cunarder Servia to begin a lecture tour….
Scaramouche, Sabatini, and Spadassinicide
Few are the stories that are vouched for by a lead sentence alone. It was the best of times, it was…
Descending into the Chocolate Factory: Are Dahl’s Works Worth it?
Every good child takes some pleasure in being bad. It is the perversity of human inheritance that forbidden fruit is fascinating….
On Pilgrim’s Progress
by Michael Yost
My dark and cloudy words, they do but hold The truth, as cabinets enclose the gold. —Pilgrim’s Progress A generation…
The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh (Not for the Squeamish)
When Evelyn Waugh came to Hollywood in 1947 to discuss the film rights for Brideshead Revisited, he visited a graveyard: Forest Lawn Memorial Park. He…
Journeying to Calvary
with the Blessed Mother:
Lynch’s A Woman Wrapped in Silence
By Miriam Schroder, Class of 2017 This is God’s chosen way with men, To take men’s way: and so the…
Flannery O’Connor’s Revelation:
Daily Encounters with Grace and Ugliness
by Paul Guenzel
It must surely be marveled at how one and the same word—nay, one and the same concept—elicits such different reactions….
The Ballad of Judas Iscariot and the Burden of Lent
Lent is a burden and a blessing. It calls Catholics to crawl beneath the weight of themselves to the Cross of…
The Triumph of the Heart in a Time of Pestilence
by Dr. William Fahey /Joseph Pearce
Each week’s summit will include a short talk, panel discussion, and Q&A. Don’t miss this tonic of humor, conviviality, and…
Coincidentally: Moses and the Muses
The Anglo-Irish critic Robert Wilson Lynd observed that only in literature does coincidence seem unnatural. The literary Detection Club, whose…
Coincidentally: Animal Magnetism
The former mayor Marion Barry said of conditions in Washington, D.C., that “the crime rate isn’t so bad if you…
The War of the Worlds and the Significance of Science Fiction
In 1938, the world was waiting for war. Germany had invaded Czechoslovakia. The United States was battling the Great Depression. The…
The Book of Revelation and Global Crisis: Learning to Hope During a Pandemic Apocalypse
A Lecture by J. David Franks, Ph.D. The world is gripped by tribulation now. Apocalyptic prophecy provides guidance on how…
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux: Triumphant Tragedy
All great literature is well written, but not all that is well written is great literature. In other words, there are…
The Book of Revelation and Global Crisis: Learning to Hope During a Pandemic Apocalypse
A Lecture by J. David Franks, Ph.D. The world is gripped by tribulation now. Apocalyptic prophecy provides guidance on how…
Coincidentally: Heirs to the Hairless
Dr. Martin Routh, president of Magdalen College for 63 years, was the last Oxford don to wear a wig in…
Coincidentally: Detachment
To investigate the quack theory of animal magnetism, a hypothesis of Franz Mesmer, for whom mesmerism is named, King Louis…
Coincidentally: Taking Flight
In a recent motion picture, computer technology shows the monster Godzilla toppling the Chrysler Building onto my bedroom. Special effects…
Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown: The American Nightmare
The surrender to sin in America is a species of Satanism. Whether through seduction or submission, depravity is the mantra of…
“Re: Vampires” by John H. Watson, M.D.
NB: The circumstances surrounding my access to this manuscript are of such moment that their publication is impossible. Those involved…
