Commonweal articles from December 2008

Commonweal archives from December 2008

Here comes everybody.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 19, 2008... In response to Paul Elie's article, "What Flannery Knew" (November 21), I have two names to add to the list of Catholic writers foreseen by O'Connor: Charles D'Ambrosio and Alice McDermott. I heard both authors speak at the 2006 Festival of...

Don't forget Mary ... and Alice.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 19, 2008... In his article on Flannery O'Connor, Paul Elie writes that when he uses the term "Catholic culture," he "has in mind... mainly literary culture." He lists six writers who exemplify excellent Catholic writing today--five men and one woman, all...

... and Liam.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 19, 2008... I thoroughly enjoyed Paul Elie's article on Catholic culture and literature. Still, in his discussion of Catholic culture and literature today, Elie should have mentioned Liam Callanan. His two novels, The Cloud Atlas (2004) and All Saints...

A singular critic.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 19, 2008... Kudos to Mollie Wilson O'Reilly for her review of the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of A Man for Ail Seasons ("Fanfare for an Uncommon Man," October 24). I have read three reviews of that production--including the New Yorker's--and...

Against naivete.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 19, 2008... Paul Baumann's Last Word piece ("Confusions," November 7), which recounted his participation In a panel discussion on whether a Catholic could vote for a prochoice candidate, alluded to his position that overturning Roe v. Wade alone would not...

For moderation.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 19, 2008... Regarding Paul Baumann's "Confusions": There is a group of noisy extremists among the U.S. Catholic bishops. Their immoderate statements in the abortion debate do not strengthen the pro-life agenda. Of course abortion is an important issue, but...

Be still.(From the Editors)
December 19, 2008... Even by modern standards, 2008 was a cacophonous year. The high-stakes presidential election brought constant and clamorous media coverage, and anxiety over the mounting economic crisis dominated national and global news. The conclusion of...

Cold Comfort: can we forgive the bush administration?(Columnists)
December 19, 2008... After Mass every Sunday, my family would gather in the dining room of the big old house my dad had grown up in. Not to eat, mind you, but because that was where they'd moved his mom after she fell and broke her hip, and where he and his...

Think big, spend big: Obama's unusual mandate.
December 19, 2008... The concept of "found money" is delightful. We cherish the cash that turns up in a coat pocket, under the bed, or in a long-forgotten bank account. And found money may be key to the success of Barack Obama's presidency. No, the federal...

Veiled & revealed: Bellini's art of incarnation.(Short Take)(Giovanni Bellini )(Cover story)
December 19, 2008... "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church" was the subject of the triennial synod of bishops held in Rome from October 5 to October 26. Though overshadowed in the media by economic woes and the U.S. presidential campaign, the synod...

All in? Salvation & the language of liturgy.(Articles)
December 19, 2008... I have been celebrating the Eucharist in German since moving to Munster from Louvain, Belgium, in December 2006. I came to improve my German and to do research for my New Testament studies. In the course of that time, I've had several...

The feast of the epiphany--January 6.(Poem)
December 19, 2008... The town baker took a dozen paintings to settle Vermeer's bread bill at his death. Before I knew this meant the man who owned the bakery, not the man who made bread, I thought the paintings hung in a narrow shop at night as...

A god who trembles: fear & hope in the poetry of Peguy.(Charles Peguy )
December 19, 2008... Benedict XVI's encyclical Spe salvi, published a year ago, is magnificent as a theological lesson on the virtue of hope, drawing on Scripture and the church fathers to challenge the misplaced hopes of the modern world. Nearly a century...

December 28, day of the holy innocents.(Poem)
December 19, 2008... Oh, Holy Innocents, this day is yours. I close my eyes and in the morning sky the dying begins, which now can never cease until--yes, the unimaginable. My world, first light: all imagination. This can be yours, too,...

Blood lust: 'Twilight'.(Screen)(Movie review)
December 19, 2008... Twilight interests me because it almost takes the "mass" out of "mass entertainment." Most film franchises have their special target audiences but also try to sweep in as many other customers as possible. James Bond's macho thrills and high'...

God's Country: The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America.(Book review)
December 19, 2008... The Faithful A History of Catholics in America James M. O'Toole Harvard University Press, $27.95, 384 pp. Two images came to mind as I finished this terrific new history of American Catholics. First, I thought of John Nava's...

Toil & Trouble: The Widows of Eastwick.(Book review)
December 19, 2008... The Widows of Eastwick John Updike Alfred A. Knopf, $24.95, 320 pp. Like other prolific novelists (Philip Roth comes to mind), John Updike likes to revisit his charac-ters, checking to see what they've been up to over the years...

Make It New: Modernism: The Lure of Heresy from Baudelaire to Beckett and Beyond.(Book review)
December 19, 2008... Modernism The Lure of Heresy from Baudelaire to Beckett and Beyond Peter Gay W. W. Norton, $35, 640 pp. Edmund Wilson memorably characterized the later novels of Henry James as "large, loose, baggy monsters." It might be...

In the Beginning: John.(Book review)
December 19, 2008... John Niall Williams Bloomsbury USA, $24.95, 256 pp. On a storm-plagued island in the Aegean huddle the last adherents--for all they know, anyway--of a besieged faith. The wind shreds cloth; the sea churns and lashes at the shore;...

'I'm not dangerous'.(The Last Word)
December 19, 2008... The past six months have seen three of the largest workplace immigration raids in U.S. history. In May, the rural Iowa town of Postville was convulsed when 900 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents stormed a kosher meatpacking plant...