Two of the most intriguing women characters in all of world literature are the eponymous protagonists of Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina (1878) and Sigrid Undset’s trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter (1920, ’21, and ’22). Both novels deal with similar themes: Christian faith, wealthy families, stormy marriages, and the cultural and social …

This book review starts with a two-part quiz: In the New Testament (1) what is the earliest appearance of the words in the Consecration of the Eucharist, and (2) who said them? If your answer is (1) one of the synoptic Gospels as the earliest appearance and (2) Jesus—of course!—is …

It’s somewhat remarkable that with a storied career as a university professor and popular apologist, and having presented at countless conferences and authored more than a hundred books, Dr. Peter Kreeft, some 65 years after entering the Catholic Church, has finally published a personal spiritual autobiography. Several of Kreeft’s apologetics …

As Catholics, we do not make a hard separation between the sacred and the profane, nor do we see “secular” things as somehow inhabiting a different world from “religious” things. Yes, we can identify the conceptual difference between the secular and the religious for certain purposes, but these are two …

Have you heard of Polycarp, Justin, Tertullian, and Irenaeus? Although not exactly household names, they should be: they are among the early Church Fathers, who lived directly after the apostolic age. After the apostles, they are the first witnesses to the Christian faith. As St. Irenaeus said, they had “seen …

In the lengthy tradition of Christian theology, considerable attention has gone to understanding attributes of God that can be discerned through Scripture and natural revelation. For example, He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and perfect in justice, mercy, and holiness. There is also a long tradition of “apophatic” theology, also called “negative …

St. Phillip Neri said, “The best preparation for prayer is to read the lives of the saints … quietly and with recollection a little at a time. And to pause whenever you feel your heart touched with devotion.” Word on Fire’s new collection of sermons, commentaries, biographies, and other writings …

In an age that questions goodness, scorns chastity and denigrates motherhood, one might wonder how the Virgin Mary, the quiet heroine of the Gospels, could catch the attention of the modern feminist. In The Mary Pages, Sally Read recounts how the Blessed Virgin did exactly that. The Mary Pages reveals …

Those greedy popes, gluttons, hypocrites and eternally damned lovers in Dante Alighieri’s 14th century poem, The Divine Comedy, wherein Dante receives guided tours through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven: they’re meaningless to us today, right? Not so fast, says poet Angela Alaimo O’Donnell in Dear Dante: Poems, the human condition is …

People who practice a poetic religion ought to produce great poetry. Catholicism is rich in the elements that make for good poems: rhythmic language (litanies), imagery (icons) and an incarnational ethos (in which the Word becomes flesh and the world itself is charged with God’s grandeur). In 1917, poet Joyce …