The Relevance of Beauty in the Digital Age
Did Christopher Nolan Make an Ancient Greek Tragedy? Review of Oppenheimer
The Tao of Yeats Meets Zuckerberg's Mechanism
First Things. October 2022.
“Tolstoy’s Moments Beyond the Clock”
The novel fits modernity like hand fits glove. That’s why Tolstoy’s claim that he hadn’t made a “novel” but, rather, an “icon” is so extraordinary.
Catholic World Report. October 2022.
“The shrinking, post-human vocabulary of our tone-deaf culture”
Does the “mechanization” of our music lead to a reduction in the complexity of our emotions?
First Things. August 2022.
"The Wasteland at 100”
I discover that the best place to read the Wasteland to celebrates its 100th anniversary is…. the airport!
The Great Books in the Age of Flattening
Catholic World Report. October 2022.
“Lewis vs Lichtenstein”
Strange as it may sound, C.S. Lewis hated cars. And newspapers. And zippers. Really.
Cowan Archives. August 2022.
“Dante and Orpheus in the Age of Flatness ”
In order to prepare for the Catholic Imagination Conference, I speculate on why it is that, after 700 years, Dante is still ubiquitous.
Cowan Archives. September 2022.
"What Were Humans? Recovering Depth in an Age of Flatness”
Sometimes even when depth is in front of us we can’t see it. Welcome to modernity.
“The Nine Billion Names of God”
what medieval cosmology can tell us about contemporary science
Church Life Journal, December 2021
Travel, Technology, Literature
Church Life Journal, University of Notre Dame
“The Universe as It Should Be”
I reflect on my experience of living on Ischia with my family and friends to reawaken a mysterious passage in Dante.
Church Life Journal, University of Notre Dame
“What Our Selfies Are Doing to Ourselves”
I go to Skogafoss in Iceland and encounter our consumerist culture in action.
America Magazine
In the Footsteps of Francis in Umbria
I didn’t get how St. Francis of Assisi found joy in poverty—until I walked in his footsteps.
If you’re the mood for something a bit more academic, you can find my piece on Dante and lectio divina, here. It appeared in the theological journal, Nova et Vetera, in 2021.
America Magazine
“What We Lost at Notre Dame”
What did Notre Dame feel like to medieval viewers? Can that help us in rebuilding Notre Dame? Advice for Macron.
“Globalism, Technology, and… Poetry?: Can the Humanities Do Anything for the Modern World?”
Originally a talk at the University of Arkansas for a group of MBA and Law students, I try to take on the challenge: come on, do we really need the liberal arts anymore?