A Christian solution to crisis
The world’s environmental crisis reflects a global spiritual crisis, and saving the planet requires a return to a world view centred around God, argues the director of the ecumenical Green Church program in Canada
Jesus is a point where Christians, Muslims can meet
With Christians on the run in the Middle East, and Muslim fighters declaring war on the West and modernity, one Muslim scholar wants to talk about Jesus.
Catholic music is a rocking success story
Under blue skies, dressed in black, stand the members of Christian band Darkness Divided. In the serenity of a forest clearing, the band members’ hands are stretched straight up, revealing streams of thick, dark blood pouring from wounds artificially created on their open palms. In the background, lyrics suggestive of Christ’s crucifixion are belted out supported by the severe guitar and drum sounds typical of a metalcore band. This is a scene from “The Hands that Bled,” a single off the band’s newly released album, Written in Blood.
Merton, a genre on his own
Simply Merton: Wisdom from his Journals, by Linus Mundy, (Franciscan Media, 138 pages, $16.00)
The Trappist monk and prolific writer Thomas Merton once spoke of the “Joyce Industry” in a particularly insightful essay on several books about the eminent Irish literary giant. Little did he know that in a short span there would be a “Merton Industry,” an industry which appears to offer no sign of waning.
Refuting Woody Allen’s bleak world view
I was chagrined, but not entirely surprised, when I read Woody Allen’s recent ruminations on ultimate things. To be blunt, he could not be any bleaker regarding the issue of meaning in the universe.
Understanding paths to, from the Church
TORONTO - My Brother’s Vows gives us the story of siblings who are running — one towards the Catholic Church and the other away from it.
Just another Jesuit changing the world
Robert Blair Kaiser’s analysis of what makes Pope Francis tick is a wonderful read and to be promoted. But it’s not what I was expecting.
Teaching life beyond the football field
Genius looks like Bob “Coach Lad” Ladouceur, who led the De La Salle High School Spartans into the football history books.
The struggle between ideals and pragmatism
Crimes Against My Brother by David Adams Richards (Doubleday Canada, hardcover, 416 pages, $32.95).
David Adams Richards is a writer who knows the human soul and reveals it to us in dialogue, plot and inner reflection. It’s the author’s extraordinary access to the truth of being human that makes us care about his characters. We know them, and what brings them joy, pain, hope, despair, guilt and peace matters to us.
Diversity is The Giver of life, film teaches
Depicting a society in which every aspect of daily life is state-controlled — even birth and death — The Giver takes moviegoers on a journey from childhood naiveté to the harsh realities of shattered innocence.