I A dry heat glowing in his shins and brain afire, The night sky gray behind the distant münster’s spire, He found himself awake upon a rain-slicked street, His boot heels slipping on the stones; the wind searched every pleat Of his brown cloak and struck his body till it spun Him back and all…
A child dancing in rain, Glimpsed somewhere in Nigeria… And all the drops contain The modest area And quick and lithe Of limb, this boy, Emblem of joy, Graceful and blithe As if each precious drop Could be a tiny, godly glass Repeating without stop The shapes that whirl and pass: In lieu of…
I love collecting prayer books and hymnals, particularly Anglican Prayer Books and hymnals of prior generations. Prior to the late 20th Century, the Book of Common Prayer was largely standardized, with minor regional differences since the 17th Century. While these differences are indeed fascinating, they are generally variations on minor themes of government. Approximately 50…
The much-vaunted author of both fiction and Christian apologetics, C.S. Lewis utilized his skill with the pen in order to paint a sweeping picture of Christian theology. In many instances, this was done so plainly, as in the case of his book Mere Christianity. But on other occasions, Lewis sought to inject Christian theology into…
Into its roots I thrust my spade, each spring, to kill it where it cloaks and climbs my lovely house, and chokes all other green things there arrayed. With my bare hands I pull new shoots before they batten and start to braid themselves into a wild cascade. I never manage to kill the roots….
We are excited to announce the release of Dan Rattelle’s new chapbook, The Commonwealth. Written, in large part, during his time studying in St Andrews, Scotland with the poet Don Patterson, The Commonwealth looks across the sea toward Rattelle’s home of Massachusetts for inspiration. The craftsman and craftsmanship that remains in our technological age provides…
An important challenge to the churches in Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option (2017) is the call for our congregations to become “thick communities” of discipleship and prayer that can resist the corrosive acidity of liquid modernity and be instrumental in building an alternative polis to the emergent dark age of secularity. In Dreher’s vision, such…
Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary: Unveiling the Mother of the Messiah. By Brant Pitre. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2018. 240 pp. $24.00 (cloth). A collage of images from pop culture made up my earliest understanding of St. Mary – pictures picked up in the childish ways we begin to learn anything. There was…
Her script was always lovely and unique, And still unique when it began to wobble, Along with spoken words. Increasing trouble With memory made her less inclined to speak. But still, she wrote her letters. Before we’d started school, she’d made us readers: Books were our favorite toys; once every week We’d take some back…
The Lost Supper: Revisiting Passover and the Origins of the Eucharist. By Matthew Colvin. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2019. 188 pp. $90.00 (cloth). Debates over eucharistic theology are as predictable as they are unending. It’s not just that various dogmatic interpretations have congealed such that advancing theological reflection on the eucharist may seem futile;…