The world in which Raïssa Oumançoff and Jacques Maritain began life at the university was a spiritual desert. In a horrifying pact, they swore together to give themselves one more year to find some meaning in life. If that search failed, they promised to commit suicide together. The Maritains seem to have argued themselves into [...]

Editor’s note: The following essay is adapted from an address delivered August 6 at the Archdiocese of Toronto’s “Faith in the Public Square” symposium. In the beginning, Genesis tells us, “the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Gen 1:2). Creation begins in chaos. On each day of [...]

In the nineteenth century, the West took great pride in its independence from the Church, an independence based on a new public authority rooted in the language of the natural sciences.  Liberals and socialists disagreed on the nature of the economy, but both appealed to science to justify their positions. In France, this general faith [...]

Last year, Christopher Kaczor, professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University, edited a magnificent book entitled O Rare Ralph McInerny: Stories and Reflections on a Legendary Notre Dame Professor. The book is a collection of essays written by former friends, colleagues, acquaintances, strangers, and novel-readers that knew the remarkable and beloved professor at Our Lady’s [...]

Revisiting Christian philosophy can mean at least two things: taking a look at Leo XIII’s Aeterni Patris, the encyclical issued August 4, 1879 which ushered in the renewal of Thomism, or recalling the magnificent responses to Emile Brehier’s 1931 article, “Is There a Christian Philosophy?” It can also mean a third thing, not unrelated to [...]