As I wrote in last week’s column, I have come to think of God’s revelation as an invitation to enter into God’s unfathomable life of love and to think of faith as a saying yes to that invitation. Thinking of revelation and faith this way has marvelous implications for our lives. God’s invitation can come […]
Arts and Culture
Fr. Robert Lauder is a philosophy professor at St. John’s University and the author of “Pope Francis’ Spirituality and Our Story” (Resurrection Press).
Dynamic Theology
This past summer on my vacation, I read two terrific theology books. One was Walter Cardinal Kasper’s “Mercy: The Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life” (New York: Paulist Press, 2014, pp. 264, $29.95); the other was Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson, C.S.J.’s “Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love” (New […]
Possession Achieved Through Love
Using an essay by theologian Father Richard Viladesau as a guide, Father Lauder considers the mystery of loving and being loved, and how the lover and beloved belong to each other in a unique way.
Tackling Indifferentism
There are many problems in both the world and the Church, and I suppose our lived experience directs our interest toward those that we think are especially important.
Reading Helps Us Tap into Literary Treasures
When I first started writing this weekly column many years ago, my mother often would say to me, “I don’t know why you are writing all of these columns. No one understands what you’re writing.”
Reflecting on the Life and Death of Cardinal Bernardin
MANY Months ago, a friend gave me a copy of Eugene Kennedy’s book “Cardinal Bernardin’s Stations of the Cross: Transforming Our Grief and Loss into a New Life” (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2003, pp. 164).
Capsule Reviews
‘Gone Girl’ and ‘Italy’
Cinema and the Sacred
As the technological revolution transforms movies and computer-induced images seem to multiply magically, movies seem dumber and dumber. Still, my faith in the importance, power and beauty of film has been renewed by the 2013 Polish masterpiece, “Ida,” written and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski.
Comedy with Substance, Dignity and Value
On Friday, Oct. 24, a new film, “St. Vincent,” will open in this country. I suspect that it will be a big hit. In fact, its star, Bill Murray, may even be nominated for an Academy Award.
Art and Artists
There are good reasons why some paintings are in the great museums and others do not qualify. Of course, it is possible that experts make mistakes.