Catholic Commentary: Reviews
Thomas Howard: 'Brideshead Revisited' Revisited
A story about sin and grace.
Benjamin Wiker: The Best Mind of the 18th Century
Little substance beyond what one would hear murmured in Enlightenment salons.
William F. Buckley: God's Irony
It is God's irony to find holiness in a sinner, and perhaps to forgive the sin.
Cynthia Grenier: Louis XIV's Saving 'Solidity'
"Kings have majesty and popes have sanctity, but you have solidity."
Ronald Rychlak: The Priests of Dachau
Provides insight into history, human nature, and faith.
Martin Morse Wooster: The Forgotten Failures of FDR
An important attempt to re-examine the ideas and the legacy of the New Deal.
Meghan Keane: Gone Baby Gone
An engrossing detective thriller that displays a nuance Affleck lacks as an actor.
Joan Frawley Desmond: Bella
Transformative power of relationships anchored in truth rather than sentimentality.
Eve Tushnet: Grace Is the Hardest Pillow
The best poems in this collection are among the best poems I've read.
Sean Dailey: A Firefly Named 'Serenity'
And so it goes. You can't help but fall in love.
Meghan Keane: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Rather than depression, it invokes awe and appreciation.
Benjamin Wiker: Moses Who?
See the Ten Commandments in a new way.
Cynthia Grenier: A Handsome Lie
The theology in the film is murky to say the least.
Joanna Bogle: Holy Land
About the future of Europe and it's a worryingly good read.
Logan Gage: Shedding the Galileo Complex
A fine introduction to design – perhaps the best to date.
Elise Ehrhard: Movies for the Next Generation
2007 saw a flurry of secular films that were unabashedly pro-life in their outlook.
David Warren: Against Pluralism
Third edition of After Virtue by the great living philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre.
Meghan Keane: Notes from Sundance
Plenty of highlights of the ten-day festival.
Gerald Russello: 'The Break' - Dawson and the Modern World
Helpfully brings together the disparate strands of Dawson's work.
Eve Tushnet: Theology of the Body in Pain
Shows how torture violates every single aspect of the created world.
Susie Lloyd: Funny and Effective
A blend of logic and ridicule, producing orthodoxy.
Joseph Susanka: The Boiler House Saint
A masterpiece of cinematic restraint and spiritual depth.
Elizabeth Scalia: Almost Catholic Is Not Quite Enough
A nourishing read...which some Catholics will find entertaining and helpful.
Eve Tushnet: The Conscience of Manners
She's developed manners into something akin to a spiritual discipline.
Martin Morse Wooster: The Last Days of Jefferson
Will help us understand his greatness as a Founder and as a president.
Joseph Susanka: What Price Perfection?
A warning for that time when humans will control their own "evolution."
Mark Stricherz: Exposing Culture of Death, Inc.
Review: Embryo: A Defense of Human Life
Gerald Russello: Toward a More Just Law
Some of the best recent Catholic thinking on the law.
Randy Boyagoda: The Real Scandal in Boston and Beyond
The faithful not called to the fullest possible living out of the gospel...
Jeffrey Tucker: The Real Catholic Songbook
It contains the music for every Sunday of the year.
Fr. James Schall: Orthodoxy
The single-best book published in the last hundred years.
Joseph Susanka: The Skinhead and the Priest
Reminds us, no one is ever beyond hope.
Joan Frawley Desmond: The Clash of Civilizations 2.0
A discussion regarding the civilizational challenge that now confronts the West.
Logan Gage: Delusions of Grandeur
I do wish the rest of the scientific community would join us.
Eve Tushnet: Tainted Love
What is done out of love is beyond good and evil.
Genevieve Kineke: The Idol of Age
No regrets, no humility, no real wisdom.
Meghan Keane: Growing Pains
Lacks some of the intimate detail of the first film.
Russell Shaw: Through a Glass, Darkly - Secrecy and the Catholic Church
Is the problem larger than secrecy?
Joseph Susanka: Of God and Guests
The miraculous power of prayer and maintaining a simple, childlike faith.
Gerald Russello: The All-Powerful Presidency
Shatters conventional illusions about what we think the presidency is for.
Deal Hudson: Ralph Reed Writes a Novel?
To recreate an election in the imaginary world of fiction.
Joan Frawley Desmond: The Bonds of Friendship
The most intimate and profound moments of a great pontiff's life.
Mark Stricherz: Grabbing Religious Voters
Democrats are making a play for some "values voters."
Joseph Susanka: A Person Is A Person, No Matter How Broken
A perfect example of a director using the documentary form to its full potential.
Martin Morse Wooster: Page-Turning American History
"A refreshing change" from "gloomy, depressing, jargon-laden tracts."
Elizabeth Scalia: Willing America Right
His sensibility is both consistent and thoughtfully measured, whatever the stimulus
Joseph Susanka: The Devil Went Down to Gotham
Nolan discovered the combination that eluded the franchise for so many years.
Marjorie Campbell: Listening to the Children of Gay Parents
Her candid account of life growing up "under" an exploitative father.
Todd Aglialoro: The Government, Divorce, and the War on Fatherhood
As unique as it is disturbing...
Eve Tushnet: When I Was Cruel
A Small Killing: A frightening, lovely, and creepy comic.
Michael Baruzzini: Fighting the Wrong War
Ignores the far greater danger of evolutionism.
Joseph Susanka: The Little Way of the Samurai
A film about the importance and value of one's family.
Christopher Scalia: A Pattern, Somewhere
If you can handle Brideshead Revisited, you can handle this novel.
Jeffrey Tucker: Peace-Loving Conservatives
A super-entertaining, very well-researched, and enormously enlightening history.
Joan Frawley Desmond: Resisting the Temptations of Power
Archbishop Charles Chaput's Render Unto Caesar
Logan Gage: A Good Book About Bad Books
A quick course on the Great Books or to inoculate a child going off to college.
Elizabeth Scalia: 'Greater Than' Is Pretty Great
Sound argument against the considerations of four prominent atheists.
Susie Lloyd: Dostoyevsky on Steroids
A conspiracy to destroy Christ's Church from within?
John Zmirak: The Ale-Drinker's Answer to Hegel - Chesterton's The Everlasting Man
The convert nabs this narrative from 2,000 years ago and makes it new.
Michael Ard: The House of War
Throughout her compact book, Moczar narrates engagingly.
Christopher Scalia: Chesterton's Overrated Novella
It is not a masterpiece, and Chesterton's reputation should not obscure that fact.
Cortes DeRussy: The Difference Between Observing and Exploring
The Pulitzer Prize winning play August: Osage County
John Zmirak: How to 'Render' without Surrender
Archbishop Charles Chaput's Render Unto Caesar
Anna Mathie: Outside "Catholic"
Ushpizin, or The Holy Guests
Joan Frawley Desmond: 'Big Tent' Catholicism
A conflicted approach to Catholic moral teaching.
Joseph Susanka: Taking Up Arms
A film filled with many complex, conflicting messages.
Matthew Lickona: Ridiculous
Mostly, it's an entertaining run...
Jeffrey Tucker: The Debt We Owe to Trade
The book is even more important than the author knows.
Matthew Lickona: Subtletyproof
The sweetness was so relentless, so utterly without guile.
Eve Tushnet: The Serenity Player
Hermann Hesse's 1943 novel, The Glass Bead Game.
Joan Frawley Desmond: From Darkness Into Light
Departs from the set conversion story, with its happily-ever-after denouement.
Mike Shaw: The Da Vinci Code
A review of the movie based on Dan Brown's book.
Jeffrey Tucker: A Novel for All Souls
Oscar Wilde's, "The Picture of Dorian Gray"
Fr. Roger Landry: Preaching Christ's Passion
Caviezel's portrayal was of a Savior whom today's men would follow.
John Zmirak: Kneeling Before the World
We have the bishops we deserve.
Matthew Lickona: Jesus Discovered
"Redeemed" talks about conversion, the turn toward Christ, as a lifelong work.
Todd Aglialoro: Bourne, James Bourne
A conspicuous moral ambiguity infects Quantum of Solace.
Deal Hudson: Why Hitler Stole the Art of Europe
He sought total domination of the culture, especially its art and architecture.
Joseph Susanka: The People Behind the Politics
The Visitor -- a little film about a quiet little man overcome by deep suffering.
Matthew Lickona: Vampire Love
Love isn't safe, especially when you love someone supernatural.
Martin Morse Wooster: Gandhi, Churchill, and India's Troubles
One cannot fully understand Churchill without studying his views on India.
John Zmirak: Our Age's Reigning Sin - Now on DVD
This vice is misguided compassion.
Matthew Lickona: I Want to Believe
Film Review - X-Files: I Want to Believe
Joan Frawley Desmond: Of Certainty and Doubt
Doubt evokes a haunted time before "the deluge."
Joan Frawley Desmond: The Twilight of Clint Eastwood
A radical response to the problem of evil in the world.
Fr. Dwight Longenecker: Heretical Times
Good, solid, reliable history written in a no-nonsense style.
David Mills: Reading the Signs
"A telling of the good news in symbols that would speak to many people."
Christopher Scalia: Appalachian Gothic
A haunting depiction of greed, inhumanity, and single-minded ambition.
Fr. James Schall: The Lord of the World
"Wonderfully conveys the flatness and boredom of a world without God."
Pope Benedict XVI: Guardini on Christ in Our Century
"That which is truly real...will lead us to the One who is truly real."
John Zmirak: Brideshead Redecorated
Lush and musical prose conveys to us the intensity of perfect, lyrical moments.
Cynthia Grenier: The Great and Terrible Year
The power and style of the Russian original.
Anthony Esolen: The Disappearance of Song
The work of Ford -- is irrepressibly biblical and epic no matter where it is set.
Christopher Scalia: An Odd Bird
O'Connor's life is an inspiration to any writer...and a model for any Catholic.
Danielle Bean: Soul-Healing Humor
An unabashedly honest peek into the life of a homeschooling mother of many.
Deal Hudson: A Catholic Writer Who Does Not Turn Away
<em>The Body of This: Stories</em> by Andrew McNabb
Brian Saint-Paul: Politics as Applied Theology - A Conversation with Peter and Helen Evans
"Whoever said Christianity was nice?"
Martin Morse Wooster: Evolutionary Art
Reasonable conclusions through an unprovable belief.
Fr. Roger Landry: The Benefit of Doubt
This movie shows that in many cases it's hard to discover the truth.
Joan Frawley Desmond: Fathers and Sons
Reveals something more than the author may have intended.
Meghan Keane: Lake of Fire
Some of the most emotionally fraught sentiments on abortion caught on film.
Deal Hudson: Evil, In the Name of God
Will leave you changed and forever on guard against the abuse of divine law.
Eve Tushnet: We'll Burn That Bra When We Come to It
Florence King's 1982 novel <em>When Sisterhood Was in Flower</em>.
Deal Hudson: Catholic Writer Tells a Pro-Life Horror Story
Fighting to live in the face of a creator who wants to murder him.
Gerald Russello: Mary as Global Icon
<em>Mother of God</em> ranges across the centuries, from the Gospels to the Reformation.
David Mills: Chesterton and Lewis for Beginners
The bookish Christian's rock stars.
John Chalberg: Rescuing Lincoln
His ambitions and mistakes never let him steer away from his great goal.
Thomas Hibbs: 'Where the Truth Lies'
<em>Mad Men</em> illustrates some of the concerns central to <em>Caritas in Veritate</em>.
Martin Morse Wooster: Resurrecting Religion
Religious news is, more often than not, the most important news of the day.
Robert Reilly: Shine On, Mendelssohn
It is beyond my imagination why anyone would not wish to see this light.
Deal Hudson: Bill Donohue Takes Aim at the Secular Left
<em>Secular Sabotage</em> could not arrive at a more opportune moment.
Thomas Howard: Augustine's Pears
A great antidote for all that is confused and squalid about our own epoch.
Arturo Vasquez: The Fall of the Archbishop
The official spokesman of the Catholic Left for more than two decades.
Russell Shaw: A Changing Church?
A close-up look at ten trends that will largely shape Catholicism.
Deal Hudson: The Laughter That Binds Us All
Feminism of life does everything in support of life from the perspective of love.
Fr. James Schall: A Man of Words and Deeds
Churchill was a statesman, a man of action with the prudence that goes with it.
John Zmirak: Everybody Loves a Secret
We all crave the mysterious, and hope to have its secrets opened to us.
Eve Tushnet: Tolstoy Dies, Goes to America
It shows the shackles of wedlock -- and the love that forges them.
Martin Morse Wooster: The Lessons of Lawrence
An effective introduction to the life -- and the ideas -- of T. E. Lawrence.
William Doino Jr.: When Love Conquers Politics
The kind of book that might actually help heal a broken relationship.
Michael Ard: Kirk among the Ruins
A strong exposition on the range of Kirk's thought.
William Baer: Zodiac
The difficulty of making movies about well-known unsolved crimes.
Jason Boffetti: Politics from Parables
Consider whether the Gospels are the source-text for our modern political values.
Kevin Schmiesing: The Long Road to Civil Rights
One of the most sensational crimes and trials in Alabama history.
H. Crocker III: Tocqueville's Catholic America
A wonderfully consuming portrait of Tocqueville and his ideas.
H. Crocker III: How the English-Speaking Peoples Saved Civilization
-- and will do it again.
Cynthia Grenier: Philip Pullman's Dark Materials
A disturbing — not to say dangerous — vision.
Thomas Hibbs: England at Prayer
Enables the reader to participate actively in the piety of the late Middle Ages.
Thomas Hibbs: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Economics
We do not have the sort of book about conservatism that we desperately need.
Thomas Hibbs: Our Contemporary Nihilism
The significance of popular cultural artifacts for our self-understanding.
Deal Hudson: M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable Success
<em>Unbreakable</em> may be too much of a mental stretch for most people.
Patrick Hynes: Faith, Hope, Love, and Welfare Reform
Study of charitable giving in America from an entirely pragmatic perspective.
George Sim Johnston: Benedict's Jesus
Readers expecting an easy tour of the New Testament won't find it here.
Anna Mathie: Love and Trespasses in Kristin Lavransdatter
"Ever since I read it, it has never left me for a moment."
Monica Migliorino Miller: Why an All-Male Priesthood Remains
Some helpful responses to the most common objections to the Church's teaching.
Ronald Rychlak: The Plot to Kidnap Pope Pius XII
Should be a significant book in the Pius war.
Elizabeth Scalia: Stalking the Ten-Pronged Divine Nod
A likeable, valuable book, but it may be more useful in portable audio form.
Russell Shaw: Early Chronicles of a Post-Christian Age
Also shed light on the situation of faith today.
Deal Hudson: <em>Glee</em> and the Search for Postmodern Innocence
The ability to keep three generations of viewers in front of the TV together.
Joseph Susanka: The Western Is Dead; Long Live the Western
Styles and themes from both the new and old eras that has been evolving.
Benjamin Wiker: The Atheists' Benchwarmer
Stenger's arguments read like a collage of standard atheists' quips.
Benjamin Wiker: The Case Against Christianity
Only as strong as his case <em>for</em> atheism, and that is not very strong at all.
Benjamin Wiker: Delusional Atheism
So many bad arguments on behalf of a most serious subject.
F. H. Buckley: An American Tragedy
More levels of meaning than one finds in an entire contemporary blockbuster.
Deal Hudson: The Pro-Life Leader Who Is Also an Exorcist
The occult is not innocent entertainment.
H. Crocker III: What Might Have Been
A future wherein the world has come to be really and intelligently Christian.
Joseph Susanka: The Brutality of Grace
Moments of grace and the violence that surrounds them.
Ralph McInerny: Mountain Man
It is good to settle down again with this marvelous and saintly author.
Deal Hudson: The Worst Book I Ever Read
Annoyed and exhausted from the effort of reading so much nonsense.
Joseph Susanka: The Specter of Broken Fatherhood
An intriguing message amid a sea of problematic mannerisms.
Joseph Susanka: The Life You Live May Be Your Own
Two films with eerily similar questions and drastically different conclusions.
Monica Migliorino Miller: Inside the Abortion Machine
Conversion from abortion facilitator to abortion protester is a compelling narrative.
Martin Morse Wooster: The Home Lives of the Founding Fathers
An enjoyable book that deepens our understanding of the their lives and character.
John Zmirak: How to Train Your Gargoyle
In the spirit and much the same voice as <em>The Screwtape Letters</em>.
Joseph Susanka: Two Different Good Friday Films
A pair of films likely to be overlooked during Holy Week.
Joseph Susanka: Two Different Good Friday Films
A pair of films likely to be overlooked during Holy Week.
