The Dispatch
Fathers, Sons, and Sacrifices: On the Second Sunday of Lent
On the Readings for February 25, 2018, the Second Sunday of Lent […]
Hans Urs von Balthasar
The Dispatch
Jonah and the call to constant conversion
On the Readings for January 21, 2018 […]
Essay
In defense of Hans Urs von Balthasar
When I was an undergraduate in minor seminary (1978-81) I was being fed a steady diet of neo-scholastic writers on my way to a philosophy degree. The seminary I attended was an anachronism for such […]
Essay
Singing through Advent: Part One
“Beauty will save the world,” says’s Dostoevsky’s Idiot. We need beauty. The preeminent theologian of beauty, we might say, was Hans Urs Von Balthasar, who rhapsodized on this notion thus: Beauty is the last thing which […]
Books
New history of the Eastern Orthodox Church is often superb, sometimes lacking
John Anthony McGuckin is without doubt one of the world’s leading scholars of Eastern Christianity, patristics, and Church history. Having taught at Columbia and Union Seminary in New York City, he returned to his native […]
Books
A Deeper Context: Overlooked book provides insight into Vatican II debates
In the first year of his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI famously recalled the Second Vatican Council, which had ended 40 years previously. Benedict, with the steely-eyed realism that has marked his whole life, posed hard […]
The Dispatch
Death is inevitable, but damnation is not
Readings: • Jer 20:10-13 • Psa 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35 • Rom 5:12-15 • Matt 10:26-33 Recently, while watching a basketball game on television, I was horrified when a commercial came on that was completely inappropriate […]
The Dispatch
Did Hans Urs von Balthasar teach that everyone will certainly be saved?
Whatever Balthasar’s position is, and whether or not it is correct, it isn’t universalism. […]
Books
Ressourcement after Vatican II honors the work of Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J.
Matthew Levering and Nicholas J. Healy, Jr., are co-editors of a new book of essays from Ignatius Press that highlights the important work of several ressourcement theologians while honoring the important work done by Fr. […]
The Dispatch
Advent and the Apocalypse
Readings: • Is 2:1-5 • Ps 122: 1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 • Rom 13:11-14 • Mt 24:37-44 Advent is apocalyptic. Perhaps you’ve never thought of it in that way. But today’s readings are revealing. […]