The way of imagination

       Certain words frequently heard in the media these days serve to strike fear into the hearts of many individuals as well as many a nation – Ukraine, NATO, Gaza, Iran, Syria, China, etc.   Many countries are re-arming and increasing their defense spending in anticipation of imminent war.   As the subtitle of a book about the Russia—Ukraine war has it, we are currently witnessing “the return of history”.   If you’re wondering what it looks like to be a Christian leader in a time of violent upheaval and traumatic change, there is a 6 th -century figure which may have some relevant wisdom to offer.   Gregory “the Great” was appointed Bishop of Rome in the year 590, at the age of fifty, and fulfilled his role as “servant of the servants of God” until his death in 604.      Sixth-century Rome was a city (often literally) besieged with troubles.   The traditional date given for the fall of the Western Roman Empire is...

     The pioneers of 20 th -century Christian apologetics used the latest mass media technology to evangelize and offer a rational defense of the faith.   In the U.S.A., Fulton Sheen (1895—1979) used radio and TV to expound/defend Roman Catholic Christianity from 1930—1968.   In the U.K., C.S. Lewis (1898—1963) argued for “mere Christianity” on the BBC radio from 1941—43 and offered both rational and imaginative defenses of Christian doctrine through the publication of numerous books.   The 21 st century has seen many apologetics ministries avail themselves of the power of the internet to defend the faith.   American Catholic priest Robert Barron (b. 1959) founded Word on Fire Catholic Ministries [1] at the turn of the third millennium.   Fr. Barron began his evangelistic efforts by delivering homilies on a Chicago-area radio station at 5 a.m. on Sundays.   His first audience consisted of truckers!   Barron is the Fulton Sheen of this ...

       In the third decade of the 20 th century, while Dietrich Bonhoeffer was embarking on the path that would eventually lead him to resist Nazism in Germany, another young, politically active Christian was resisting fascism in Italy.   Maria Di Lorenzo’s Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati: An Ordinary Christian tells the story of Bonhoeffer’s Italian Catholic contemporary, who died in 1925 at the tender age of 24.   Both Dietrich and Pier Giorgio were born into wealthy, high-status families; both of their fathers were accomplished, well-connected professionals.   Interestingly, both young men would spend time in the capital of the other’s country.   Pier Giorgio’s father, Alfredo, was appointed the Italian ambassador to Germany in 1920 and the young Frassati spent 3 months in the German capital in 1921, during which time he met Father Karl Sonneschein, “the Saint Francis of Berlin”, a prominent figure of Catholic social action in Germany. ...

       “…my beloved brothers, my joy and crown…take care of those women who struggled with me in the gospel…” (Phil. 4.1, 3).   We have already examined the tension in Paul’s letter to the Philippians between his frustration at being constrained by his imprisonment, on the one hand, and his detachment and joyful “resignation” to the will of God regarding his fate, on the other.   There is another paradox in this letter – on the one hand, Paul seems to be full of joy and exhorts his readers to “Rejoice…always!” (4.4); on the other hand, Paul acknowledges that the Christians of Philippi are engaged in a struggle against those who would silence them (1.27-30).   The French have an expression – “la joie de combat”; i.e. the joy of the battle.   There is indeed much joy to be had in struggling for a common cause together with likeminded people (cf. 4.14-16).   Hence Paul’s repeated request for the Philippians to be “of one mind” (4.2; cf. 1.27; 2....

       “I deem everything to be a loss on account of the excellence…of knowing Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and communion in his sufferings…not that I have already been perfected, but…I press onward to the mark, for the prize of God’s call upward in Christ Jesus” (3.8, 10, 12, 14).   Paul made it his life’s goal to “become like Jesus”.   In Philippians 2, Paul shared the hymn which described Jesus’ self-emptying and humiliation through his incarnation and death on the cross (2.6-11).   In chapter 3, as he warns the Christians of Philippi against Judaizers (who insisted that circumcision was necessary in order to become a Christian), Paul describes the “confidence in the flesh” that he had previously as a Pharisee (3.4-6).   Paul tells the Philippians that he has gone through an emptying process similar to that of Jesus – indeed, he “has lost all things on Christ’s account” (3.8).   Moreover, he considers all the things that...

       Josh Nadeau’s Room for Good Things to Run Wild (2024) is a long-awaited breath of fresh air…and hope.   Having grown up with a legalistic approach to holiness which largely consisted in external conformity to rules most of which, as it turns out, aren’t “biblical”, I haven’t really known how to think about holiness for a long time.   As a kid/teenager, it was No smoking, No drinking, No TV, No video games, No books of fantasy, No Disney movies, No sex before marriage, No “work” on Saturdays (i.e. the Sabbath), No missing Sunday morning church services, No…nothing (or so it seemed).   Though I did take up moderate social consumption of alcohol as a young adult, and though I am now an unashamed cinephile and lover of fantasy literature, I have never indulged in the typical “vices” of “the world”.   But does that make me a holy person?   Surely being a “saint” is more than the simple avoidance of certain forbidden activities?  ...