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Email address: tfarrell@d.umn.edu
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Thomas Farrell

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Thomas James Farrell is professor emeritus of writing studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). He started teaching at UMD in Fall 1987, and he retired from UMD at the end of May 2009. He was born in 1944. He holds three degrees from Saint Louis University (SLU): B.A. in English, 1966; M.A.(T) in English 1968; Ph.D.in higher education, 1974. On May 16, 1969, the editors of the SLU student newspaper named him Man of the Year, an honor customarily conferred on an administrator or a faculty member, not on a graduate student -- nor on a woman up to that time. He is the proud author of the book WALTER ONG'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO CULTURAL STUDIES: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE WORD AND I-THOU COMMUNICATION (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2000; 2nd ed. 2009, forthcoming). The first edition won the 2001 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology conferred by the Media Ecology Association. For further information about his education and his publications, see his UMD homepage: Click here to visit Dr. Farrell's homepage.
On September 10 and 22, 2009, he discussed Walter Ong's work on the blog radio talk show "Ethics Talk" that is hosted by Hope May in philosophy at Central Michigan University. Each hour-long show has been archived and is available for people who missed the live broadcast to listen to. Here are the website addresses for the two archived shows:

Click here to listen the Technologizing of the Word Interview
Click here to listen the Ramus, Method & The Decay of Dialogue Interview

www.d.umn.edu/~tfarrell

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(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 18, 2013
Was the Indian Jesuit Anthony de Mello Murdered in the U.S. 25 Years Ago? (BOOK REVIEW) Was the Indian Jesuit spiritual writer and speaker Anthony de Mello (1931-1987) murdered in the Jesuit residence at Fordham University in the Bronx 25 years ago? Bill deMello's biography of his older brother Tony describes in detail the suspicious circumstances of Tony's death. Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was another Catholic spiritual author whose suspicious death in Bangkok, Thailand, has also raised questions.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 14, 2010
Who Was Walter Ong, and Why Is His Thought Important Today? I want to sing the Song of Walter Jackson Ong, S.J. (1912-2003). His thought is important for people today to understand, so that we can get our bearings about Western culture in the world today. Had Samuel Huntington understood Ong's thought about Western cultural development, he could have used Ong's thought to deepen and strengthen his clash-of-civilizations thesis. The clash of cultures is inevitable, but violence is not.
Walter Ong, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 30, 2017
Celebrating Walter J. Ong's Thought (REVIEW ESSAY) The occasion of the posthumous publication of Walter J. Ong's sixth book-length study warrants a retrospective survey of his previous book-length studies and of major themes in his thought. His posthumously published short book could be titled "Ong for Dummies: A Primer." That's not it actual title, but it is indeed truly a primer in Ong's thought. In the present review essay I will explain why his thought is important.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 27, 2011
More Americans Should Live Heroic Lives of Virtue (Review Essay) For our American experiment in representative democracy to work optimally, we American citizens must strive to live heroic lives of virtue. Virtue is its own reward. For this reason, the pursuit of happiness is best understood as the pursuit of virtue. But how do we learn to live heroic lives in pursuit of virtue? First, we have to stop being anti-heroes. Next, we need to consider what the pursuit of virtue will require of us.
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 16, 2012
Hillary Clinton Urges Us to Stand Up to Extremists in the U.S. Hillary Clinton wants us to stand up to extremists in the U.S. The Catholic bishops in the U.S. are extremists -- religious zealots. But standing up to their religious zealotry will require both courage and skill in pro-and-con debate to counter their claims regarding contraception and religious freedom. In the presidential election of 2012, the extremists will work against President Obama's re-election. The stakes are high.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Martha Nussbaum on Why Democracy Needs the Humanities (Book Review) President Obama endorses career education. As a result philosopher Martha Nussbaum rises to defend the humanities in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education by explaining why democracy needs the humanities. But Obama's career education doesn't need the humanities. So we should have a national debate about Nussbaum's claims and Obama's endorsement of career education.
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 25, 2011
Matthew Fox's Critique of the Roman Catholic Church In his new book Matthew Fox develops a thorough critique of the Roman Catholic Church under recent the Polish pope and the current German pope because they have silenced and/or expelled so many valuable voices within the church. Fox highlights a few cases, including his own. But he moves toward a strong positive view of a possible future church.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 3, 2011
The Questionable Ethical Teachings of the Catholic Bishops Regarding Abortion in the First Trimester Should Be Debated The NEW YORK TIMES' editorial about the chilling effect of the actions of Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted makes a number of excellent points. But it stops short of debating the questionable ethical teachings of the Catholic bishops regarding abortion in the first trimester. But as the chilling example of Bishop Olmsted's actions shows, those teachings should be debated.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 17, 2013
James Carroll Profiles Pope Francis in the NEW YORKER In his lengthy profile in the NEW YORKER, James Carroll, a liberal Catholic, concludes that Pope Francis is not a liberal. Whew! We should all thank Carroll for investigating this. Now that he has explained this, will the media coverage of the pope decrease? Or will the remarkable amount of media coverage of the pope continue? Carroll succeeds in lowering our expectations of Pope Francis.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 3, 2011
Was William Faulkner a Conservative Writer? No, Not Quite! (BOOK REVIEW) The new Gallup poll shows that Mississippi today has more self-described conservatives than any other state in the U.S. William Faulkner was born and raised in Mississippi and wrote about his home state in a fictional form. He is at times described on the Internet as a conservative writer. But a new book shows how and why he was not a conservative.
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 9, 2013
President Kennedy's assassination was a coup d'etat (BOOK REVIEW) On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. It was a coup d'etat orchestrated by then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. But LBJ covered up the conspiracy. He and his co-conspirators set up Lee Harvey Oswald as the patsy to take the blame. Then they had Jack Ruby kill Oswald. Roger Stone and Mike Colapietro describe and explain the conspiracy in their book THE MAN WHO KILLED KENNEDY: THE CASE AGAINST LBJ.
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Understanding the Hebrew Bible with the Help of Harold Bloom and Walter Ong Yale's Harold Bloom is a Jew who no longer puts his trust in the monotheistic deity or in the covenant. Nevertheless, he has made some provocative observations about the Hebrew Bible. By drawing on the work of the American Jesuit cultural historian and cultural theorist Walter Ong, I hope to show how Bloom and Ong can help us deepen our understanding of the Hebrew Bible.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 14, 2011
Who Was Marshall McLuhan, and Why Is He Important Today? In addition to popularizing the expression the "global village" Marshall McLuhan has at least five books to his credit that still repay careful reading today. To be sure, he came up with his fair share of observations that should be rejected. But after we sort out the wheat from the chaff, he has offered us a lot of food for thought.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 30, 2013
In Defense of Manly Virtue: Camille Paglia vs. Walter Ong and David Bakan Recently Camille Paglia, the multi-directional cultural commentator, has gotten good press in Time Magazine" and the "Wall Street Journal" for publicly defending male virtue against the anti-male male views of certain other feminists. Yes, she is a self-described feminist. I happen to agree with her basic view of male virtue. But the views of Walter Ong and David Bakan can deepen our understanding of male virtue.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Jiddu Krishnamurti and Anthony de Mello, S.J.: Two Spiritual Guides from India to Enlighten Us What the world needs now is for billions of people to have mystic experiences, which will help them overcome violent attitudes about themselves and others, however gradually. Jiddu Krishnamurti and Anthony de Mello, S.J., are guides from India who can enlighten us about mystic experience. But their thought is not for spiritual flounderers, or at least putting their thought into practice is not for spiritual flounderers.
Library Genesis: Marshall McLuhan, Eric McLuhan - Laws of media ..., From GoogleImages
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 20, 2016
Eric McLuhan Reminds Us of Connection Consciousness in Roman Catholicism (REVIEW ESSAY) We in Western culture today tend to think of connection consciousness among indigenous peoples, including American Indians. But Eric McLuhan, son of Marshall and Corinne McLuhan, in effect reminds us of connection consciousness in Roman Catholic tradition in his 2015 book. But it is a wee bit under-researched. Connection consciousness in Roman Catholic tradition is far more extensive than what he suggests, as I will indicate.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 24, 2012
The Two Americas Should Be Discussed Further Charles M. Blow correctly identifies two Americas: one America consists of the voters who voted to re-elect President Obama, and the other America consists of the voters who did not vote to re-elect him. As Blow himself suggests, we should discuss this divide in light of our ideal of being a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are equal before the law of the land.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 3, 2010
Not For Profit, Eh? Hold on There, Martha Nussbaum! Martha Nussbaum's forthcoming new book NOT FOR PROFIT: WHY DEMOCRACY NEEDS THE HUMANITIES has a terrible title. According to her title, I studied philosophy and English not for profit, even though I thought I was profiting from them. I hope that readers disregard the title of her book but profit from reading it.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 17, 2011
James Carroll's Call to Arms (BOOK REVIEW) BOSTON GLOBE columnist James Carroll, a self-described practicing Catholic, has issued a call to arms to liberals and the Democratic party. He wants us to have a public discussion and debate about what good religion might be and what bad religion is and has been. To advance the discussion of bad religion, he has published another fine book setting forth his critical views of religion in Western cultural history.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 16, 2014
Edward O. Wilson Inveighs Against Organized Religion (BOOK REVIEW) In his new book THE MEANING OF HUMAN EXISTENCE, Edward O. Wilson of Harvard University sets forth his view of evolution and the meaning of human existence. He is a secular humanist who holds a materialistic philosophical position. He repeatedly inveighs against organized religion. It is instructive to remember that after the American Revolutionary War, Tom Paine inveighed against organized religion. But it's still here today
From opednews.com/populum/uploadphotos/s_300_farm8_static_flickr_com_53_7048280089_7a89106ace_n_260.gif: Supreme Court f, From Images
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Roman Catholic Moral Reasoning in the Supreme Court Ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby The Supreme Court ruled in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby that the religious rights of employers of closely-held corporations trump their employees' rights to contraception insurance coverage under the mandate of Obamacare. The five Justices who made up the majority are male Roman Catholics. Moreover, Justice Samuel Alito's opinion clearly shows that they used Roman Catholic moral reasoning in writing their legal opinion in this case.
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Why Doesn't Pope Francis Support Freedom of Speech? In his remarks about the tragic massacre of certain journalists in Paris recently, Pope Francis did not support freedom of speech. Patrick Callahan, professor emeritus of political science at DePaul University, a Catholic university, has examined the official social teachings of the Roman Catholic Church approved by the bishops. They have not approved teaching that freedom of speech and association are civil rights. Why not?
Martin Luther King%2C Jr.., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 16, 2023
In 1967, Dr. King Diagnosed Trump and His White MAGA Supporters (REVIEW ESSAY) In 1967, the prophetic Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968; Ph.D. in theology, Boston University, 1955) published his last book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (Harper & Row). The prophetic Dr. King foresaw the chaos of Trump and his white MAGA supporters -- he likens them to the prodigal son.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Justin Frank, M.D., Puts President Obama on the Couch (BOOK REVIEW) How many OpEdNews readers are not disappointed in President Obama? For all the liberals who are disappointed in him, Justin Frank, M.D., himself a liberal who is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, has written a thought-provoking psychoanalysis of President Obama by using information in the public domain about him. Dr. Frank works with Melanie Klein's approach to analyzing aggression.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 12, 2010
David Brooks, James Cameron's "Avatar," and the Evil American Empire Abroad The New York "Times" columnist David Brooks finds James Cameron's movie about a white messiah figure offensive. In the movie "Avatar" a turncoat Marine leads the highly romanticized natives against the evil empire of the whites. But we should not allow ourselves to be distracted by Brooks' quibbles about political correctness. The American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are going to have to be stopped by Americans.
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 23, 2010
Bishop Olmsted Is Wrong in the Abortion Controversy in Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix is back in the news about an abortion performed in a Catholic hospital in Phoenix in November 2009. At that time, he second-guessed the medical and moral professionals involved in making the decision, and excommunicated the Catholics among them. Now he is making ridiculous demands on the hospital itself. But his basic moral reasoning about that abortion is wrong.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 16, 2012
The Good News About Human Psychology According to Anthony de Mello, S.J. Anthony de Mello's good news about human psychology is important for more people today to know about. Certain Catholics around the world have read his books and listened to audiotapes of his workshops. He explains how meditation can help us transcend our ego-consciousness and thereby change, however gradually. Because humankind will not change by changing structures external to us, we need to change ourselves.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 10, 2010
The Time Has Come to Resurrect Karen Horney's Way of Thinking About Neurotics We should resurrect Karen Horney's way of thinking about neurotics. For both Republicans and Democrats in Congress are neurotics. As a result, we in the United States today are ruled by neurotics. Horney's discussion of eight neurotic solutions to our inner conflicts allows us to see which three characterize the neurotic Republicans in Congress and which five characterize the neurotic Democrats in Congress.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 22, 2012
Jonathan Haidt on the Righteous Mind, and the Catholic Anti-Abortion Crusade (REVIEW ESSAY) In his new book THE RIGHTEOUS MIND, Jonathan Haidt does not explicitly discuss the Catholic anti-abortion crusade. Nevertheless, he makes sweeping generalizations that would dismiss the centuries-old Catholic tradition of "natural law" moral theory upon which the Catholic anti-abortion crusade depends. But will his sweeping generalizations persuade Catholic anti-abortion zealots to give up their moral theory? Probably not.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 3, 2015
Dionysian Mysticism and Deification (REVIEW ESSAY) Two new books published by the Catholic University of America Press can help us deepen our understanding of C. G. Jung's thought about Dionysian mysticism and deification. Dr. Jung himself had profound mystical experiences in 1944 involving Dionysian mysticism and deification. But the most important aspect of Jung's work involves the cultivation of the unio mentalis and virtue -- not the rare experience of the unio mystica.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 4, 2014
At last, a man in the philosophy department at the University of Colorado-Boulder speaks out At last, a man in the philosophy department at the University of Colorado-Boulder, Michael Tooley, speaks out about the administration's bullying by posting relevant documents. On Jan. 31, 2014, the administration made public (online) a sensationalistic report about the philosophy department written by three women from the American Philosophical Association. The report then received widespread media attention.
Thomas Stearns Eliot by Lady Ottoline Morrell %281934%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 20, 2020
Walter J. Ong's Philosophical Thought (REVIEW ESSAY) I have published defenses of Walter J. Ong's philosophical thought in my book Walter Ong's Contributions to Cultural Studies (2nd ed., 2015) and in my lengthy introduction to An Ong Reader (2002, pages 1-68). In the present 7,500-word essay, I turn my attention to Timothy Mark Chouinard's succinct critique of Ong's thought in his Ph.D. dissertation titled T. S. Eliot: A Philosophy of Communication for Literature and Speech.
RWEmerson1859., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 25, 2019
Harold Bloom on the American Religion of Self-Reliance (REVIEW ESSAY) The late literary critic Harold Bloom claims that the American religion of self-reliance is "a superb literary religion." By "literary," he means primarily works of imaginative literature, but also artful verbal statements, including the artful written and oral statements of Pope Francis. The pope urges people to engage in encounter and dialogue, in which they also could practice the American religion of self-reliance.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 28, 2010
The Catholic Bishops Want No Debate About Sexual Morality In 2008 two Catholic moral theologians published a book in which they carefully criticized traditional but not infallible Catholic teachings regarding sexual morality. But now the Catholic bishops have published a dismissive commentary on their book. Because of the prominence of Catholic moral teachings in public debate in this country, many Americans should read what the bishops have said and the book they dismiss.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Pope Francis on Jesuit Spirituality: The Power of the Christ Myth The Christ myth may not be everybody's cup of tea. But it has worked well for many Christians mystics over the centuries, including St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Roman Catholic religious order the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit order). As a young man in Argentina, Pope Francis joined the Jesuits. In his recent published interview, he discussed Jesuit spirituality at length. Evidently, the Christ myth works for him.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 26, 2010
When Will Winner-Take-All Politics End? (BOOK REVIEW) Jacob S. Hacker of Yale and Paul Pierson of Berkeley have ably delineated the rise of winner-take-all politics. Radical conservatives are the bad guys who brought on this ignoble development. But the Democrats do not emerge as the good guys wearing white hats because they contributed to this ignoble development, although not as much as the radical conservatives did.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 6, 2011
A Practicing Catholic Debates the Questionable Teachings of the Catholic Bishops Regarding Abortion (BOOK REVIEW) In his new book THE CHURCH AND ABORTION: A CATHOLIC DISSENT, George Dennis O'Brien (aka G. Dennis O'Brien) steps forward as a concerned practicing Catholic to debate the questionable teachings of the Catholic bishops regarding abortion. In light of the antiabortion anguish that the Catholic bishops have stirred up, even non-Catholics who are interested in the abortion debate might want to read O'Brien's dispassionate book.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Donna Hicks on Dignity and Conflict Resolution (BOOK REVIEW) By coincidence, Donna Hicks' new book about dignity and conflict resolution came out just as the debt-ceiling debate came to an end. President Obama excels at manifesting dignity for people. And he fancies himself to be talented at resolving conflicts. But his talent got him nowhere with the Tea Party Republicans in the debt-ceiling debate. Hicks' book can help us better understand both Obama and the Tea Party Republicans.
Paul Krugman-press conference Dec 07th, 2008-8, From WikimediaPhotos
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 25, 2016
What's Wrong with Paul Krugman's Analysis of Trump's Decisive Electoral Victory? The liberal economist Paul Krugman supported former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential candidate. As a result, perhaps Krugman was blindsided when the Republican Party's 2016 candidate, Donald J. Trump emerged with a decisive electoral victory. Krugman's analysis of Trump's victory is not cogent or compelling.
Marshall McLuhan., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 24, 2022
Nick Ripatrazone on Marshall McLuhan (REVIEW ESSAY) The young American Catholic journalist Nick Ripatrazone has published the new 2022 160-page enthusiastic book Digital Communion: Marshall McLuhan's Spiritual vision for a Virtual Age (Minneapolis: Fortress Press). McLuhan (1911-1980; Ph.D. in English, Cambridge University, 1943) was a Canadian Renaissance specialist and media ecology theorist and Catholic convert (in the spring of 1937). Ripatrazone celebrates his Catholicism.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 29, 2016
Lesley M. M. Blume on Hemingway's Hypermasculinity (REVIEW ESSAY) Through his personal and public life, Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) exemplified the spirit of hypermasculinity, which he also celebrated in his breakthrough novel THE SUN ALSO RISES (1926). When Donald J. Trump today says that he wants to make America great again, he means that he wants to bring back the spirit of hypermasculinity that Hemingway helped popularize. As a result, Lesley M. M. Blume's book on Hemingway is timely.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 10, 2010
John Bradshaw: A Sober Teacher for Our Troubled Times (Book Review) In his book RECLAIMING VIRTUE, John Bradshaw's has reclaimed and ambitiously expanded Aristotle's and Erik H. Erikson's views about human virtue and strength.
T.S. Eliot%2C 1923.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 24, 2020
Geoffrey B. Williams' Portrait of the Artist T. S. Eliot (REVIEW ESSAY) Geoffrey B. Williams' book The Reason in a Storm: A Study of Ambiguity in the Writings of T. S. Eliot (1991) offers a portrait of the artist based on his life and work. Williams describes the pivot in Eliot's life from the atheistic earlier poetry up to 1925, to the theistic later poetry. The pivotal event in Eliot's life was his conversion to orthodox trinitarian Christianity in 1927.
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 26, 2014
Two Visions in Conflict Today: Friedrich Nietzsche's Suprahuman Person vs. St. Ignatius Loyola's Jesuit (Pope Francis) Friedrich Nietzsche says God is dead. But I say that God is not dead. But old Christianity is dead. So today we have a conflict in the world between Nietzsche's vision of the Suprahuman Person and St. Ignatius Loyola's vision of the Jesuit -- exemplified now in the first ever Jesuit pope, Pope Francis. Pope Francis is trying to keep old Christianity from being buried in the dust heap of history. But will he reform the church?
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 23, 2014
The Theocons Are Coming! The Theocons Are Coming! Joseph Bottum, the past editor of a paleo-conservative Roman Catholic magazine of opinion, has published a new book to rally his fellow Catholic theocons in time for the 2014 mid-term elections. He refers to himself and his fellow theocons as the Swallows of Capistrano. He sees them pitted against the Poster Children of the Protestant Perplex. But like other conservatives, he is up to no good.
donald-trump-quack, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Looking Back and Looking Ahead When I look back on my OEN articles in 2019, I note that I frequently wrote about Pope Francis and about President Donald J. Trump -- usually in separate articles, but once I wrote about each man's charisma style in the same article. When I look back over the decade of the 2010s, during which I wrote most of my 400 OEN articles, the election of Pope Francis in 2013 and the election of President Trump in 2016 stand out.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 5, 2015
Is Pope Francis Ready to Fight the Dragon -- the American Catholic Right? It has been announced that Pope Francis plans to issue an official papal encyclical about climate change. But the unprecedented new encyclical has not yet been formally promulgated and issued. However, the American Catholic right has already started decrying his anticipated encyclical. But is Pope Francis ready to fight the dragon -- the American Catholic right? Let's size up Pope Francis.
Canonization 2014-The Canonization of Saint John XXIII and. | Flickr1024 Ã-- 684 - 140k - jpg, From GoogleImages
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 28, 2018
An Intellectual Biography of Pope Francis (REVIEW ESSAY) Massimo Borghesi of the University of Perugia in Italy has published a carefully researched intellectual biography of Pope Francis: The Mind of Pope Francis: Jorge Mario Bergoglio's Intellectual Journey, translated from Italian by Barry Hudock (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press Academic, 2018; orig. Italian ed., 2017). Overall, it is an informative book.
Pope Francis, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 24, 2019
Pope Francis on Evil and Satan As the result of Pope Francis' discernment of spirits, he has concluded that priest-sex-abuse of minors and the cover-up by bishops were evil. He has also attributed a decisive role to Satan in tempting priests and bishops to engage in such evil. But his would-be critics are not likely to argue that priest-sex-abuse of minors and the cover-up by bishops are not evil, even if his critics disparage his references to Satan.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 4, 2017
You Are Suffering from Complex PTSD (REVIEW ESSAY) Recently I discovered Pete Walker's 370-page 2013 self-help book titled Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving. I found it massively informative, and I suspect that many OEN readers would also find it informative, especially those who are interested in thriving. You see, as Pete Walker delineates complex PTSD, virtually everybody is suffering from it to one degree or another. So all of us need to undertake recovery work.
John Courtney Murray patreon.com/FrogCa st  paypal.me/FrogCast Philosophy: American philosophers Philosophy: Roman Catholic philosophersDuring the ..., From YouTubeVideos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 27, 2018
According to John Courtney Murray, Vatican II Embraced a Bottom-Up Conception of Society OEN readers know that Rob Kall loves top-down/bottom-up imagery. I recently read a 1966 essay by the American Jesuit theologian and public intellectual John Courtney Murray in which he uses top-down/bottom-up imagery to explain the significance of Vatican II's Declaration on Religious Freedom. When I told Rob Kall about Murray's use of this imagery, he asked how would such a bottom-up approach work? So I decided to reply.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 4, 2012
Is Mitt Romney a Wimp, as NEWSWEEK Claims He Is? The latest NEWSWEEK cover story calls Mitt Romney a wimp. Is this just sensationalistic partisan editorializing masquerading as bipartisan commentary and critique? Or is the way to win the presidential election to sound manly and courageous -- as though you will be Superman if elected? But didn't we elect Superman in 2008? Shouldn't the Republican presidential candidate in 2012 try another shtick?
thierry Ehrmann le 112 me est Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis), painted portrait DDC_7823, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 18, 2018
Pope Francis and Economic Inequality (REVIEW ESSAY) No doubt Pope Francis from Argentina has heard the cry of the poor. He has no serious rival on the world stage when it comes to criticizing economic inequality. In the new book Pope Francis and the Theology of the People, translated by Phillip Berryman (Orbis Books, 2017), the lay theologian Rafael Luciani of Caracas, Venezuela, contextualizes Pope Francis' thought in the Argentine strand of Latin American liberation theology.
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(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 13, 2014
Are the Five Male Catholic Justices on the Supreme Court Theocons? Wiriting the New York Times, Samuel G. Freedman, a Jewish journalism professor at Columbia University, calls attention to two Supreme Court 5-4 decisions involving supposed religious liberties: Burwell v. Hobby Lobby and Greece v. Galloway. In both cases, the five Justices in the majority were the five male Catholic Justices on the Supreme Court. These two cases raise the disturbing possibility that they are theocons.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 3, 2023
Nathan Heller on "The End of the English Major" (REVIEW ESSAY) Nathan Heller's article "The End of the English Major" in The New Yorker magazine (issue dated March 6, 2023) is a probing discussion of the precipitous decline in English and history and other humanities majors in American colleges and universities since 2013. What happened to the humanities -- and why? What, if anything, can be done about the declining numbers of humanities majors?
The Council of Trent (John W. O'Malley, S.I.) Subscribe to our channel & activate notifications! Follow us on unigre.it      facebook.com/unigr egoriana  ..., From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 24, 2019
"Substantialism" in Past Thinking about the Church (REVIEW ESSAY) The American Jesuit church historian John W. O'Malley has just published a new book, When Bishops Meet: An Essay Comparing Trent, Vatican I, and Vatican II. It is a follow up to his three books about the Council of Trent, the First Vatican Council, and the Second Vatican Council. In his new book he describes past thinking about the church as involving "substantialism" (Collingwood's terminology), which Vatican II abandoned.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 22, 2009
The Catholic Bishops' Views About Contraception and Abortion in the First Trimester Are Ridiculous The Catholic bishops are wrong to ban artificial contraception and abortion in the first trimester. Therefore, American Catholics should disregard what the Catholic bishops say.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 22, 2015
Ayaan Hirsi Ali says Islam is not exactly a religion of peace, as President Obama says it is (REVIEW ESSAY) For understandable reasons, President Obama says that Islam is a religion of peace, because he doesn't want to upset the 1.6 billion Muslims around the world today by criticizing their religion. But progressives and liberals should not be taken in by his admittedly tactful characterization of Islam. Ayaan Hirsi Ali offers progressives and liberals a clear-sighted view of Islam in her new book HERETIC (2015).
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 20, 2014
Are the Roman Catholic Bishops Immoral? The the majority in the recent Hobby Lobby ruling involved the five male Roman Catholic Justices. The ruling once again calls attention to the disordered moral views of the Roman Catholic bishops about masturbation, artificial contraception and legalized abortion in the first trimester -- views that are the opposite of intelligent, reasonable and responsible -- so they are immoral, as are the bishops who advance these views.
181307653FO014_POPE_FRANCIS, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 14, 2020
Pope Francis' New Apostolic Exhortation Is Visionary (REVIEW ESSAY) On February 12, 2020, Pope Francis issued his new apostolic exhortation about the Amazon region. Addressed to all persons of good will, it is visionary and, at times, poetic. I will highlight certain passages and suggest relevant connections with the thought of the American Jesuit polymath Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) -- and certain other authors.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 13, 2010
Reflections on Ian Morris' Book About the West and China Ian Morris' book WHY THE WEST RULES -- FOR NOW is designed to alert the West about China. Walter J. Ong's account of the cultural history of the West can help strengthen Ian Morris' wake-up call about China. Perhaps Rob Kall should interview Ian Morris about China.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 7, 2013
What's Wrong with Pope Francis's Encyclical Letter? On July 5th, Pope Francis issued his first encyclical letter: "Lumen Fidei" (Light of Faith). It is about the Roman Catholic faith, and it is addressed to Roman Catholics, not to non-Catholic. But non-Catholic Americans should be alerted to a certain passage about supposed certainty. This claim to supposed certainty can inspire the Roman Catholic bishops in the U.S. to be even more combative about the church's moral teachings.
Peterson Lecture, From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 27, 2018
Peterson's Account of Evolutionary Psychology Is Brilliant (REVIEW ESSAY) The University of Toronto psychology professor and practicing psychotherapist Jordan B. Peterson has published an accessible new book titled 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2018). His account of evolutionary psychology in it is brilliant.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 12, 2011
Three Cheers for American Exceptionalism! President Obama and the different Republican presidential hopefuls have expressed their views regarding American exceptionalism. Even though I am not running for president, I have decided to set forth my view of American exceptionalism based on the work of the American cultural historian Walter J. Ong, S.J (1912-2003). I do this to challenge President Obama and the Republican presidential hopefuls to match or top my view.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Reflections on Grace Elizabeth Hale's A NATION OF OUTSIDERS (Book Review) Grace Elizabeth Hale's A NATION OF OUTSIDERS can help us understand how white middle-class Americans in postwar America fell in love with imagining themselves to be outsiders. But the poor have endured as the genuine outsiders. The time has come for the Democratic party to work for the poor and to combat the outsider posturing of William F. Buckley, Jr., and radical conservatives in movement conservatism and the Tea Party.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 26, 2013
Phil Robertson and the Catholic Bishops on Homosexuality: St. Paul vs. Civil Law Phil Robertson, the self-described Bible-thumper who is the 67-year-old patriarch on the popular television show "Duck Dynasty," has rather crudely expressed views regarding homosexuality -- in a profile published in GQ. However, despite the crudity of his statements, it is important to examine his discussion of St. Paul's views in 1Corinthians 6:9-11. St. Paul is discussing inheriting the kingdom of God -- not the civil law.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 30, 2013
JFK Violated the CIA's Civic Religion (BOOK REVIEW) In the 1950s, John Foster Dulles served as the Secretary of State under President Eisenhower, and his brother Allen served as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In his new biography of them, Stephen Kinzer details how they directed the CIA's destabilization efforts in Iran, Guatemala, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Congo, and Cuba in accord with their American civic religion, which President John F. Kennedy violated.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 16, 2012
The Vatican vs. the LCWR = Theory (Doctrine) vs. Practice (Spirituality) The Vatican's nutty critique of the LCWR is best understood as a conflict between theory (Catholic doctrine) and practice (spirituality). Now, Anthony de Mello, S.J. (1931-1987) from India deeply influenced spirituality in Catholic circles, including of course many women in the Catholic religious orders in the United States represented by the LCWR. But what about the spirituality of the Catholic bishops?
Herman Melville%2C ca. 1846-1847., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 11, 2020
Captain Ahab and Donald Trump (REVIEW ESSAY) The psychiatrist Edward F. Edinger (1922-1998; M.D., Yale University, 1946) wrote a Jungian commentary on the life and work of Herman Melville (1819-1891), centering his attention on Melville's now famous novel Moby-Dick (1851). Edinger's perceptive analysis of how Captain Ahab enlists his crew to go after the white whale is instructive. His analysis can be applied to how Donald Trump enlisted his most ardent supporters.
(32 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 19, 2014
Pope Francis Is NOT a Zarathustra-Type Person Rob Kall says we need to watch out for psychopaths in American culture today. No doubt we should. But to countervail against their influence, we Americans today need to have more Zarathustra-type persons emerge who are deeply motivated by love of their fellow human persons, as Martin Luther King, Jr., was. But even though Pope Francis may be motivated by love, he is not a Zarathustra-type person.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 1, 2011
Why Americans Should Try to Understand Modernity as Walter Ong Understands It Walter Ong's account of cultural history can help Americans understand modernity. Americans cheer for the spread of modern democracy, which emerged in modernity. Economic globalization appears to involve the spread of modern capitalism, which also emerged in modernity. The spread of Western-style universities spreads modern science, which also emerged in modernity. Ong's work can help us better understand modernity.
Image created from image crediting, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 30, 2018
His Majesty, Baby Donald! (REVIEW ESSAY) Invoking Melanie Klein as his muse, the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Justin A. Frank sings of the wrath of his majesty, baby Donald in his new book Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank has given us a profile of unresolved infantile wrath. Both our enemies and our allies should find Dr. Frank's profile informative as they try to figure out how to play President Trump's brashness.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 16, 2013
BOOK REVIEW: Why Garry Wills Does Not Understand Catholic Priests Pope Benedict XVI has just made the news by renouncing the papal office. Good riddance, I say. By coincidence, the practicing Catholic polemicist Garry Wills has just a new polemic titled WHY PRIESTS? A FAILED TRADITION. Now, the historical Jesus is arguably best understood as a shaman, and Catholic priests are arguably also best understood as shamans. But polemicists such as Wills and Benedict are primarily cultural warriors.
Erich Neumann (Author of The Origins and History of Consciousness), From GoogleImages
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Erich Neumann's Jungian Interpretation of Jacob and Esau (REVIEW ESSAY) Erich Neumann (1905-1960) settled in Palestine in 1934. From there, he corresponded with the Swiss psychiatrist and psychological theorist C. G. Jung, M.D. (1875-1961). He had analyzed Neumann and trained him as an analyst. With one letter, Neumann attached his Jungian analysis of Jacob and Esau. Using Walter J. Ong's thought, I want to discuss Neumann's interpretation of Jacob's wrestling with the angel and American culture.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 20, 2016
In Memoriam: John Bradshaw (1933-2016) Progressives and liberals who are interested in personal development and growth may already be familiar with the recovering alcoholic and psychotherapist and self-help evangelist John Bradshaw. Drawing on his 2014 book, I will review what his use of Silvan Tomkins' work on nine basic human affects (feelings). I will also briefly discuss how Bradshaw's perceptive psychological insights can help us understand conservatives.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 11, 2010
The Clash of Cultures Is Inevitable, but Violence May Not Be With economic globalization, modern Western capitalism and the culture of capitalism are making inroads in pre-modern parts of the world today. In addition, U.S. foreign policy is promoting modern Western democracy and the culture of democracy in pre-modern parts of the world today. As a result, the clash of cultures is inevitable, but violence may not be.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 13, 2011
No Remorse from the Enabler Catholic Bishops Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, published a strong critique of the media in a full-page ad in the NEW YORK TIMES on April 11th. He critiques the media coverage of the priest sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church. He attributes alleged distorted media coverage to liberal ideology. But he is silent about the lack of remorse expressed by enabler bishops who transferred abusive priests.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 3, 2023
Joseph Henrich's Acronym WEIRD (Review Essay) In Daniel Bergner's recent op-ed commentary in the New York Times (dated June 2, 2023), he uses the technical term anosognosia from the field of mental health. But I want to use the term metaphorically here to suggest how our distinctively Western vowelized phonetic alphabetic literacy may be preventing us from critically examining the work of Walter J. Ong, Eric A. Havelock, Jack Goody, and now Joseph Henrich's 2020 book.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 14, 2011
Alan Wolfe on Political Evil (BOOK REVIEW) Alan Wolfe has written a serious and sobering book about political evil, including totalitarianism, terrorism, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and the politics of countering political evil, or counter-evil. With the 2012 elections coming up next year, Wolfe's book can help us understand why it is important to elect Democratic candidates to Congress and re-elect President Obama.
FrancisQuitoR., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 15, 2023
Robert P. Jones on the Doctrine of Discovery (REVIEW ESSAY) In his new 2023 book The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: And the Path to a Shared American Future (Simon & Schuster), the American religion scholar Robert P. Jones successfully integrates his enlightening discussion of the Doctrine of Discovery throughout his text. Pope Francis could learn a lot about the Doctrine of Discovery from Jones' new 2023 book. I did.
Donald Trump, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 21, 2020
James Shapiro Urges Us to Reflect Further on Shakespeare (REVIEW ESSAY) James Shapiro is a Shakespeare specialist at Columbia University in New York City. In his new 2020 book Shakespeare in a Divided America, he uses the controversy over the outdoor production of Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar in 2017 in Central Park in New York City to discuss our contemporary American cultural and political divide that resulted in Donald Trump's Electoral College victory in the 2016 presidential election.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 7, 2014
Cardinal Mueller and Pope Francis Are Hopeless Misogynists Cardinal Gerhard Mueller and Pope Francis and the other Roman Catholic bishops are misogynists, as are many conservative white men in the United States today. Misogynists have not yet worked an optimal relationship with the feminine spirit in their psyches -- the anima archetype in their psyches. The thought of C. G. Jung, M.D., and M. Esther Harding, M.D., can help us understand the inner work involved in this process.
Pope Francis at Vargihna., From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 23, 2019
Some Reflections on Pope Francis' Address on Evangelization The Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization organized an international meeting for Academic Centres, Movements and Associations of New Evangelization at the Vatican on September 19-21, 2019. The culminating event was an audience with Pope Francis, at which he delivered a prepared address. I want to highlight his substantial address and offer some reflections about it.
(23 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 18, 2012
Understanding and Debating the Theocratic Views of the U.S. Catholic Bishops The theocratic views that the U.S. Catholic bishops have advanced in the public arena should be understood in the larger framework of our Western cultural conditioning that Walter J. Ong, S.J., worked out. Armed with his perceptive insights, we should then debate the Catholic bishops regarding Catholic moral theory, because the bishops themselves have entered the public arena of debate.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 7, 2023
Thomas J. Farrell on Walter J. Ong, S.J. (REVIEW ESSAY) For my 600th OEN article, I am writing to call your attention to my three articles and six reviews in the new issue of the online journal New Explorations. In my nine selections, I highlight the work of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955).
Pope Francis met with media, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 17, 2023
The Roman Catholic Church as a Cultural Empire (REVIEW ESSAY) As a follow up to my recent OEN article "Robert P. Jones on the Doctrine of Discovery" (dated September 15, 2023), I now want to discuss further his new 2023 book The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: And the Path to a Shared American Future (Simon & Schuster) -- and certain other related works concerning the Roman Catholic Church.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 26, 2017
A Jungian Profile of Trump Op-ed commentators have offered numerous psychological commentaries about Donald J. Trump. Is there room for one more such commentary? I hope there is because I want to draw on the thought of the late Robert Moore of the Chicago Theological Seminary to offer a psychological profile of Trump.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 24, 2017
Camille Paglia's New Book Is Timely (REVIEW ESSAY) For understandable reasons, liberals and progressives are concerned about so-called President Trump's decisive electoral victory. No doubt his campaign was fueled by the backlash against second-wave feminist zealotry that ushered in so-called "political correctness." But will liberals and progressives counter second-wave feminist zealotry? Camille Paglia could spearhead the needed opposition to second-wave feminist zealotry.
(21 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Pope Francis and the Roman Catholic Bishops STINK -- as Did Lazarus in the Tomb! Like that terrible Polish pope, Pope Francis has become a media celebrity. Why, one graffiti artist even portrayed him as Superman, the superhero of the comic books. But Americans of a certain age can remember that Senator Barack Obama sounded like he was going to be Superman in 2008. But President Obama has turned out to be Clark Kent instead. Pope Francis is going to be another Clark Kent.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 30, 2011
In Defense of President Obama's Education (Against the Silliness of Donald Trump and Andrew Breitbart) Donald Trump has pivoted from the birther silliness to new silliness about President Obama's education at Columbia University and Harvard Law School. And the young bomb-throwing conservative Andrew Breitbart has joined Trump's silliness. However, unbeknownst to Trump and Breitbart, James T. Kloppenberg of Harvard University investigated Obama's education and has written about his education in his book READING OBAMA (2010).
Martin Luther King%2C Jr.., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 3, 2023
Gary Dorrien on Martin Luther King, Jr. (REVIEW ESSAY) The Reverend Dr. Gary Dorrien (born in 1952; Ph.D. in theology, Union Graduate School, 1989), a white Episcopal priest, has written a deeply contextualizing book about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968; Ph.D. in theology, Boston University, 1955), a black Baptist pastor and social activist, and the black social gospel tradition in which he grew up.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 13, 2018
Can Martha C. Nussbaum Rescue Us from Our Fears? (REVIEW ESSAY) Martha C. Nussbaum's new short book The Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at Our Political Crisis (Simon & Schuster, 2018) is timely, accessible, and carefully reasoned. She calls attention to how fear can dominate us and our views of our political opponents. She calls attention to how the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is an exemplar of somebody who was governed by love in his advocacy of social justice.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 18, 2011
Robert Moore's Theory About the Structure of the Psyche (Review Essay) Robert Moore has fleshed out an elaborate Jungian theory of the optimal self system that persons can have. His theory has great merit, even though he has not yet figured out how to operationalize it. Oddly enough, cultivating the four cardinal virtues and avoiding the Seven Deadly Sins can help us learn how to operationalize Moore's theory. I call this approach moral virtue in the service of psychological development.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Ong + Jung = New Insights about Tradition in the Roman Catholic Church The Roman Catholic bishops in the U.S. are notorious. They are anti-abortion zealots (they are even against legalized abortion in the first trimester), anti-gay-marriage zealots, and anti-contraception-mandate zealots (for Catholic institutions that they claim are part of their church). But their zealotry is based on their disordered Tradition of thought. So why don't they change their way of thinking?
Antonio Spadaro 28giu2011, From WikimediaPhotos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 5, 2017
A Controversy in American Catholic Circles The Rome bureau chief of the New York Times published a news story in the Times about the controversy in American Catholic circles over an article-length editorial in the Jesuit-sponsored Rome-based Italian-language magazine La Civilta Cattolica. The English version of the editorial is "Evangelical Fundamentalism and Catholic Integralism in the USA: A Surprising Ecumenism." It is an informed defense of Pope Francis' views.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 15, 2015
A Reply to Pope Francis' Latest Critique of Gender Theory There he goes again! Pope Francis once again criticized gender theory, which he says is the problem. Moreover, he has already announced that he plans to speak on this topic in another public address soon. So the time has come for progressives and liberals of good will to reply to his critique of gender theory.
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 25, 2011
How Do We Americans Work Out Our American Identity? (Review) Keith D. Miller's timely new book is about Martin Luther King's last speech. If we consider Dr. King's final speech as a whole, as Miller does, then we can see that it is a rich addition to the ongoing creation of the American epic through which we Americans work out our American identity. People don't live on bread alone. Dr. King's final speech is a vital national treasure that can help bring Americans new life.
From ImagesAttr
(15 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 11, 2010
Let Us Never Forget the Confederacy and Slavery! Governor Robert McDonnell of Virginia has proclaimed April as Confederacy History Month. Indeed, all Americans should remember the Confederacy and the sophistical arguments advanced to defend slavery.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Cardinal Kasper explains where Pope Francis is coming from (REVIEW ESSAY) In the book THE THEOCONS: SECULAR AMERICA UNDER SIEGE (2006), Damon Linker has alerted progressives and liberals to watch out for certain American Catholic conservatives. But those American Catholic theocons are going to be challenged by Pope Francis' thought, as Cardinal Walter Kasper explains the pope's thought in his new book POPE FRANCIS' REVOLUTION OF TENDERNESS AND LOVE: THEOLOGICAL AND PASTORAL PERSPECTIVES (2015).
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 27, 2016
Larry Rosin's Careful analysis of the Exit Polls According to Larry Rosin's careful analysis of the exit polls conducted by Edison Research, a curious picture emerges of the Trump voters who contributed decisively to Trump's victories in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, and North Carolina. Trump's decisive margin of victory came from voters who did not have a favorable view of him or of Hillary. But those voters broke strongly for Trump.
Wolfe at White House, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 9, 2016
Tom Wolfe Spoofs Certain Secular Sacred Cows (REVIEW ESSAY) As OEN readers know, the developer Donald J. Trump of New York, the Republican Party's 2016 presidential candidate, has garnered a lot of free media coverage by saying things that are offensive to the spirit of political correctness. But Tom Wolfe's new book THE KINGDOM OF SPEECH satirically spoofs certain secular sacred cows of the political-correctness crowd, including Noam Charisma's linguistics. It's a fun book to read.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 27, 2010
When God's Kingdom Comes (BOOK REVIEW) In his new book John Dominic Crossan analyzes and discusses Christianity's Lord's Prayer (aka the Our Father and the Abba Prayer). The prayer includes wording about God's will being done on earth as in heaven. When God's will is done on earth, then God's kingdom comes on earth. When God's kingdom comes on earth, then the people experience the end of the world as we know it. They experience heaven of earth or earth in heaven.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 16, 2011
James Martin's Book About Spirituality (BOOK REVIEW) James Martin, a young Jesuit, has written an accessible book about Jesuit spirituality. But the slogan of Jesuit spirituality is not "Finding Jesus in all things" but "Finding God in all things." As a result, non-Christians who believe in God, as 85 percent of Americans say they do, might profit from reading this rich book
Martin Luther King%2C Jr.., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 8, 2023
Martin Luther King's Voice Summons Us Still (REVIEW ESSAY) Martin Luther King's prophetic voice summons us still today as we work to digest the recent 6-to-3 ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court about the practice of affirmative action in the admissions policies of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 26, 2015
Does It Make Any Difference How New Testament Texts Are Translated into English? (REVIEW ESSAY) Progressives and liberals are aware of the influence of the Christian right. Christians of all stripes are interested in the Christian scriptures. But Willis Barnstone claims that the Christian scriptures are guilty of identity theft by robbing Rabbi Yeshua of his Aramaic name and Jewish cultural context. So Barnstone has published a new poetic translation, THE RESTORED NEW TESTAMENT, with an accessible commentary.
From Images
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Reflections About Jared Lee Loughner and John Hinckley, Jr. Jared Lee Loughner's deadly shooting spree in Tucson should remind us of John Hinckley's attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. Teenagers and young adults today need societal assistance in coming of age in the "global village" and learning socially acceptable behaviors.
Jordan Peterson, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Jordan Peterson's Critiques of Political-Correctness Zealotry (REVIEW ESSAY) In my estimate, political-correctness zealotry is an intellectual and psycho-spiritual cancer. Basically, I admire Professor Jordan Peterson for his courage in his public critiques of political-correctness zealotry. But I do not accept his critique of climate change, and I am wary of his scapegoating of Yale's English Department. The new documentary film "The Rise of Jordan Peterson" prompts me to reply to him and his thought.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 28, 2011
Susan Anderson Can Help Us Understand Disillusionment Regarding President Obama (BOOK REVIEW) Susan Anderson's book THE JOURNEY FROM ABANDONMENT TO HEALING is about the loss of love in our personal love-life. But her account of the process of grief over the loss of love in our personal love-life can help us understand the loss of love in our political love-life. Many people who fell in love with Barack Obama in 2008 have been disillusioned by his performance as president.
(17 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 5, 2013
Rush Limbaugh: Pope Francis Represents "Pure Marxism" Rush Limbaugh, the supreme pontiff of the conservative American civic religion, says that Pope Francis, the supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, represents "pure Marxism." Indeed, in his new apostolic exhortation, Pope Francis pointedly criticizes unfettered capitalism. His criticisms run roughshod over the tenets of the civic religion of American conservatives.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 5, 2015
A Reply to Burl Hall's Nostalgic Article "Can a Verb Based Language Bring Peace to the Planet?" Burl Hall's article "Can a Verb Based Language Bring Peace to the Planet?" is deeply nostalgic. My answer to the question he poses in the title is, "No." But the title is not the only problem. Using Walter J. Ong's thought as a framework, I not only comment on certain points in Burl Hall's article, but also offer an alternative account of cultural history.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 26, 2017
A Reply to Stephen Marche's NYT Op-Ed Anger over Donald J. Trump's unexpected electors victory in the 2016 presidential election has prompted a tsunami of allegations against certain prominent and powerful American men for various kinds of sexual misconduct -- from groping to rape. These allegations prompted Stephen Marche to publish an op-ed commentary about them titled "The Unexamined Brutality of the Male Libido" in the New York Times.
Korea_Pope_Francis_Haemi_Castl e_15, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 29, 2019
Pope Francis' 2013 Apostolic Exhortation Is Coherent -- and Beautiful! (REVIEW ESSAY) In the first year of his pontificate, Pope Francis issued an apostolic exhortation on November 24, 2013, in which he discusses themes that have been met with resistance by certain conservative American Catholics. Recently I decided to read this somewhat lengthy document and see how he went about making his case. He is a seasoned preachy guy. I don't agree with everything he says. But it is a coherent document -- and beautiful!
ElectoralCollege2016.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 20, 2019
Trump Could Win in the Electoral College in 2020 National polls of Trump's job approval indicate that he may not win the popular vote in 2020. But he could win re-election in 2020 in the electoral College. For Trump in 2020, voter turnout in the states he won in 2016 will determine the Electoral College vote in 2020. In a disturbing piece in the New York Times (dated July 19, 2019), Nate Cohn points out Trump's resilience in Wisconsin and Florida, states he won in 2016.
Harold Bloom., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Harold Bloom Lived a Long and Productive Life! Yale's prolific literary critic Harold Bloom died on Monday, October 14, 2019, at a hospital in New Haven at the age of 89. May he rest in peace. He lived a long and remarkably productive life, and his perceptive comments in his 1989 book and his 2005 book contributed salient information to my 2012 article that was, in part, about him and his perceptive comments.
Herman melville., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 25, 2020
July 4, 1776; July 4, 1876; July 4, 2020 (REVIEW ESSAY) As we reflect on our strange times today in America, we should not forget that the now famous author Herman Melville (1819-1891) reflected deeply on the strange times in America in his day, including the Civil War (1861-1865), in his long centennial poem Clarel (1876). From comparing two competing interpretations of it, we can glean a bit of wisdom about endurance in our own strange times today in America.
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Critchley and Webster Study Hamlet's Complicated Grief What is known today as complicated grief has been seriously under-studied. However, Shakespeare's most famous character, Hamlet, suffers from complicated grief. In their acutely perceptive short book about Hamlet, Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster deepen our understanding of Hamlet's complicated grief enormously. Their remarkable study deserves to be studied by anybody suffering from complicated grief and by everybody.
Un d-a muy especial para todos los Argentinos - POR FIN UNA BUENA DIOS!, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 11, 2015
Scribner's Book about American Catholic Theocons (REVIEW ESSAY) In the book THE THEOCONS: SECULAR AMERICA UNDER SIEGE (2006), Damon Linker alerted progressives and liberals to watch out for American Catholic theocons. Now Todd Scribner, an employee at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, pushes back in his own book about certain American Catholic theocons, A PARTISAN CHURCH: AMERICAN CATHOLICISM AND THE RISE OF CONSERVATIVE CATHOLICS (Catholic U of America P, 2015).
Joe Biden official portrait 2013 cropped., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 20, 2021
Massimo Faggioli on President Joe Biden, Pope Francis, and Catholicism Today (REVIEW ESSAY) The church historian and theologian Massimo Faggioli of Villanova University has just published an important new 160-page book: Joe Biden and Catholicism in the United States, translated from the Italian by Barry Hudock (2021; orig. Italian ed., 2021). I highlight it here and comment on certain points.
Pope Francis Visits the United States Capitol, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 10, 2019
The Road Not Taken by Pope Francis (REVIEW ESSAY) Unfortunately, the American Jesuit Walter J. Ong's perceptive work represents for most of his fellow Roman Catholics, including Pope Francis, the road not taken. Rather than studying Ong's work about Western cultural history, the Italo-Argentine future pope studied the Italo-German Italo-German priest and theologian Romano Guardini's work about Western cultural history. But Ong's account is more comprehensive and nuanced.
Martin Luther King%2C Jr.., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 28, 2023
Jonathan Eig on the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (REVIEW ESSAY) The American Jewish journalist and biographer Jonathan Eig has produced the massively researched and admirably lucid new 680-page 2023 book King: A Life (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). It is about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968; Ph.D. in theology, Boston University, 1955). It is instructive reading for activists today.
Camille Paglia Destroys Second Wave Feminism in Under 5 Minutes Camille Anna Paglia (born April 2, 1947) is an American academic and social critic. Paglia has been a professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, ..., From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Camille Paglia's Provocations (REVIEW ESSAY) Camille Paglia's aptly titled new book Provocations reprints 56 of her relatively short essays published since 1994. They are grouped under eight topics/themes: (1) Popular Culture; (2) Film; (3) Sex, Gender, Women; (4) Literature; (5) Art; (6) Education; (7) Politics; (8) Religion. If all you are looking for are provocations, you'll probably not be disappointed with her 56 selections. But how well informed is she?
Pope Francis South Korea 2014., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 4, 2020
Pope Francis Reprises His Favorite Tunes Pope Francis has issued a lengthy new encyclical letter, prompted, in part, by Covid-19. In it, he reprises many of his favorite tunes from his well-stocked library of praise-and-blame tunes. But his new encyclical is not likely to be the hit that his 2015 eco-encyclical was.
Pope Francis among the people at St. Peter%27s Square - 12 May 2013., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 7, 2019
The Different Charisma Styles of Pope Francis and President Trump Pope Francis exemplifies kindness charisma, and President Trump, authority charisma, as Olivia Fox Cabane operationally defines and explains these two charisma styles in her 2012 book The Charisma Myth. Now, when a French journalist recently gave the pope a copy of his new book about how certain American Catholics attack him, the pope said that he is "honored that the Americans attack me." Can you imagine Trump saying this?
Cardinal DiNardo: 'Grave moral failures of judgment' about ..., From GoogleImages
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 11, 2018
Garry Wills' Diagnosis of the American Catholic Bishops The Pennsylvania grand-jury report in August 2018 about priest-sex-abuse and cover-up by certain American Catholic bishops prompted Garry Wills, himself a practicing Catholic, to diagnose the problem of the bishops and priest-perpetrators as stemming from the church's debatable teachings about sex and sex-related issues -- which he refers to collectively as The Big Crazy. But the bishops are now scheduled to meet in Baltimore.
Donald Trump, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 13, 2020
Using Nassir Ghaemi's Psychiatric Terminology to Describe President Trump (REVIEW ESSAY) In Jonathan Karl's forthcoming new book about the Trump show, he reports that Mick Mulvaney, then Trump's acting chief of staff, urged senior White House officials to read Nassir Ghaemi's 2011 book A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Link Between Leadership and Mental Illness. I will discuss Ghaemi's major claims about mental illness versus mentally normal people. I will show that Trump manifests certain mild mental illness.
Donald Trump, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 13, 2019
Fliting Is the Name of the Game: The Philistine Trump and the Biblical Goliath's Boasts and Insults In sports commentary, the biblical story of David and Goliath has been reduced to the proverbial expression "David versus Goliath" to describe an underdog going against a much stronger opponent. But I want to call attention to the verbal pattern known as fliting in the Philistine Goliath's boasts and insults. In modern English, Trump is a philistine who also uses boasts and insults. But fliting is culturally regressive today.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 8, 2014
James Carroll Just Can't Stop Being a Roman Catholic In an opinion piece in the NEW YORK TIMES, James Carroll, an ex-priest in the Roman Catholic Church, explains why he can't bring himself to stop being a practicing Roman Catholic. Sure, he sees aspects of the church he doesn't like. But he has hope in Pope Francis. But I see Pope Francis as a hopeless misogynist. However, Carroll says something else that should be of great interest both to Christians and to non-Christians.
Portrait of Pope Francis %282021%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 10, 2023
Michael Czerny and Christian Barone on Pope Francis (REVIEW ESSAY) Two Roman Catholic theologians based in Rome, the Canadian Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny (born in 1946) and the Italian diocesan priest Christian Barone (born in 1982), have co-authored an informative book about Pope Francis' social teaching in his 2020 encyclical letter Fratelli Tutti (Latin for "Siblings All"). Their book is titled Siblings All, Sign of the Times: The Social Teaching of Pope Francis (2022).
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 19, 2010
Is "Material Spirit" a Contradiction in Terms? No! (BOOK REVIEW) Troels Engberg-Pedersen's account of pneuma (spirit) in Paul the Apostle's writings shows how atheists and agnostics can understand Paul to be writing about the "material spirit" and spirituality of materialists. You don't need to believe in God in order to have a spiritual life and hold certain moral values. Engberg-Pedersen's book should counter Ann Coulter's self-congratulatory book GODLESS.
St-thomas-aquinas., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 17, 2020
20 Thoughts from Thomas Aquinas to Ponder During Our 2020 Pandemic During our 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, I have been rereading Matthew Fox's 1992 550-page book Sheer Joy: [Four] Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, in which Fox translates passages from 52 works by Aquinas in Latin. By happy coincidence, Dover Publications has just reissued Fox's book Sheer Joy -- so that more people can now readily read it during our 2020 Covid-19 pandemic.
Pope Francis Korea Haemi Castle 19., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 27, 2022
American Indian Hunter-Gatherer-Foragers of Minnesota (REVIEW ESSAY) In the spirit of celebrating our Native American Heritage in Minnesota, I am writing to call attention to the Ojibwe Medicine Doctor Paul Peter Buffalo (c.1900-1977). Over the last twelve years of his life, he recorded his memoirs for the anthropologist Timothy G. Roufs of the University of Minnesota Duluth to transcribe and annotate and eventually publish in three volumes spanning 1,900 pages. Pope Francis should read them.
From commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aeschylus_Bust.jpg: Aeschylus Bust, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 9, 2016
White Police Assassinations in Dallas, Police Deadly Force Against Blacks in the U.S., and Aeschylus on the Furies, In ancient Athens, the playwright Aeschylus portrayed the Furies in his trilogy of plays known as the ORESTEIA. Donald J. Trump, the presumptive presidential candidate of the Republican Party, appeals to our inner Furies today. A vote for Trump is a vote for our inner Furies. A vote against Trump is a vote against our inner Furies.
Herman Melville profile., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 8, 2020
Is Melville's 18,000-line 1876 centennial poem worth reading today? (REVIEW ESSAY) Is Herman Melville's 18,000-line centennial poem Clarel (1876) worth reading today? If you are interested in religion and religious traditions in American culture today, then you might read his long jeremiad about American culture in his day to stimulate and provoke your own reflections on American culture today. William Potter's 2004 book can help us explore how to understand Melville.
Herman Melville by Joseph O Eaton., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 23, 2021
Some Reflections on the Melville/Hawthorne Relationship (REVIEW ESSAY) In my 1,850-word OEN article "Laurie Robertson-Lorant on Melville" (dated August 22, 2021), I briefly mentioned the platonic friendship between Herman Melville (1819-1891) and Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864). In the present 3,000-word review essay, I set forth some further reflections on their mutually intense but short-lived relationship.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Americans Should Study ARISTOTLE'S NICOMACHEAN ETHICS (Book Review) Thomas Jefferson endorsed the idea of a natural aristocracy. But in his inaugural address President John F. Kennedy urged all American citizens to be aristocrats in this country by urging us not to ask what our country can do for us but what we can do for our country. Aristotle's NICOMACHEAN ETHICS can serve Americans today as a guidebook about how to be aristocrats in our representative democracy.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 27, 2011
Not Only Non-Religious Jews and Christians, But Also Religious Jews and Christians Should Read Harold Bloom's New Book Harold Bloom's new book is a learned literary appreciation of the King James Bible, which was published in 1611, when Shakespeare was writing plays. Reading Bloom's new book might not change your life radically, but it might enrich and deepen your understanding of the King James Bible.
Shakespeare., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 11, 2020
King Lear's Inner Breakdowns -- and Ours (REVIEW ESSAY) In Scott Newstok's new book, he details certain lessons from Shakespeare's limited formal education, so that we can learn how to think like Shakespeare did in 1606 when he wrote his play during the plague in England about King Lear's inner breakdowns -- similar to our inner breakdowns due to the current Covid-19 crisis.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 5, 2015
A Reply to David Brooks' Column "What Is Your Purpose?" Over the last 50 years or so, movement conservatism has spread anti-60s propaganda. Unfortunately, progressives and liberals have not effectively countered their anti-60s propaganda. In his New York Times' column "What Is Your Purpose?" David Brooks advances the standard anti-60s propaganda of movement conservatism. I counter his propaganda by drawing on Walter J. Ong's thought about our Western cultural history.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 30, 2015
Today's Civil Unrest and the 2016 Presidential Election The death of Freddie Gray in police custody in Baltimore has sparked riots in Baltimore recently and demonstrations in certain other cities. In the past, demonstrations against the Vietnam War persuaded President Lyndon B. Johnson not to run for re-election in 1968. But violent riots in some cities after the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968 helped power the ascendancy of movement conservatism.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 24, 2023
Jeff Jarvis on the Age of Print and the Age of the Internet (REVIEW ESSAY) The American journalist Jeff Jarvis (born in 1954) has published the accessible new 2023 book The Gutenberg Parenthesis: The age of Print and Its Lessons for the Age of the Internet (Bloomsbury Academic). I discuss his book in connection with the work of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955).
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 19, 2011
In Defense of President Obama Against Cornel West Cornel West has blasted President Obama for understandable reasons. To understand the reasons, we need to consider that President Obama has said that Reinhold Niebuhr was an important influence on his thought. In Niebuhrian terminology, Cornel West is very idealistic, but President Obama is trying to be realistic. As a result, Cornel West is understandably disappointed in President Obama.
Steven Pinker | The degree of Doctor of Science, honoris cau. | Flickr1024 Ã-- 683 - 208k - jpg, From GoogleImages
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 5, 2018
Steven Pinker Is Not a Deep Thinker (REVIEW ESSAY) The Canadian Steven Pinker in psychology at Harvard University has published a polemical new book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. It is a 550-page follow up to his 800-page 2011 book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. But Pinker is not a deep thinker compared to the Canadian Jesuit Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) and the American Jesuit Walter J. Ong (1912-2003).
Image from Twitter User nativenuyorker_, From TwitterPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 11, 2019
Ross Douthat Says Toni Morrison May Be the Last Great American Novelist The African American novelist Toni Morrison died on August 5, 2019, at the age of 88. The conservative columnist Ross Douthat says in the New York Times that she may be the last great American novelist, because we now live in the age of internet distraction. However, I draw of the thought of the American Jesuit media theorist and cultural historian Walter J. Ong (1912-2003) to suggest a more complicated account of our age.
crivelli_saint_thomas_aquinas_ 1476, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 5, 2020
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas (REVIEW ESSAY) In December, the Reverend Dr. Matthew Fox will turn 80. He has been a prolific writer and a popular speaker and a peace and justice activist. In 1992, he published the book Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, which will be reissued later this month. He has also recently published the short new book The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times.
President Trump's Trip to Poland, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 17, 2017
Western Cultural History: Trump's superficial view vs. Ong's in-depth account In his prepared remarks in Warsaw, Poland, on July 6, 2017, President Donald J. Trump repeatedly referred to Western cultural history and the challenges posed by radical Islamic terrorists. But his view of Western cultural history is superficial. For a more in-depth account of Western cultural history, liberals and progressives should consider the work of the American Jesuit cultural historian and theorist Walter J. Ong.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 11, 2010
Reflections on Paul Krugman's THE CONSCIENCE OF A LIBERAL Liberals disheartened by the mid-term election results should read Paul Krugman's book THE CONSCIENCE OF A LIBERAL to help bolster their spirits to renew the good fight against conservatives.
Will the Catholic Church face the truth about their cimes and open the door to change?, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 31, 2015
Tapsell analyzes the international priest-sex-abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church (REVIEW ESSAY) The news media amply covered the international priest-sex-abuse scandal and cover up in the Roman Catholic Church. In the book POTIPHAR'S WIFE: THE VATICAN'S SECRET AND CHILD SEX ABUSE (2014), retired Australian lawyer and judge Kieran Tapsell thoroughly analyzes the decisive role of the church's canon law in producing the scandal and cover up. Will Pope Francis clean up the mess the church made by the scandal and cover up?
Modernism:a philosophical movement, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 30, 2015
Peter Gay's Tribute to Modernism Peter Gay (1923-2015) was a prolific scholar. His book MODERNISM: THE LURE OF HERESY: FROM BAUDELAIRE TO BECKETT AND BEYOND is a deeply researched tribute to modernism. In honor of Gay's memory, I want to discuss his book. Modernism was an important part of my undergraduate education (1962-1966). Ironically, Gay sees modernism as having played itself out by the end of the 1960s. But we may still draw fruit from modernism.
Shields and Brooks on the Mueller report and what happens next Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to analyze the impact of the Mueller report, with Rep., From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 31, 2019
David Brooks Highlights Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's Book on The Sabbath David Brooks highlights Polish-born American Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's 1951 book The Sabbath in a recent column in the New York Times. According to Brooks, Heschel argues that Judaism "is primarily a religion of time, not of space." Even though Brooks does not explain what a religion of space might be, the American cultural historian Jesuit Walter J. Ong has alerted us to spatialized conceptualizations.
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 17, 2012
Anthony de Mello's Spirituality for Our Troubled Times The late Anthony de Mello, S.J. (1931-1987), a clinical psychologist and spiritual director in India, has given us a posthumously published challenging new book about spirituality, REDISCOVERING LIFE: AWAKEN TO REALITY. But how many Americans today are ready to take such a challenging spirituality to heart?
Eric Voegelin: A Primer - The Imaginative Conservative, From GoogleImages
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 4, 2016
The Declaration of Independence and Our American Identity Will our American covenant hold, or fall apart, in the 2016 presidential election? Our idealistic Declaration of Independence will be put to the test in the 2016 presidential election by the mud-slinging of the Republican presidential candidate. Perhaps we Americans can draw some strength from the Servant Songs of the anonymous ancient Hebrew prophet known as Second Isaiah, especially from the Suffering Servant Song.
Martin Buber portrait., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 18, 2019
Celebrating Martin Buber's Life and Thought (REVIEW ESSAY) In the new 400-page book Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent (Yale University Press, 2019), Paul Mendes-Flohr of the University of Chicago tells the story of Buber's life and thought based primarily on Buber's correspondence but also supplemented with autobiographical comments in his publications.
FIG 2016 - Patrick Boucheron 01., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 28, 2020
Patrick Boucheron's Accessible Account of Machiavelli's Life and Work (REVIEW ESSAY) The French historian Patrick Boucheron argues in his accessible new book that concerned citizens in the United States today should read Machiavelli's The Prince, because in it, according to Boucheron, Machiavelli artfully teaches his readers what they should fear in a cruel ruler.
Dark Portrait of Simon Critchley., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 28, 2019
Simon Critchley on Tragedy's Philosophy (REVIEW ESSAY) Are you interested in the history of Western philosophy? If you are, you might Simon Critchley's accessible and thought-provoking new book Tragedy, the Greeks, and Us (Pantheon Books, 2019) interesting. In it, he develops tragedy's philosophy in the context of Western philosophy. If you feel that Trump is a tragedy, you might find Critchley's account of tragedy's philosophy resonates with your feeling that Trump is a tragedy.
Andrea di Bonaiuto. Santa Maria Novella 1366-7 fresco 0001., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 24, 2020
What Is the Antidote to Greed? Most OEN readers know about greed. But what is the effective antidote to greed? According to St. Thomas Aquinas (c.1225-1274), living virtuously with the help of divine grace is the effective antidote to greed.
Neil Young - Per Ole Hagen., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 12, 2020
Like a Leaf Floating in a Stream In response to Pope Francis' new 43,000-word social encyclical, I briefly discuss how Neil Young's lengthy 2012 song "Walk Like a Giant" expresses the desire of many people today now to return to the pre-pandemic world -- and walk like giants on the land. But the pope has had enough of our walking like giants on the land. But Neil Young memorably expresses how the pandemic makes us feel like a leaf floating in a stream.
Pope Francis, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 10, 2015
Get Ready to Debate the Pope's Encyclical About the Environment Pope Francis is preparing an encyclical about the environment. Even though it has not yet been released, certain conservatives have already published pre-emptive criticisms of the idea of the pope speaking about the environment. So progressives and liberals who are interested in the environment might want to get ready for the debate about the pope's encyclical when it comes out. I offer some food for thought about the topic.
Secretary Clinton Briefs the Press on Capitol Hill, From FlickrPhotos
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 19, 2016
The Strategy That May Have Cost Hillary Rodham Clinton the Election Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is scapegoating both Vladimir Putin and James Comey for her decisive electoral loss to Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party's 2016 presidential candidate. But she pursued a deliberate campaign strategy that may have cost her the election, especially in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 28, 2013
Ten Guys on Fox News Commented on Alleged "Wussification" in America in 2013 Over at Media Matters, Michelle Leung and Ellie Sandmeyer have rounded up ten examples from Fox News in 2013 in which different commentators have alleged the "wussification" of America. Some of the alleged examples are humorous, but not all of them. But these ten examples show the masculine identity crisis in America today. The anti-feminine term "wussification" points to deeper issues in the commentators' psyches
Sirjonathansacks, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 22, 2016
Rabbi Sacks' New Book of Essays on Ethics (REVIEW ESSAY) Progressives and liberals who are interested in political philosophy might want to consider taking a look at Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks' new book of essays on ethics. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Oxford University, and he knows a lot about our American cultural and political history. You will probably not be bored with his new book, especially if you are interested in the ideas of covenant and equality and freedom.
Franciscus in 2015., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 30, 2019
Pope Francis = "Open Closure"; But Catholic Traditionalists = Closed-Systems Thought When Pope Francis was the archbishop of Buenos Aires, he engaged in religious dialogues with Rabbi Abraham Skorka that have been published in English as the book On Heaven and Earth. In the new book When Bishops Meet: An Essay Comparing Trent, Vatican I, and Vatican II, the church historian John W. O'Malley says, "Never before in the entire annals of Christian history had a Catholic prelate ever engaged in such an encounter."
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 13, 2017
Our Dionysian Crucible and Trump's White Christian Voters (REVIEW ESSAY) We in Western culture today are undergoing the Dionysian crucible involved in the end of print culture 1.0 and the emergence of print culture 2.0. Our contemporary oral culture 2.0, powered by communications media that accentuate sound, resonates with our collective unconscious to renew the Dionysian spirit of oral culture 1.0. But Dennis R. MacDonald shows in his new book that the Dionysian crucible is in the Gospel of John.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 24, 2022
Paul A. Soukup, S.J., on a Media Ecology of Christian Theology (REVIEW ESSAY) The American Jesuit Paul A. Soukup (born in 1950; Ph.D. in communication studies, University of Texas at Austin, 1985) in communication studies at Santa Clara University in California explores a media ecology of Christian theology in his new 2022 book A Media Ecology of Theology: Communicating Faith throughout the Christian Tradition (Baylor University Press), in which he draws of the American Jesuit Walter J. Ong's thought.
Image from Twitter User arnhault, From TwitterPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Mark Lilla's Polemic about Identity Politics in the Democratic Party is Timely (REVIEW ESSAY) Today practitioners of identity politics are in power in the Democratic Party. But the Democratic Party is the out-of-power party both at the federal level of government and at the state level in many states. In his polemical new book, Mark Lilla critiques identity politics in the Democratic Party. In my estimate, the practitioners of identity politics in the Democratic Party should temper their brand of identity politics.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 22, 2023
Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., on Ecophobia (REVIEW ESSAY) Today I sing of Father Daniel P. Horan's superb column titled "Considering the spiritual roots of ecophobia amid climate change" (dated September 21, 2023) at the website of the National Catholic Reporter.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 17, 2023
Thomas J. Farrell on Thomas J. Farrell (REVIEW ESSAY) My 600th OEN article was titled "Thomas J. Farrell on Walter J. Ong, S.J." (dated November 7, 2023). Upon further reflection after I published it, I decided that a follow-up article about my life and professional publications is warranted. In short, who is the author of those 600 OEN articles? And where am I coming from?
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 24, 2011
In Defense of American Exceptionalism and Christian Social Ethics (BOOK REVIEW) Unfortunately, we are living through an Ayn Rand revival. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who claims to be a Christian, is a great Ayn Rand fan. But Gary Dorrien's recent books about Christian social ethics can serve as a healthy antidote to the Ayn Rand revival. Indeed, his account of the American tradition of social ethics can help us Americans today to appreciate our American exceptionalism.
A ride in the popemobile, From ImagesAttr
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 18, 2015
Why Progressives and Liberals Should Be Wary of Pope Francis' Encyclical About the Environment No doubt the Roman Catholic Church suffered an enormous loss of credibility as the result of the priest-sex-abuse scandal and cover up. Kieran Tapsell has explained how the church's canon law contributed to that scandal and cover up. But Pope Francis has NOT yet changed the church's canon law to stop further clergy abuse and cover ups. Instead, he has issued an encyclical about the environment to distract us.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 27, 2011
ALL THINGS SHINING Does Not Shine (BOOK REVIEW) In their book ALL THINGS SHINING: READING THE WESTERN CLASSICS TO FIND MEANING IN A SECULAR AGE, Hubert Dreyfus in philosophy at Berkeley and Sean Dorrance Kelly in philosophy at Harvard review selected highlights of Western cultural history. But they are not familiar with Walter Ong's work about Western cultural history. As a result, Dreyfus and Kelly shed no new light on Western cultural history.
Cristo crucificado., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 23, 2019
Culturally Contextualizing the Gospels (REVIEW ESSAY) In Pope Francis' 2013 apostolic exhortation, he claims that the gospel message is trans-cultural (paragraph 117). But M. David Litwa culturally contextualizes the canonical gospels in the ancient Mediterranean thought-world in his accessible new book from Yale University Press -- as have the biblical scholars Dennis R. Macdonald and Werner H. Kelber, among others. I will argue that the pope's claim may not be entirely true.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 1, 2015
A Reply to Both David Brooks and N. D. B. Connolly Regarding the Baltimore Crisis Both the white conservative columnist David Brooks and the African American academic N. D. B. Connolly to publish op-ed pieces in the New York Times about the Baltimore crisis. Neither piece is entirely without merit -- or very penetrating. Drawing of the work of the American cultural historian and theorist Walter J. Ong, S.J., I propose to discuss the male identity crisis in connection with the death of Freddie Gray.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 21, 2013
Joan Walsh's Analysis of What's the Matter with White People (REVIEW ESSAY) In the new paperback edition of her election-year book WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH WHITE PEOPLE, Joan Walsh does not gloat about President Obama's re-election in 2012. But she recaps salient highlights of the 2012 election results. More importantly, she suggests that many white people who did not vote for him are mourning. If she's right, this may be good news, provided they can work through their mourning in a healthy way.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 20, 2015
The Pursuit of Happiness (REVIEW ESSAY) In their pursuit of happiness, liberals and progressives can think of their journeys through life as like the character Dante's journey through the underworld. In his journey through Hell and Purgatory, he has Virgil as his guide. Figuratively speaking, Christine Hassler in her book EXPECTATION HANGOVER (2014) and Lissa Rankin in her book THE FEAR CURE (2015) can serve as guides through Hell and Purgatory, respectively.
Marcia Pally, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 16, 2023
Marcia Pally on White Evangelicals (REVIEW ESSAY) Marcia Pally's wide-ranging and learned short book White Evangelicals and Right-Wing Populism: How did We Get Here? (Routledge, 2022) explores how Donald J. Trump was able to appeal to certain conservative white evangelicals in 2016 and 2020. I found it to be an informative book.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 24, 2018
James Carroll's Critique of Roman Catholicism's Ethic of Sex In "After Pennsylvania, What Pope Francis Should Say in Ireland" in the New Yorker (dated Aug. 22, 2018), James Carroll, a practicing Catholic, critiques Roman Catholicism's ethic of sex. His critique has merit. But I propose to connect his critique not only with Stephen Greenblatt's 2017 book on Adam and Eve, but also with the American Jesuit theologian John Courtney Murray's 1967 critique of the classicist worldview.
Elizabeth Warren, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 7, 2020
Joe Biden today may sound like a normal person Michelle Cottle, a member of the Editorial Board of the New York Times that endorsed two women in the Democratic primary, has stepped out from behind the cover of the Editorial Board to post op-eds with her own byline recently -- most notably "The Resurrection of Joe Biden" (dated March 6, 2020). In delineating certain weaknesses of Joe Biden, Cottle credits Elizabeth Warren with "rhetorical precision" -- that Biden lacks.
Walter Ong, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 10, 2018
Walter J. Ong as Revolutionary Hero-Thinker After I published my OEN review essay about Jordan B. Peterson's accessible new book, I decided to take a look at his first book (1999). In this densely packed book, he uses a Jungian conceptual framework of thought. I was most fascinated with his account of the revolutionary hero. I consider the American Jesuit polymath Walter J. Ong to have been a revolutionary hero-thinker. (There are other kinds of revolutionary heroes.)
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Has Susan Anderson Discovered the Big Breakthrough for Self-Help Therapy? (BOOK REVIEW) In her new book TAMING YOUR OUTER CHILD, Susan Anderson claims that Outer Child work is very effective in helping people learn how to change their behavior. With so many of our fellow Americans in prison for misbehaving in one way or another, we should all hope that she is right. If she is, then Outer Child work could be a big breakthrough in self-help therapy.
Charles M. Blow - The New York Times, From GoogleImages
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 5, 2016
Both Brooks and Blow Analyze Trump No doubt Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party's presidential candidate in 2016, is evoking deep hates and fears and resentments in many white working-class men without a four-year college degree who ardently support him. Recently two regular columnists at the New York Times, conservative David Brooks and liberal Charles M. Blow, analyzed Trump and his ways of appealing to his supporters in competing op-ed pieces.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 13, 2017
How Women Polarized American Politics (REVIEW ESSAY) According to Marjorie J. Spruill's new book, women polarized American politics. For Spruill, pro-feminist women known as second-wave feminists and anti-feminist women known as conservatives such as Phyllis Schlafly polarized American politics. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a second-wave feminist. But in the parlance of second-wave feminists, so-called President Trump, who was endorsed by Phyllis Schlafly, is a male chauvinist pig.
Martin Luther King%2C Jr.., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 11, 2023
Marcia Pally on the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (REVIEW ESSAY) On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968; Ph.D. in theology, Boston University, 1955), the American theologian Marcia Pally published her article "'Peculiar Relations of Affectability': Peirce and Royce as Resources for the Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr." in the periodical Telos, serial number 182 (Spring 2018): pp. 161-182. I highlight it.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 14, 2013
Pope Francis is an astutely trained Jesuit Americans think of St. Francis of Assisi as a garden statue. As a result, they may underestimate Pope Francis I. But he is an astutely trained Jesuit. He may not be ready for prime time. But if he is ready, he should not be underestimated. Because Jesuits are astutely trained, I think they should not be allowed to be popes. Recent popes have been trouble enough. So we don't Jesuit popes to stir up even more trouble.
Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, From GoogleImages
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 10, 2016
Bottom-up spirituality: For Rob Kall As OEN readers know, Rob Kall is fascinated with bottom-up imagery. I recently read a book chapter that reminded me of his fascination with bottom-up imagery. It was in Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks' new book on ethics. So I've decided to write about it in the larger context of the thought of the American Jesuit cultural historian and theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003), whose thought fascinates me.
Pope Francis, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 16, 2015
John Allen's Hype About Pope Francis (REVIEW ESSAY) Pope Francis' encyclical about the environment may initiate a MUCH-NEEDED public debate. However, just as President Obama has not emerged as a transformative president, so too Pope Francis is not likely to emerge as a transformative pope. John Allen, a seasoned Vatican reporter, should know better than to hype the pope the way he does in his new book THE FRANCIS MIRACLE: INSIDE THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE POPE AND THE CHURCH.
Donald Trump official portrait., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 24, 2020
Some Thoughts About Andrew Hui's Theory of the Aphorism (REVIEW ESSAY) In my wide-ranging thoughts about Andrew Hui's Theory of the Aphorism: From Confucius to Twitter (Princeton University Press, 2019), I begin with an overview of his book. I then pivot to discussing certain related scholarly work. I round off my 4,000-word review essay by discussing Michelle Goldberg's op-ed column "The Darkness Where the Future Should Be" in the New York Times (dated January 24, 2020).
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Sherry Salman's book DREAMS OF TOTALITY is worth engaging with (REVIEW ESSAY) Progressives and liberals should consider engaging with Sherry Salman's book DREAMS OF TOTALITY. You see, group dreams of totality are often problematic for people who do not buy into them.
Donald Trump Sr. at #FITN in Nashua, NH, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Here's How to Understand Trump and His Supporters (REVIEW ESSAY) How should we understand Trump's charisma with his most ardent supporters? Olivia Fox Cabane's 2012 book The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism (Porfolio/ Penguin) provides a useful account of charisma and how it works. Her four charisma styles are related to Robert L. Moore's account of the kinds of archetypes of maturity in the human psyche.
Michel Foucault for PIFAL, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 3, 2021
Celebrating the Fourth of July 2021 (REVIEW ESSAY) In the spirit of celebrating the Fourth of July 2021, I celebrate certain aspects of the thought of the French philosopher and cultural historian Michel Foucault (1926-1984), the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian Walter J. Ong (1912-2003), and the Canadian Jesuit philosopher and theologian Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984).
Guest Columnist Biography: Stanley Fish - New York Times, From GoogleImages
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 7, 2016
Stanley Fish's New Book WINNING ARGUMENTS (Review Essay) As OEN readers know, Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party's presidential candidate in 2016, likes to categorize people as winners and losers. I'd like to be a winner in life, but I can remember times when I felt like a loser. In arguments, I'd prefer to win. I don't aim to lose arguments, but I can remember times when I have not won arguments. But will Stanley Fish's new book WINNING ARGUMENTS really help me win arguments?
Bloch-SermonOnTheMount., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Operationally defining and explaining deification for Americans today (REVIEW ESSAY) M. David Litwa in religious studies at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne has massively researched the ancient imagery and verbal expressions involving deification in four scholarly books. But I undertake to operationally define and explain deification for Americans today as a psycho-spiritual process of growth and development that involves learning how to access the optimal forms of the archetypes of maturity.
Carl Gustav Jung and Analytical Psychology - ISAPZURICH, From GoogleImages
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 26, 2016
A Refreshing Presentation of Jung's Thought (REVIEW ESSAY) THE QUOTABLE JUNG (Princeton University Press, 2016) is a 375-page commonplace book of quotations selected and edited by Judith R. Harris with the collaboration of Tony Woolfson. It is a refreshing presentation of C. G. Jung's thought. As I will explain, Jung's thought about the anima complex in men's psyche's can help us understand certain white American men who voted for Donald J. Trump in his decisive electoral victory.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Dawkins' Atheism Is OK, But So Is Theism Richard Dawkins' militant atheism does not rebut attacks on evolutionary theory. Instead, his attacks of religious faith in God are tantamount to changing the subject. We Americans should allow not only freedom of religion but also freedom from religion for atheists such as Dawkins. But attacks on evolutionary theory should be vigorously rebutted, as James H. Fetzer has rebutted them in his book "Render Unto Darwin" (2007).
Donald Trump Laconia Rally%2C Laconia%2C NH 4 by Michael Vadon July 16 2015 19., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 14, 2019
Here's How to Understand Trump and His Supporters: Part II (REVIEW ESSAY) On September 4, 2019, I posted my OEN review essay "Here's How to Understand Trump and His Supporters." Then James Poniewozik's informative new book about Trump and his supporters came out. Consequently, in "How to Understand Trump and His Supporters: Part II," I now undertake to expand my previous discussion and to incorporate certain new points about Trump and his supporters from Poniewozik's admirably lucid new book
Virginia Woolf, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 23, 2015
In Praise of Virginia Woolf's Last Essays St. Francis of Assisi's "Canticle of Brother Sun" is an example of praise poetry. But Pope Francis' encyclical about the environment, in which he pays homage to St. Francis of Assisi's "Canticle," is mostly a jeremiad. No doubt there is no shortage of evil in the world to lament. Nevertheless, in the spirit of praise poetry, I want to sing the praise of Virginia Woolf's last essays, albeit in prose.
Texas A&M International University, From GoogleImages
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 23, 2016
What is "Identity Politics" -- and What's Wrong with It? In light of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's decisive loss in the Electoral College, both Mark Lilla and Ross Douthat have diagnosed the problem of the Democratic Party. It's what they refer to as "identity politics." They agree with one another that the Democratic Party going forward needs to evolve away from its "identity politics." But what exactly is "identity politics" -- and what's wrong with it?
TED2016_021616_3RL6588_1920, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 2, 2021
John McWhorter on Third Wave Antiracism (REVIEW ESSAY) Columbia University's prolific multilingual linguist John Hamilton McWhorter V (born in 1965; Ph.D. in linguistics, Stanford University, 1993), who is black, has published the new 215-page book Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America (New York: Portfolio, 2021). In it, Dr. McWhorter operationally defines and explains what he refers to as Third Wave Antiracism, an ideology that functions as a new religion.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Martin Luther King, Jr., and Walter J. Ong, Jr. (REVIEW ESSAY) The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968; Ph.D. in theology, Boston University, 1955) and the Reverend Dr. Walter J. Ong, Jr. (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) were prophetic voices, each in his own distinctive way. Even though neither man discussed the other's work, I show here one way to connect certain aspects of their thought that I hope may be helpful in our contemporary American culture.
Mark K. Updegrove and Sebastian Junger, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 29, 2016
Sebastian Junger's New Book TRIBE: ON HOMECOMING AND BELONGING (Review Essay) Monday, May 30, 2016, will be Memorial Day. Surely it is fitting for us to remember those American soldiers who died in combat. But Sebastian Junger's new book TRIBE: ON HOMECOMING AND BELONGING reminds us not to forget the problems of post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD) and suicide among combat veterans after they return. I found certain parts of his elegantly written short book called to my mind numerous associations.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 23, 2011
Cornel West Should Forgive President Obama for Allegedly Disrespecting Him Cornel West alleges that President Obama has disrespected him. But we have not yet heard President Obama's side of the story. Nevertheless, Cornel West should forgive President Obama for allegedly disrespecting him, because Cornel West's criticisms help the Republican cause of criticizing and denigrating President Obama.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 27, 2021
Robert N. Bellah on Religion in Big History (REVIEW ESSAY) Berkeley's distinguished sociologist of religion Robert N. Bellah (1927-2013; Ph.D. in sociology and Far Eastern Languages, Harvard University, 1955) had the leisure to research and write his admirably lucid magnum opus, Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011). The axial age includes ancient Israel, ancient Greece, ancient China, and ancient India.
Ignatius-Loyola, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 6, 2018
What Men Today Can Learn from St. Ignatius Loyola's Spiritual Quest (REVIEW ESSAY) In his new book Mysticism in the Golden Age of Spain: 1500-1650 (2017), Bernard McGinn of the University of Chicago Divinity School offers a perceptive account of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order. Men today who are interested in spiritual quest can learn from his spiritual quest. In Jungian terminology, he activated the Anima archetype in his psyche and the Old-Wise-Man archetype in his psyche.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 13, 2023
A. E. Orobator, S.J., on Vatican II in Africa (REVIEW ESSAY) Because I am interested in Africa, I want to highlight here the Nigerian Jesuit theologian A. E. Orobator's "The Impact, Reception, and Implementation of Vatican II in Africa" in the new 800-page 2023 book The Oxford Handbook of Vatican II, edited by the lay Catholic theologians Catherine E. Clifford of Saint Paul University in Ottawa and Massimo Faggioli of Villanova University in Philadelphia (pp. 657-675).
CGJung., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 23, 2020
Christiana Morgan on Creative Personal Transformation (REVIEW ESSAY) The tragic life of the American Jungian analyst Christiana Morgan (1897-1967) is reconstructed in candid detail by the American Jungian analyst Claire Douglas in her 1993 biography of Morgan. Despite Morgan's own incomplete personal transformation, she nevertheless describes the patient-analyst psycho-dynamic that is involved in creative personal transformation -- of the kind that anti-black bigots today need to experience.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 11, 2012
Rush Limbaugh, Contraception, and Male Insecurity Walter J. Ong, S.J. (1912-2003), has written perceptively about male insecurity in his fine short book FIGHTING FOR LIFE: CONTEST, SEXUALITY, AND CONSCIOUSNESS (1981), which was reissued in paperback in 2011. Rush Limbaugh's male insecurity was manifested in his repeated brash attacks on Sandra Fluke. But Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle long ago recognized that such brashness is not courage. It's male insecurity.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 14, 2012
President Obama Needs to Mourn (Review essay) Dr. Justin A. Frank's book BUSH ON THE COUCH (rev. ed 2007) should be read alongside his new book OBAMA ON THE COUCH (2011) and alongside other books about grief work. Dr. Frank claims the George W. Bush is incapable of serious mourning. But Dr. Frank makes no such claim about Barack Obama. However, Dr. Frank identifies how President Obama needs to undertake serious mourning regarding nondeath losses in his early life.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 19, 2011
Charlene Spretnak's Anti-Modernity Book (BOOK REVIEW) In her new book, Charlene Spretnak, who comes from a Roman Catholic background (as I do also), works with a strong anti-modernity intellectual framework that happens to resemble the anti-modernity position of certain popes. Even though she is not explicitly advancing Roman Catholicism, her anti-modernity framework should be challenged.
T.S. Eliot%2C 1923.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 2, 2022
The American-Born Conservative T. S. Eliot (REVIEW ESSAY) OEN readers are progressives and liberals, not conservatives. Nevertheless, we should be concerned that our contemporary fellow Americans of a conservative bent might take a hard-right turn to illiberalism. As a result, we should urge conservative Americans today to read about the American-born conservative Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965), rather than embrace a hard-right turn to illiberalism.
Joe Biden, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 5, 2020
Get Ready for the Anti-Abortion Zealotry against Joe Biden's Resurgence Former Vice President Joe Biden is a practicing Catholic. But he does not agree with the Roman Catholic Church's official, but incoherent and indefensible, opposition to legalized abortion -- an opposition rooted in misogyny. No doubt the resurgence of Biden's campaign in the Democratic primary will prompt a resurgence of anti-abortion zealotry in his co-religionists, many of whom voted for Trump in 2016.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 26, 2014
Contextualizing Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) Marshall McLuhan received more media attention in the 1960s and 1970s than any other literature professor achieved during the twentieth century. McLuhan's most imaginative book, UNDERSTANDING MEDIA: EXTENSIONS OF MAN, was first published in 1964. It helped catapult him to the extraordinary media attention he received. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its publication, I'd like to contextualize it -- and McLuhan.
Martin Luther King%2C Jr.., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 19, 2023
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's 1967 Book (REVIEW ESSAY) Today is Juneteenth 2023. On this occasion, I want to set forth some further reflections on the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's 1967 book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (Harper & Row). The forces of chaos in American culture need to be countered.
Donald Trump, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 25, 2020
Mary Trump's Psychological Profile of Her Uncle Donald (REVIEW ESSAY) In Mary Trump's new book Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, she profiles the dysfunctional Trump family, which formed her cold and ruthless Uncle Donald ("Tweety") Trump. More specifically, she lays the psychological groundwork for us to see that as an infant and toddler Donald did not form secure attachment bonds with either his mother or his father.
Michel Foucault, painted portrait DDC_7448.jpg, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 2, 2021
Michel Foucault on Ancient Western Christianity (REVIEW ESSAY) Michel Foucault's new posthumous book Confessions of the Flesh, translated from the French by Robert Hurley; edited and with a "Foreword" by Frederic Gros (New York: Pantheon Books, 2021) is devoted to examining primary sources to discover the ways in which ancient Western Christians constructed a distinctively Western Christian self. But I see this process as involving the inward turn of consciousness (in Ong's terminology).
Donald Trump, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 3, 2020
Diagnosing Our Contemporary American Mental Health Lee Siegel's op-ed "Why Is America So Depressed?" in the New York Times (dated January 2, 2020) sums up bleak psychiatric reports about the mental health of contemporary Americans. But Siegel's claims in one particular sentence suggest to me that a deeper cultural diagnosis of the mental health of contemporary Americans is called for. This deeper cultural diagnosis is provided by Walter J. Ong's thought about Western culture.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 25, 2021
Walter J. Ong's and Michel Foucault's Explorations of Sexuality/Gender (REVIEW ESSAY) In the 1970s and 1980s, the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian Walter J. Ong (1912-2003) and the French philosopher and cultural historian Michel Foucault (1926-1984), evidently independently of one another, explored sexuality/gender. In the present review essay, I discuss certain features of their explorations.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 20, 2023
A. E. Orobator, S.J., on African Animist Spirituality (REVIEW ESSAY) On August 15, 2023, the Nigerian Jesuit theologian A. E. Orobator (born in 1967; Ph.D. in theology and religious studies, University of Leeds, 2004) will become the new dean of the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, which is affiliated with Santa Clara University. To help welcome Father Orobator to his new job in the U.S., I review here his 2018 book Religion and Faith in Africa: Confessions of an Animist (Orbis Books).
Sirjonathansacks., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 22, 2020
Who Is Looking Out for the Common Good? (REVIEW ESSAY) Do you think that President Donald ("Tweety") Trump has been looking out for the common good in the Covid-19 world-wide pandemic? I don't think he has been. Now, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (born in 1948) argues in his visionary new book Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times (Basic Books, 2020) that persons of good will can today help renew the common good in the midst of the world-wide Covid-19 pandemic.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 14, 2013
Lay Catholics Should Defuse the Catholic Anti-Abortion Claim About Conception Catholics have excelled in publicizing their church's opposition to legalized abortion in the first trimester. But many married Catholics have used artificial contraception, despite their church's opposition to it. Those lay Catholics should now defuse the claim in the Catholic anti-abortion crusade about conception. Yes, a new life-form emerges at conception, but it is an infrahuman life-form, not a human person.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 28, 2023
Adam Nicolson on Life Lessons from the Early Greeks (REVIEW ESSAY) The prolific English author Adam Nicolson (born in 1957) writes about early Greek philosophical thought in his new 2023 book How to Be: Life Lessons from the Early Greeks (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). But I situate Nicolson's thought in the broader conceptual framework of the thought of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 19, 2014
Steven B. Herrmann's Book SPIRITUAL DEMOCRACY (Review Essay) In his new book SPIRITUAL DEMOCRACY (2014) Steven B. herrmann suggests that a new spirit of spiritual democracy is emerging in our contemporary world. Of course it is not hard to think of examples of movements in our contemporary world that run counter to an emerging new spirit of spiritual democracy. Nevertheless, he deserves to be heard, and his book deserves to be read by interested progressives and liberals.
Series: Reviews (1 Articles, 1407 views)
Kenneth L. Woodward, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 20, 2018
Is Kenneth L. Woodward Advancing a Conspiracy Theory About the Priest-Sex-Abuse Scandal and Cover-Up? Kenneth L. Woodward, who served for thirty-eight years as the religion editor of Newsweek, has published an extraordinary commentary about the priest-sex-abuse scandal and cover-up in Commonweal, the lay-Catholic American magazine. But is he just advancing a conspiracy theory about alleged networks of sexually active gay clerics in the Roman Catholic Church? Commonweal is not known for publishing conspiracy theories.
James kennan sj sarajevo jul 2018., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 27, 2022
An Accessible and Learned History of Catholic Moral Theology (REVIEW ESSAY) The prolific American Jesuit theologian and ethicist James F. Keenan (born in 1953) of Boston College has written an accessible and learned history of Roman Catholic moral theology in his new 450-page 2022 book A History of Catholic Theological Ethics (Paulist Press). I learned a lot from his book, and I imagine that others will too.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 16, 2012
Anthony de Mello's Challenging Spirituality (BOOK REVIEW) The late Anthony de Mello, S.J. (1931-1987), a clinical psychologist and spiritual director in India, has given us a new posthumously published book about spirituality: REDISCOVERING LIFE: AWAKEN TO REALITY. Thanks to the Republicans, the economy is a mess. But how many Americans today are ready to take Tony de Mello to heart and become happy? He urges us to stop being unhappy and be happy. But how?
Steve Bannon, 2014, From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Steve Bannon and Cardinal Burke of the Vatican For understandable reasons, progressives and liberals should continue to worry about President Donald J. Trump's hyperbolic and apocalyptic adviser Stephen K. Bannon. Recently Bannon's connection with Cardinal Raymond L. Burke of the Vatican has been reported and commented on by certain columnists. Because 60 percent of white American Catholics voted for Trump, they may be cheered on by the news about Bannon's connection.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 22, 2015
T. S. Eliot of "The Waste Land" and Our Mid-Life Crisis (REVIEW ESSAY) For about a half century now, movement conservatism has been a powerful political force in American culture. As a result, many progressives and liberals may feel deep desolation comparable to the deep desolation that T. S. Eliot expresses in his poem "The Waste Land." His struggle to express the depths of his feelings in that poem can help progressives and liberals as they struggle with their own desolation over conservatives.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 15, 2015
Getting Our Bearings from Jung On car trips, kids often ask, "Are we there yet?" Years ago, C. G. Jung predicted that the Age of Aquarius would emerge next in Western culture. So liberals and progressives today may ask, "Are we there yet?" For example, in the U.S. in recent years, public opinion about same-sex marriage has shifted dramatically. Doesn't this show that the Age of Aquarius is emerging slowly but surely? Let's examine what else Jung says.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Will the "Political Correctness" Crowd Ever Change Their Tune? (BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY) Over the last half century, the "political correctness" crowd has provided a target for conservatives to attack. In the 2016 presidential election, Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party's candidate, effectively campaigned against "political correctness." His decisive electoral victory should be a wake-up call for the "political correctness" crowd -- the time has come for them to revisit their glib critiques of Western culture.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Who Will Read Troels Engberg-Pedersen's New Book About the Gospel of John? (REVIEW ESSAY) Will secular critics of Christianity read the Danish New Testament scholar Troels Engberg-Pedersen's new book John and Philosophy: A New Reading of the Fourth Gospel (Oxford University Press, 2017)? It is a follow up to his earlier book Cosmology and Self in the Apostle Paul: The Material Spirit (Oxford University Press 2010). In both books Engberg-Pedersen uses ancient Stoic philosophy as a heuristic for exploring texts.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 17, 2021
David Graeber and David Wengrow on Big History (REVIEW ESSAY) Recently, I published an OEN article titled "Walter J. Ong's Account of Big History" (dated November 1, 2021). It is about Ong's mature work from the early 1950s onward to his death in 2003. My present OEN article is titled "David Graeber and David Wengrow on Big History." It is about their new 700-page 2021 book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux). I prefer Ong.
General Audience with Pope Francis, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 11, 2023
James T. Bretzke, S.J., on Catholic Moral Theology (REVIEW ESSAY) Because I am concerned about certain defects in the official Catholic moral teachings, I want to highlight here the American Jesuit moral theologian James T. Bretzke's "Moral Theology and the Paradigm Shift of Vatican II" in the 800-page 2023 book The Oxford Handbook of Vatican II, edited by Catherine E. Clifford of Saint Paul University in Ottawa and Massimo Faggioli of Villanova University in Philadelphia (pp. 418-431).
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 4, 2014
Bishop Spong Claims That a Jewish Mystic Wrote the Gospel According to John (REVIEW ESSAY) As a follow up to my previous OEN articles about the Jungian idea of the individuation process and personal transformation, I want to discuss how the Gospel According to John can be interpreted. Bishop John Shelby Spong's new book THE FOURTH GOSPEL: TALES OF A JEWISH MYSTIC provides a handy springboard for me to use to suggest how a certain symbolic interpretation can open up this gospel as a resource for non-Christians.
Franciscus in 2015., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 3, 2020
The Roman Catholic Doctrine of the Real Presence The distinguished American Catholic journalist Dr. Peter Steinfels, a past editor of the lay Catholic magazine Commonweal, has published a new article in Commonweal about the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist at Mass. But Steinfels does not use the relevant work of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian Walter J. Ong to analyze/interpret the doctrine.
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee - Back Flap (t1) | Go Set a . | Flickr598 Ã-- 1024 - 165k - jpg, From GoogleImages
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 4, 2018
Joseph Crespino on Harper Lee's Atticus Finch (REVIEW ESSAY) Happy Fourth of July! The Fourth of July strikes me as a good time to remember our dark American heritage of slavery. Joseph Crespino's new book Atticus finch: The Biography: Harper Lee, Her Father, and the Making of an American Icon (Basic Books, 2018) can serve as a springboard for reviewing much of our American history, because he expertly contextualizes Harper Lee's Atticus Finch.
Walter-ong., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Walter J. Ong's Work and ChatGPT (REVIEW ESSAY) As part of my ongoing effort to promote the work of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955), I now want to explain which aspects of his work are most relevant for contextualizing the storage and retrieval dynamics of ChatGPT.
Spring 2016 Meeting - Westar Institute, From GoogleImages
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 8, 2016
How the Historical Jesus Became a Superhero (REVIEW ESSAY) Liberals and progressives who are interested in how the historical Jesus was transformed into the superhero portrayed in the New Testament might find Dennis R. MacDonald's accessible book MYTHOLOGIZING JESUS: FROM JEWISH TEACHER TO EPIC HERO (2015) repays careful reading. It is a summative distillation of MacDonald's impressive body of scholarly work. It can also serve as an introduction to his other scholarly books.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 11, 2023
Richard Reeves on Boys and Men Today (REVIEW ESSAY) Richard Reeves of the Brookings Institution published the deeply researched and thought-provoking book Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It (Brookings Institution Press, 2022). Recently Reeves was interviewed in a podcast by the American journalist and columnist for the New York Times, Ezra Klein. Unfortunately, Reeves appears not to be familiar with Walter J. Ong's work.
Civil War display with confederate flag at Charleston  Museum, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 28, 2015
Southern Cultural Pride Can anything constructive possibly emerge from Dylann Roof's killing spree in Charleston, South Carolina?
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 21, 2022
Romano Guardini Influenced Pope Francis (REVIEW ESSAY) The Argentine Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio (born in 1936) started a doctoral dissertation in theology on the work of the prolific and learned Roman Catholic theologian Romano Guardini (1885-1965), which he did not complete. However, after he was elected the first Jesuit pope in 2013, Guardini's influence on his thought has become noteworthy, especially in Pope Francis' 2015 eco-encyclical.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 14, 2014
Depression in Older Adults Today and Dante's DIVINE COMEDY Not by using antidepressants alone will adults in the second half of their lives decisively combat depression. They also need to undertake an inner journey like the inner journey in Dante's DIVINE COMEDY. M. Esther Harding makes an extrardimary claim about the vision of the celestial rose in Dante's poem. Taking a hint from her, we can see why adults with depression need to work through levels of the collective unconscious.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 19, 2021
An Overview of Walter J. Ong's Thought (REVIEW ESSAY) The American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) is my favorite scholar. I have written about his thought previously in my lengthy OEN article "Walter J. Ong's Philosophical Thought" (dated September 20, 2020). In the present review essay, which nicely complements my lengthy OEN article, I write a more comprehensive account of Ong's thought.
Martin Luther King%2C Jr.., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 28, 2023
John J. Ansbro on Martin Luther King, Jr. (REVIEW ESSAY) Jonathan Eig offers interested readers a fast-paced account of the life and death of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968; Ph.D. in theology, Boston University, 1955) in his massively researched new 2023 book King: A Biography (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). However, the interested reader might want to also read John J. Ansbro's deeply researched, well-organized, and well-developed 1982 intellectual biography of Dr. King.
Donald Trump- Caricature, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 17, 2018
Are You "Fixed" or "Fluid" -- Or Mixed? (REVIEW ESSAY) Marc Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler, two professors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, are psychological profilers interested in profiling American politics. In their new book Prius or Pickup?: How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain America's Great Divide (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018), they discuss the responses to surveys over the years in which the four forced-choice questions were included.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 9, 2014
Melanie Klein Can Help Us Understand Hypomanic Americans In a recent OEN piece, Rob Kall called attention to certain people who appear to have insatiable cravings for more, more, more. Evidently, the idea of "enough" is not part of their way of life. In a roundabout way, Melanie Klein's account of adult-onset bereavement and manic defenses can help us understand the psychodynamics of such insatiable people -- they tend to be hypomanic persons.
Trump Family Hand Up., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Loretta Graziano Breuning on Social Comparisons and Brain Chemicals (REVIEW ESSAY) The autodidact in evolutionary psychology Loretta Graziano Breuning (born in 1953; B.S., Cornell University, 1975; Ph.D., Tufts University, 1983) discusses social comparisons and brain chemicals in her new 2021 self-help book Status Games: Why We Play and How to Stop (Rowman & Littlefield). We can feel threatened by certain social comparisons. Her account can deepen our understanding of both Donald Trump and his supporters.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 22, 2011
In Defense of American Democratic Government and the Common Good (Against Anti-Government Republicans) The time has come for President Obama and Democratic politicians to stand up to anti-government Republicans who admire Ayn Rand for championing self-centeredness and selfishness, as Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin does. American democratic government was formed to for the common good. But anti-government Republicans are against the common good because they favor deregulation and tax breaks for the wealthiest among us.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 9, 2014
An Ongian Alternative View of the A.D.H.D. Crisis Richard A. Friedman's lengthy opinion piece in the NEW YORK TIMES about the A.D.H.D. crisis has sparked some controversy. As an alternative to Friedman's interpretation of the data, I propose to set forth an interpretation of the data based on the thought of the American cultural historian and theorist Walter J. Ong.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Walter J. Ong versus Pope Francis (REVIEW ESSAY) In recently published remarks, Pope Francis characterizes conservative anti-Francis American Catholics as being backward-looking -- not forward-looking as he sees himself. But he himself is not sufficiently backward-looking regarding the Doctrine of Discovery. The American Jesuit scholar Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) suggests that we need to be both backward-looking and forward-looking.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 26, 2012
The Religious Zealotry of the Catholic Bishops The Catholic bishops' religious zealotry has prompted them to object not only to the Obama's administration's reasonable and responsible contraception mandate for Catholic employers such as hospitals and universities and charitable organizations, but also to President Obama's compromise that allows those Catholic employers to avoid paying for contraception coverage. But Americans of good will should support the compromise.
Martin Buber., From WikimediaPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 18, 2019
How Can You Love God with Your Whole Heart? We tend to think of good and evil as diametrically opposed forces or tendencies within us. For the purposes of operationally defining univocal terms to use in philosophical discourse, we define evil as that which is not good -- and vice versa (good is that which is not evil). But Martin Buber (1878-1965) invokes the Talmudic doctrine of two urges (a good and an evil urge) to explain how you can love God with your whole heart.
Pope John XXIII - Time Magazine Cover - Jan 4, 1963., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Massimo Faggioli on Vatican II and on American Catholicism (REVIEW ESSAY) After I published my OEN article "Massimo Faggioli on President Joe Biden, Pope Francis, and Catholicism Today" on February 20, 2021, I decided to take a look at Prof. Dr. Faggioli's 350-page 2015 book A Council for the Global Church: Receiving Vatican II in History (Fortress Press). It was published to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) in the Roman Catholic Church.
Pope Francis in March 2013 (cropped), From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 16, 2018
A New Low for the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. On August 14, 2018, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro released the grand-jury report about priest-sex-abuse and the cover-ups by bishops in six Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania. Thus far, Pope Francis has been silent about the report. But with the help of Stephen Greenblatt's 2017 book about Adam and Eve, I want to discuss St. Augustine's influence on the church's unfortunate teachings about sex.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 7, 2015
Marcus Borg, Maurice Friedman, and the Historical Jesus The Christian right is up to no good. But most progressives and liberals may not appreciate just what a serious challenge the biblical scholar Marcus J. Borg (1942-2015) posed to some of the most cherished myths of the Christian right through his work on the historical Jesus. In the present tribute to Borg, I propose to connect his thought with points that Maurice Friedman (1921-2012) makes, drawing on Buber's thought.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Kleinian Theory and Trump Voters The American psychiatrist Justin A. Frank, M.D., works with Melanie Klein's conceptual framework in his psycho-biographies about former Presidents George W. Bush (2007) and Barack Obama (2011). Taking hints from Dr. Frank's two books, I propose to discuss the 2016 presidential election, especially Trump and the Trump voters.
T.S. Eliot%2C 1923.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 9, 2022
60 Years of T. S. Eliot's Prose (REVIEW ESSAY) In the present review essay, I revisit certain aspects of my lengthy OEN article "The American-Born Conservative T. S. Eliot" (dated October 2, 2022). However, in the present review essay, I now call attention to the eight expertly introduced and annotated volumes of The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot, edited by Ronald Schuchard and others (Johns Hopkins University Press; Faber and Faber, 2021).
Buber In Ten Minutes Disclaimer: These are not my images. This video is intended as an introduction to the thought of Martin Buber, with an emphasis on I and Thou. This video is not ..., From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 31, 2019
Martin Buber's Legacy for Americans Today The center-right columnist David Brooks of the New York Times calls our attention to recent teenage suicide rates and rates of depression in the United States today. In response to these alarming trends, we should use the resources of Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue in the social and political realms to counter them.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 13, 2015
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Virginia Woolf played a number of public roles in her lifetime. She was a feminist, pacifist, activist, lecturer, novelist, essayist, book reviewer, biographer, and publisher (with her husband). In her mature novels she expresses her sense of communion consciousness in various ways. For this reason, progressives and liberals can cultivate their own sense of communion consciousness by reading her novels.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 13, 2023
Temple Grandin's New 2022 Autobiographical Book (REVIEW ESSAY) In my OEN article "Temple Grandin on Thinking with Words versus Thinking with Images" (dated January 10, 2023), I discussed her op-ed piece in the New York Times (dated January 9, 2023). In the present review essay, I discuss her new 2022 autobiographical book Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions (Riverhead Books) in connection with Walter J. Ong's mature work.
Donald Trump, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 18, 2021
Yale's Timothy Snyder on the Trump Terrorists at the Capitol Yale history professor Timothy Snyder has published a perceptive op-ed commentary in the New York Times Magazine (dated January 17, 2021) about the Trump terrorists who stormed the Capitol. If you have not already read Snyder's lengthy op-ed, I can assure you that reading it is a suitable way to commemorate the life and work of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
T.S. Eliot%2C 1923.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 22, 2022
Understanding T. S. Eliot's 1922 Poem "The Waste Land" (REVIEW ESSAY) The American-born Nobel Prize winning poet and influential literary critic Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) published his challenging poem "The Waste Land" in 1922. So 2022 is the centennial years of its publication. To help me commemorate "The Waste Land," I consulted the book Reading "The Waste Land": Modernism and the Limits of Interpretation by Jewel Spears Brooker (born in 1940) and the late Joseph Bentley (1932-1988).
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 20, 2023
Frank M. Oppenheim, S.J., on Josiah Royce's Mature Philosophy (REVIEW ESSAY) The late American Jesuit philosopher and theologian Frank M. Oppenheim (1925-2020; Ph.D. in philosophy, Saint Louis University, 1962 -- the year in which he turned thirty-seven) published the masterful book Royce's Mature Philosophy of Religion (University of Notre Dame Press, 1987 -- the year in which he turned sixty-two). However, Oppenheim appears not to have been familiar with the work of the American Jesuit Walter J. Ong.
Image from Twitter User charleypurvis, From TwitterPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Michiko Kakutani's Book on Trump Is Alerting, Not Alarmist (REVIEW ESSAY) Michiko Kakutani's new book The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump (2018) is a vitally important exploration of the different cultural currents that led to the rise of Trump and the right-wing in the 2016 presidential election.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 25, 2022
The McLuhans on Formal Cause (REVIEW ESSAY) The Canadian Renaissance specialist and media theorist Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980; Ph.D. in English, Cambridge University, 1943) converted to Catholicism in 1937, when the church favored Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy. As a Thomist, McLuhan learned about Aristotle's four causes. McLuhan was most intrigued with formal cause, and so was his eldest son Eric McLuhan (1942-2018; Ph.D. in English, University of Dallas, 1982).
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Emersonian Self-Reliance and Jesuit Spirituality Pope Francis is the first Jesuit pope. Even though he has not achieved much in his first year as pope, he has received a lot of media coverage for things he's said. He's a likable guy. But he has cultivated Jesuit spirituality during his adult life. Lawrence Buell's book EMERSON has prompted me to reflect on Emersonian Self-Reliance and Jesuit spirituality. Cultivating Jesuit spirituality resembles cultivating Self-Reliance.
Thomas Piketty%2C 2015 %28cropped%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Thomas Piketty on Equality in the Modern World (REVIEW ESSAY) The French economist Thomas Piketty (born in 1971) sky-rocketed to extraordinary prominence in the English-speaking world in 2014 with the publication in English of his 700-page densely packed book Capital in the Twenty-First Century (orig. French ed., 2013). Piketty's new 2022 book A Brief History of Equality (orig. French ed., 2021) is more reader-friendly, and, by comparison, far more accessible.
Timothy-Snyder-2015., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 24, 2021
Timothy Snyder's 20 Lessons for Recovering Trump Voters (REVIEW ESSAY) On January 6, 2021, President Donald ("Tweety") Trump incited a mob of domestic terrorists to storm the Capitol. As a result, five people died, including one police officer. But are there now any Trump voters who are ready to undertake the hard work of recovering from Trump and rehabilitating themselves as attentive, intelligent, reasonable, and responsible Americans committed to our democratic republic and the rule of law?
DSC_0754, From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 5, 2015
David Brooks Predicts a Course Correction Coming in American Culture The conservative New York Times columnist predicts that a course correction in American culture is coming. If such a course correction in American culture were to emerge progressives and liberals might welcome it. But will such a course correction emerge?
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 21, 2021
Charles Taylor on the Sources of Our Western Modern Identity (REVIEW ESSAY) The Canadian Catholic philosopher Charles Taylor (born in 1931) discusses the sources of our Western modern identity in his book Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (Harvard University Press, 1989). In it, he includes a great discussion of Christian theology. However, overall, I prefer the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian Walter J. Ong's account of our Western modern identity.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 9, 2013
Erich Fromm: A Secular Jewish Prophet for Our Times Erich Fromm's psychoanalytic thought about biophilia (love of life) versus necrophilia (love of death and destructiveness) is a important in the 21st century as it was in the 20th. In his fine new biography of Fromm, Lawrence J. Friedman ably and fairly reviews Fromm's remarkably productive life and his thought. I can only hope that Friedman's book will contribute to a revival of interest in Fromm's books.
Trump Donald ? Free image on Pixabay782 Ã-- 720 - 106k - jpg, From GoogleImages
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 24, 2018
John Courtney Murray's "The Return of Tribalism" (1962) and Trump (REVIEW ESSAY) Trump's campaign motto was "Make America Great Again." This motto calls to mind the 1950s when anti-communism hysteria swept across America. But the American Jesuit theologian and public intellectual John Courtney Murray (1904-1967) worried in "The Return of Tribalism" (1962) that anti-communism was moving Americans toward tribalism. No doubt Trump's 2016 presidential campaign evoked tribalism. So what's wrong with tribalism?
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 7, 2012
Crossan and Jesus and Parables (REVIEW ESSAY) The crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth under the authority of Pontius Pilate during the Passover festival in Jerusalem climaxes each of the four canonical gospels. In his ambitious new book John Dominic Crossan examines different kinds of gospel fictions, including the parables famously attributed to Jesus. In addition, Crossan urges us to consider each gospel itself as a parable writ large as it were.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Levingston Revisits Kennedy and King (BOOK REVIEW) In the paranoid op-ed "Donald Trump and John F. Kennedy are more similar than you think" at the Boston Globe (dated July 17, 2017), the conservative polemicist Niall Ferguson fails to mention Kennedy's support of black civil rights. But Steven Levingston revisits Kennedy's support of black civil rights in his new book Kennedy and King.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Temple Grandin on Thinking with Words versus Thinking with Images (REVIEW ESSAY) On January 9, 2023, Temple Grandin (born in 1947) of Colorado State University, who is famous for writing about autism, published the op-ed piece titled "Temple Grandin: Society Is Failing Visual Thinkers, and That Hurts Us All" in the New York Time. What she refers to in her title as "Visual Thinkers" think with images. She contrasts them with people who think with words, not images. I discuss the history of this contrast.
Pope Francis, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 13, 2015
On Gender, Pope Francis Is an Old-Fashioned Roman Catholic Reactionary In the book THE THEOCONS: SECULAR AMERICA UNDER SIEGE (2006), Damon Linker has alerted progressives and liberals to watch out for certain conservative American Catholics. But Pope Francis's remarks about gender in a recently published interview should alert progressives and liberals to watch out for him and the other bishops. They are up to no good.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 6, 2023
Charles Taylor on Our Secular Age (REVIEW ESSAY) In light of the late Ronald F. Inglehart's 2021 book Religion's Sudden Decline: What's Causing it, and What Comes Next? (Oxford University Press), it is time to revisit Charles Taylor's 2007 875-page book A Secular Age (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press) and the work of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003).
Michel Foucault by PITR, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 4, 2021
James Miller Is Candid About Michel Foucault (REVIEW ESSAY) In 2021, the English translation of the Nietzschean philosopher and political activist Michel Foucault's 400-page posthumous book Confessions of the Flesh, translated by Robert Hurley; edited and with a "Foreword" by Frederic Gros (New York: Pantheon Books) was published. After I read it, I set about reading James Miller's 1993 candid intellectual biography The Passion of Michel Foucault (New York: Simon & Schuster).
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 14, 2013
REVIEW ESSAY: My Belated Valentine's Day Message Jungian theorist Robert Moore makes bold claims about what he terms the archetype of initiation -- the archetype that brings us mental breakdowns, bereavement, and other significant life transitions. Now, how many of us have not experienced a mental breakdown, or bereavement, or other significant life transitions? But if your life has not been free from these experiences, do you understand the archetype of initiation?
Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 29, 2020
The Call to Exorcize Plato's Ghost (REVIEW ESSAY) The 2003 revised Chapter 3: "The Dignity of Difference: Exorcizing Plato's Ghost" in Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' book The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations (Bloomsbury, pages 45-66) is admirably lucid. Moreover, his concern about resurgent tribalism is as relevant today as it was a quarter of a century ago. Furthermore, his prescription regarding the dignity of difference is still relevant today.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 22, 2021
Paula McDowell on Walter Ong (REVIEW ESSAY) Paula McDowell frames her book The Invention of the Oral: Print Commerce and Fugitive Voices in Eighteenth-Century Britain (University of Chicago Press) as a polemic with my favorite scholar, the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955). But she has not persuaded me to stop using or referring to Ong's carefully defined terminology.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 13, 2014
Orwell, Snowden, and Privacy in Light of Ong's Cultural History Edward Snowden's leaks have prompted many Americans to think that the National Security Agency (NSA) is really an Orwellian name for the National Surveillance Agency. However, as we sort out the various privacy issues involved both in Snowden's NSA leaks and in George Orwell's dystopian novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four," it is instructive to consider our sense of privacy in light of Walter J. Ong's cultural history.
Pope emeritus Benedict XVI turns 92 The new Rome Reports app is now available! Download it here: Android: bit.ly/2SowpUn Apple: apple.co/2RHf58H Subscribe!, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 7, 2019
What's Most Important in Jacob Neusner's Work (REVIEW ESSAY) In Aaron W. Hughes' informative book Jacob Neusner: An American Jewish Iconoclast (NYU Press, 2016), he discusses Jacob Neusner in connection with Abraham Joshua Heschel, Mircea Eliade, and Pope Benedict XVI, among others. However, in my estimate, Hughes does not attend carefully enough to the most important aspects of Neusner's work, as I explain here.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 10, 2023
Walter J. Ong on Historical and Other Humanistic Studies (REVIEW ESSAY) The American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) died in 2003. To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of his death, I highlight his life and times here. Then I highlight his account of historical and other humanistic studies.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 26, 2018
Walter Ong, Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman, and Jonah Goldberg's New Book In the new book Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy (Crown Forum, 2018), the conservative polemicist Jonah Goldberg of the American Enterprise Institute aims to reinvigorate conservatives in time for the 2018 mid-term elections. I do not disagree with everything he says, but I prefer Walter J. Ong's account of our cultural history.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Stephen Greenblatt on Adam and Eve (REVIEW ESSAY) Stephen Greenblatt (born in 1943; Ph.D. in English, Yale University, 1969) is a distinguished Jewish professor of English at Harvard University. In his 2017 book The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, he does not explicitly discuss the culture war carried on by certain American Protestants against the teaching of evolutionary theory in American schools. But he provides ample background information for contextualizing it.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Vengeance Is Mine, Saith President Trump to New York Under President Donald Trump, Republicans tend to embrace social Darwinism -- the survival of the fittest. It appears that the fittest can survive Covid-19. Consequently, President Trump has refused to order indistry to build more ventilators to cope with the Covid-19 crisis in New York -- thereby exacting his revenge on New York for not voting for him in 2016.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 5, 2023
Words of Wisdom from Walter J. Ong, S.J. (REVIEW ESSAY) My favorite scholar is the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955). My favorite book is his 1967 seminal book The Presence of the Word: Some Prolegomena for Cultural and Religious History (Yale University Press), the expanded version of his 1964 Terry Lectures at Yale University. It is a book of great wisdom.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 15, 2011
Reflections on Sarah Palin's Statement About the Tucson Tragedy Sarah Palin's January 12th statement about the Tucson tragedy shows how limited her thought-world is. There are reasonable ways to defend Palin from certain criticisms. But her comments both about the shooter and about her critics show just how limited her thought-world is.
pope-francis-1a, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 6, 2023
Pope Francis on the Climate Crisis (REVIEW ESSAY) In 2015, Pope Francis (born in 1936; elected pope in 2013) emerged as a towering public intellectual on the world stage with his widely read eco-encyclical titled Laudato Si' (meaning "Praise Be to You"). On October 4, 2023, the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi (c.1181-1226), Pope Francis renewed his concerns about the climate crisis in his terse new apostolic exhortation titled Laudate Deum ("Praise God").
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 10, 2009
Why Obama Should Shun the Pope's Views on Abortion President Obama and members of Congress should shun the pope's views on abortion and shun the Catholic bishops' objections to the health-care bill because their objections are based on the pope's views on abortion.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 30, 2011
Virginia Woolf's Example of Creative Non-Violent Resistance (Review) Theodore Koulouris explores important new angles of Virginia Woolf's life and work in his book HELLENISM AND LOSS IN THE WORK OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (2011). Through her fiction and non-fiction, Virginia Woolf creatively worked through the losses in her life due to the deaths of important family members and also due to her gender in the historical context of her life. As a result, she lived a life of heroic non-violent resistance.
James kennan sj sarajevo jul 2018., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Two American Jesuits Discuss Rape in Catholic Moral Theology In what appears to be a coincidence, two American Jesuits discuss rape in Catholic moral theology in their recent separate articles in the National Catholic reporter: (1) Thomas J. Reese in "A reading list for seminarians and other Catholic conservatives"; and (2) James F. Keenan in "It's time for a Catholic ethic that sees sexuality as a gift, not a curse."
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 3, 2014
Risen's Low-Keyed Book About the War on Terror (BOOK REVIEW) James Risen has written his new book about the war of terror, PAY ANY PRICE: GREED, POWER, AND ENDLESS WAR (2014), in a low-keyed narrative style. Two of the most important parts of his book center on the National Security Agency's draconian surveillance of Americans and on President Barack Obama's extensive use of drone warfare.
Pope Francis Visits the United States Capitol, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 4, 2022
Pope Francis on Catholic Liturgical Formation (REVIEW ESSAY) Happy Fourth of July! On July 4, 1776, our American founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. It reminds us of our noble American ideals. To be an American requires us to be idealistic, not cynical. In Pope Francis' new 2022 apostolic letter to his fellow Catholics, he, in effect, reminds them that they are called on to be idealistic in their noble calling and thereby allow the Catholic liturgy to form them.
T.S. Eliot%2C 1923.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 17, 2022
Four Women in T. S. Eliot's Life (REVIEW ESSAY) The prolific South African-born biographer Lyndall Gordon's gracefully written and nicely illustrated new book The Hyacinth Girl: T. S. Eliot's Hidden Muse (W. W. Norton) is about four women in the life of the American-born Nobel Prize winning poet Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965): (1) Emily Hale (1891-1969); (2) Vivienne Hugh-Wood Eliot (1888-1947); (3) Mary Trevelyan (1897-1983); and (4) Valerie Fletcher Eliot (1926-2012).
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 1, 2012
The Supposed "Timeless Truths" Advanced by the Catholic Bishops Rob Kall has expressed his concern about the "theocratic" views (his term) of the U.S. Catholic bishops. The U.S. Catholic bishops have involved themselves in various civic and legal issues. As a result, we should reflect on the claim made by the bishops and their apologists that their views are based supposedly on "timeless truths." This claim seems to mean that they hold their debatable views to be undebatable.
.A deeper black: Race in America. with Ta-Nehisi Coates, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 21, 2015
Ta-Nehisi Coates' BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME (Review Essay) In light of the riots in Baltimore recently, progressives and liberals may want to read Ta-Nehisi Coates' short new book BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME. Coates in an African American who grew up in West Baltimore. He candidly recounts how fear pervaded his life growing up there. More importantly, he recognizes how fear underlies the dominant American culture against which he sees himself struggling.
Card. Michael Czerny S.J. at the Vatican., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 6, 2022
My Open Letter to the Canadian Jesuit Cardinal Michael F. Czerny Pope Francis' recent penitential visit to Canada was well-covered by international secular and religious news media. Subsequently, I decided to write the following open letter to the Czechoslovakian-born Canadian Jesuit Cardinal Michael F. Czerny (born in 1946; Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1978), who was appointed by Pope Francis to serve as the Prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Why Men's Violence Against Women? Why the War on Women's Reproductive Rights? Walter J. Ong's claims about the contemporary male identity crisis can deepen our understanding of the psychodynamics involved in men's violence against women and in the war against women's reproductive rights. Ong claims that boys and men suffer from a distinctly male insecurity. But the only way for boys and men to deal with this kind of insecurity is to work out an age-appropriate sense of specifically masculine identity.
2008-11-08 John Dominic Crossan, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 12, 2022
John Dominic Crossan on the Power of Parable (REVIEW ESSAY) The Irish-born New Testament scholar and historical Jesus specialist John Dominic Crossan (born in 1934) explores the expansive category of parable in his admirably lucid and learned book The Power of Parable: How Fiction by Jesus Became Fiction about Jesus (2012). His expansive understanding of parable can help us understand the fascination of the American-born Nobel Prize winning poet T. S. Eliot's 1922 poem The Waste Land.
John T Noonan Jr., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 13, 2023
John T. Noonan on Slavery in Catholic Moral Thought (REVIEW ESSAY) Slavery has been characterized as America's original sin. For this reason, many Americans today might find the American lay Catholic author John T. Noonan's learned discussion of slavery in Catholic moral thought in his incisive 2005 book A Church That Can and Cannot Change (University of Notre Dame Press) enlightening.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 6, 2009
Is the New York Times Anti-Catholic for Publishing Maureen Dowd's Criticisms of the Catholic Church? Maureen Dowd published certain criticisms of the Catholic Church's "unassailable patriarchy" in her regular column in the New York Times under the title "The Nuns' Story." But the archbishop of New York has charged the Times with being anti-Catholic. But it is fair for the Times to publish criticisms of practices of the Catholic Church under certain circumstances.
Pope Francis - Caricature, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Pope Francis May Not Be Ready for Prime Time According to the Vatican News Service, Pope Francis delivered a homily at Mass on September 3, 2018. According to the pope, the reading from the Gospel of Luke shows Christians that they should escape from the grip of the crowd threatening to harm them and pass through the crowd in silence and escape. But can the pope escape in silence from responding to Archbishop Carlo Vigano's explosive allegations?
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 1, 2014
The Masculine Mystique of Republicans: Charles Blow on Gov. Chris Christie In his column "The Masculine Mistake," Charles Blow, an African American columnist at the New York Times, discusses Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a tough-talking guy's guy and a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. In the process, Charles Blow criticizes the masculine mystique of Republicans based on misogyny and chauvinism. But can Republicans clean up their act?
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Walter J. Ong's Reflections on Being an American (Review) In his first book, FRONTIERS IN AMERICAN CATHOLICISM (1957), Walter J. Ong, S.J. (1912-2003), the American cultural theorist and religious thinker, addressed his fellow American Catholics. He urged them to reflect on their American identity. But certain points he makes about our personal and collective identity as Americans are worth sharing with non-Catholics and even with people who have no religious faith.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Crossan"s Long Game for Advancing Bottom-Up Change in American Culture (REVIEW ESSAY) Progressives and liberals may want to take a look about John Dominic Crossan's new book. It is part of his ongoing campaign to advance significant bottom-up change in American culture by persuading Christians to change their ways of interpreting the Christian Bible.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 18, 2015
Profiling Pope Francis as a Jesuit In a piece featured at OpEdNews, Daily Kos celebrates Pope Francis's demotion of American Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke. As this example shows, Pope Francis may at times do, or say, something that progressives and liberals may want to cheer about. But Pope Francis is a conservative on already established church pronouncements. To help people better understand this first Jesuit pope, I profile him as a Jesuit.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 18, 2015
Harold Bloom's Thought-Provoking New Book (REVIEW ESSAY) Stop the presses! It's time to tell the world what the literary critic Harold Bloom has figured out about the highest use of imaginative literature for our American way of life. After his years of suffering like a secular Modern Job, Bloom has emerged as a Modern Prometheus in his new book THE DAEMON KNOWS: LITERARY GREATNESS AND THE AMERICAN SUBLIME (2015).
pope-francis-1a, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 10, 2022
John T. McGreevy on Catholicism (REVIEW ESSAY) The American Catholic historian John T. McGreevy (born in 1963; Ph.D. in history, Stanford University, 1992) of the University of Notre Dame has published a fascinating new 500-page book on Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis. It is an admirable global survey of judiciously culled and splendidly narrated historical highlights. Probably almost everybody could learn something new from it.
Donald Trump and Mike Pence RNC July 2016, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 15, 2016
President Trump will not be Superman, just as President Obama was not Superman Years ago, Albert Ellis alerted us to watch out for our tendency to catastrophize. No doubt President Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress will bring about great mischief. But President Trump is not going to be Superman, just as President Obama was not Superman. In this third in my series of three op-ed refelctions on the election results, I want to discuss those results a bit further.
Bischof Dr. Rudolf Voderholzer, 99. Deutscher Katholikentag, Regensburg, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 20, 2017
Bishop Voderholzer's Accessible Short Book about Cardinal Henri de Lubac (REVIEW ESSAY) Because 60 percent of white American Catholics voted for Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party's presidential candidate, OEN readers might want to review the history of American Catholics during the last half century or more -- not counting the priest sex-abuse scandal that the American Catholic bishops covered up. Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer's book about Cardinal Henri de Lubac can serve as a point of departure for the review.
pope-francis-1a, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 24, 2023
The Vatican Dicastery on Communication, on Engagement with Social Media (REVIEW ESSAY) On March 28, 2023, the Vatican Dicastery on Communication issued the 82-paragraph document "Towards Full Presence: A Pastoral Reflection on Engagement with Social Media," which is available in English at the Vatican's website. I briefly outline the document and then highlight this beautiful theological reflection.
Michel Foucault for PIFAL, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 3, 2019
Michel Foucault's Late Thought about Certain Christian Practices (REVIEW ESSAY) In the late period (1980-1984) of Michel Foucault's life (1926-1984), he repeatedly discussed patristic and medieval Christian thought about certain spiritual practices such as confession. In 2018, his posthumously published book The Confessions of the Flesh came out in French. The English translation could renew interest in Foucault's late thought -- which the Russian philosopher Sergey S. Horujy examines.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 1, 2010
Whitmire's Book WHY BOYS FAIL Delineates the Problem, but Not the Solution Richard Whitmire's new book WHY BOYS FAIL delineates the problem, but not the solution. No Child Left Behind is not the solution. But the basic solution has been set forth by David W. Johnson and Roger T. Johnson is their textbook for teachers entitled CREATIVE CONTROVERSY: INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGE IN THE CLASSROOM.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 19, 2014
The administration is bullying the philosophy department at the University of Colorado-Boulder The administration is bullying the philosophy department at the University of Colorado-Boulder -- by unexpectedly making a report about the department public on Jan. 31, 2014. Six women teachers in the department have recently issued a public statement that has been reported in the local newspaper. They claim that only a small number of men in the department were involved in the behaviors mentioned in the report.
gozzoli_triumph_st_thomas_aqui nas_1484, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 11, 2020
Our Current Experience of the Via Negativa (REVIEW ESSAY) Our concurrent experiences of the Covid-19 catastrophe and the economic catastrophe have thrust us into what the Reverend Dr. Matthew Fox describes as the Via Negativa in his brilliant 1992 550-page book Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation spirituality, which is now scheduled to be reissued by Dover Publications later this month. It provides timely reading for us as we undergo the Via Negativa.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 20, 2014
Know the Enemy: The Koch Brothers (BOOK REVIEW) Military strategists have long been told to know the enemy. For understandable reasons, progressives and liberals should also know the enemy -- the Koch brothers. Charles Koch and David Koch are highly competitive and very combative in promoting their libertarian ideas -- and rich. Charles Koch is the mastermind. Daniel Schulman of MOTHER JONES magazine has profiled them in his enlightening book about the Koch family.
Herman Melville by Joseph O Eaton., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Geoffrey Sanborn on Melville's Value (REVIEW ESSAY) The seasoned Melville scholar Geoffrey Sanborn's short 2018 book The Value of Herman Melville (Cambridge University Press) provides Melville readers with hints about how to proceed to read his works fruitfully -- that is, in a way that will enhance their own personal psychological flourishing. In this respect, Sanborn's book aims to be a kind of self-help book for Melville readers.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 28, 2014
Conservative White Men Today and the Revelation Jung Received For more than 40 years, conservative white men have vociferously denounced the 1960s. Their denunciations show their resistance to adapting themselves beyond the conventional white male identities of the 1950s. What's their problem? The revelation that C. G. Jung received from the anima archetype in his psyche suggests that they need to work out a new relationship with the anima archetype in their psyches.
Exploring psyche and communion consciousness with story, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Norah Vincent's Novel ADELINE (2015) (REVIEW ESSAY) Anti-60s conservatives tend not to be as open to cultivating the communion dimension of their psyches as progressives and liberals are. In Virginia Woolf's famous novel TO THE LIGHTHOUSE (1928), she admirably expresses her sense of communion consciousness, as Norah Vincent perceptively shows in ADELINE: A NOVEL OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (2015).
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 15, 2014
Jung's View of Bottom-Up Change Rob Kall, the publisher of OEN, likes to work with the contrast of top-down versus bottom-up change. He favors bottom-up change in our American culture. In honor of his interest in bottom-up change in American culture, I thought I'd discuss C. G. Jung's view of bottom-up change in society.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 22, 2023
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on the Hebrew Bible (REVIEW ESSAY) The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (1948-2020; Ph.D., University of London) was a respected conservative English Jewish leader and a prolific public intellectual. The essay collection The Power of Ideas: Words of Faith and Wisdom (Hodder & Stoughton, 2021) brings together a wide-ranging sampling of 91 selections of his learned writings over the years 1981 to 2020, grouped into five chronologically arranged parts.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 9, 2023
The American Indian Paul Buffalo on Oral Storytelling (REVIEW ESSAY) In my OEN article "American Indian Hunter-Gatherer-Foragers of Minnesota" (dated November 27, 2022), I highlighted what the Medicine Doctor Paul Buffalo (c.1900-1977) says in his autobiography that was published in 2019 about listening at meetings. In the present essay, I now highlight what he says about listening to stories told by old Indians.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 4, 2011
Reflections on the Women-in-Science Debate John Tierney's article in the NEW YORK TIMES has reignited the debate about women in science. In separate articles Alison Gopnik and Shankar Vedantam have analyzed Tierney's article in light of other studies. I draw on Walter J. Ong's insights about male agonistic behavior to further analyze points they advance regarding competitiveness and confidence in one's intellectual abilities, which are hard to measure.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 15, 2018
The Great Shift and the Hebrew Bible (REVIEW ESSAY) The prolific biblical scholar James L. Kugel tries his hand in describing the great shift in our Western cultural history in his latest book The Great Shift: Encountering God in Biblical Times (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017). However, he does not happen to advert explicitly to the American Jesuit polymath Walter J. Ong's multi-dimensional description of the great shift.
From pomona.edu/news/2015/10/05-what%E2%80%99s-best-kind-college-professors-susan-mcwilliams-and-john-seery-offer-answer, From Images
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Susan McWilliams' Views of the 2016 Presidential Campaign and Aristotle's Views of Civic Rhetoric In an article at Commonweal Magazine, Susan McWilliams in political science at Pomona College sets forth her views of the 2016 presidential election. Even though she refers to certain points that Aristotle makes, she does not happen to advert explicitly to his famous treatise on civic rhetoric. But if we use his framework of thought about civic rhetoric, we can see her views of the 2016 campaign in a fresh light.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 6, 2023
Humanity, Technology, and American Society Today (REVIEW ESSAY) As a follow-up to my OEN article "Nathan Heller on 'The End of the English Major'" (dated March 3, 2023), I have now written "Humanity, Technology, and American Society Today." My follow-up essay is also my timely follow-up to Eric Schmidt's remarkable article "Innovation Power: Why Technology Will Define the Future of Geopolitics" in Foreign Affairs (published on February 28, 2023).
Alumnae Profiles  ? The Madeira School, From GoogleImages
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 24, 2016
Clara Bingham Revisits the 1969-1970 Year of Revolution (REVIEW ESSAY) In her informative new book WITNESS TO THE REVOLUTION: RADICALS, RESISTERS, VETS, HIPPIES, AND THE YEAR AMERICA LOST ITS MIND AND FOUND ITS SOUL, New York-based journalist Clara Bingham inter-cuts passages from numerous interviews she conducted with certain people who were involved in the tumultuous and still controversial events between August 1969 and September 1970. But her book could help ignite anti-60s conservatives.
Pope Francis Visits the United States Capitol, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 1, 2021
What Are Political Theologies of Sacred Rhetoric? (REVIEW ESSAY) What are political theologies of sacred rhetoric? Examples of political theologies of sacred rhetoric would include Pope Francis' widely read 2015 eco-encyclical and various speeches and writings of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Steven Mailloux has operationally defined and explained the expansive term political theologies of sacred rhetoric -- referring to religiously motivated political speech and activism.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 13, 2009
Bishop Tobin Is Un-American for Denouncing U.S. Rep. Kennedy In a public letter Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Rhode Island has denounced U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy for disagreeing with the Catholic Church's teaching against abortion. But this is not an infallible teaching, because it has not been promulgated as an infallible teaching. As a result, it can be questioned and challenged by American Catholics, including Re. Kennedy.
Herman Melville by Joseph O Eaton., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 6, 2021
Brian Higgins and Hershel Parker on Melville's Sensationalistic 1852 Novel (REVIEW ESSAY) The seasoned Melville scholars Brian Higgins and Hershel Parker teamed up to write Reading Melville's Pierre; or, The Ambiguities (Louisiana State University Press). Melville's sensationalistic 1852 novel Pierre features a deceased unfaithful husband (who resembles Melville's own deceased father), an incestuous mother-son relationship, and an incestuous brother-sister relationship (half-brother and half-sister).
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 22, 2015
A Reply to Young Ross Douthat's Ominous-Sounding Critique of Pope Francis The New York Times' young conservative columnist Ross Douthat (born in 1979) has published an ominous-sounding long article titled "Will Pope Francis Break the Church?" Young Douthat is apprehensive about the possibility that the old pope will somehow change one of the supposed certainties in the Roman Catholic Church. Actually the author focuses on only one possible specific change.
RonBrownstein., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 15, 2021
Certain Values of Activists in the 1960s Went Mainstream in the Early 1970s (REVIEW ESSAY) Ronald Brownstein's new 400-page 2021 book Rock Me on the Water: 1974: The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television, and Politics (New York: Harper) is a love song to Los Angeles in the early 1970s. But it is also a valentine to certain values of activists in the 1960s: "suspicion of authority, greater personal freedom, more respect for marginalized groups, and increased tolerance of differences" (page 389).
Ignatius Loyola., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 29, 2021
Some Reflections on Spiritual Exercises -- For Young Searchers I have some reflections to offer here for young searchers today who are searching for spiritual exercises that they might want to undertake. I will discuss the Spiritual Exercises of the Spanish Renaissance mystic St. Ignatius Loyola. But I will also consider spiritual exercises offered today by Jordan Peterson and by the late Michel Foucault.
Pope Francis Korea Haemi Castle 19., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Commemorating the Ten Years of Pope Francis' Papacy (REVIEW ESSAY) The late Pope Benedict XVI surprised the world by resigning in 2013. The cardinal-electors then surprised the world by electing the Argentine Jesuit Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires to be the new Pope Francis in March 2013. As the tenth anniversary of his election approaches, it is time to look back over some highlights of the doctrinally conservative Pope Francis' papacy thus far.
Donald Trump Marines April 2015, From WikimediaPhotos
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 7, 2016
Darcia Narvaez's 2014 Book and Donald J. Trump's 2016 Presidential Primary Campaign (REVIEW ESSAY) The anti-60s conservative counter-revolutionaries supporting the billionaire developer Donald J. Trump's presidential primary campaign are white male rage-aholics. They are on the wrong side of history. Unfortunately, it is not unthinkable that he could be elected to be President Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 11, 2010
Dallas Bishop Kevin J. Farrell's Views About Abortion Are Unreasonable After Southern Methodist University sent out the announcement that SMU Prof. Charles Curran would be presenting a public lecture critical of the U.S. Catholic bishops' challenges to abortion laws,Dallas Bishop Kevin J. Farrell (no relation) issued a detailed statement criticizing points in the announcement. But the bishop's stated views about abortion are unreasonable.
Envision Film - Susan Chira, Keynote Address Afternoon Keynote Address: Susan Chira, Foreign Editor, The New York Times., From YouTubeVideos
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 24, 2017
Why Aren't More Women C.E.O.s at Fortune 500 Companies? Writing in the New York Times, Susan Chira reports that just 6 percent of the chief executives of Fortune 500 companies are women. She asks, "Why don't more women get that No. 1 job?" To explore possible considerations, she interviewed nearly two dozen knowledgeable people, and she reports what they said. But I want to explore her report further.
James Joyce - Sep 1922 Shadowland., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 8, 2022
Fran O'Rourke on James Joyce (REVIEW ESSAY) The Irish philosopher Fran O'Rourke has just published the massively learned and massively researched new 2022 book Joyce, Aristotle, and Aquinas (University Press of Florida). In it, Fran O'Rourke writes with admirable lucidity -- so it is accessible for the first-time reader of James Joyce's experimental novel Ulysses and for Joyce specialists. Fran O'Rourke is professor emeritus in philosophy at University College Dublin.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 16, 2013
What's Wrong with the Cathoic Anti-Abortion Crusade? Peter Steinfels undertakes to reexamine the Catholic anti-abortion crusade in the U.S. He claims to hold that the unborn offspring of human beings constitutes an individual member of the human species that deserve the same protections from harm and destruction that are owed to born humans. But he recognizes that this position "is nowhere near as obvious as many of us who hold it suppose. So what does he propose?
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 14, 2014
Jung's Successful Vision Quest (REVIEW ESSAY) A successful vision quest enables a person to find a sense of meaning and direction in life. In the present review essay, I argue that C. G. Jung, M.D. (1875-1961), the Swiss psychiatrist and psychological theorist, in effect experienced a successful vision quest as a result of his self-experimentation in his mid-life crisis. But I do not recommend that others follow his example in his self-experimentation.
Speech, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 4, 2015
In Defense of Free Speech in the United States We Americans should renew our commitment to freedom of speech, including expressions of free speech that criticize and even mock religion, or certain aspects of a religion. I do not condone physical violence by religionists in the name of their religion. But I have no objection to non-violent protests by religionists whose sensibilities are offended by somebody else's exercise of free speech in the United States.
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Hillary, Misogyny, and 2016 If Hillary Rodham Clinton emerges as the Democratic candidate for president in 2016, her candidacy will drive conservatives crazy, and they will launch an unprecedented misogynistic campaign against her. To understand thie misogynistic tendencies, we need to understand Walter J. Ong's insight about how boys and men need to develop a specifically masculine sense of identity.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 8, 2014
Predicting the Near Future in Western Culture I do not have a crystal ball to gaze into to help me predict the near future of Western culture. However, despite this admitted handicap, I have gazed into Walter J. Ong's perceptive account of our Western cultural history. Based on his thought, I am now prepared to predict the near future of Western culture: the syncretistic spirit will probably continue to thrive in the near future in Western culture.
Ignatius Loyola., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 19, 2022
Markus Friedrich on Jesuit History (BOOK REVIEW) The German historian Markus Friedrich (born in 1974) of the University of Hamburg incisively surveys Jesuit history in his new 2022 book in English translation, The Jesuits: A History, translated by John Noel Dillon (Princeton University Press; orig. German ed., 2016). It is a well-informed, well-documented, fast-paced, and readable book.
Desert Landscape, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 21, 2020
Thomas Cahill on The Gifts of the Jews (REVIEW ESSAY) Thomas Cahill's book The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (Talese/ Doubleday, 1998) enables us to see clearly that not everyone in our contemporary American culture today thinks and feels in the ways that Cahill credits the ancient Israelites with teaching us to think and feel. For example, President Donald ("Tweety") Trump doesn't.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 28, 2018
The Pope's Service to American Liberals and Progressives (REVIEW ESSAY) Pope Francis has heard the cry of the poor. In the spirit of the ancient Hebrew prophet Amos, the pope has pointedly criticized economic inequality. American liberals and progressives engaged in fighting the good fight against economic libertarians such as the Koch brothers can borrow from the pope's well-developed thought. His thought is succinctly sketched in the new book A Pope Francis Lexicon (Liturgical Press, 2018).
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 29, 2016
Three Cheers for Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette's 1990 Book: Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! (REVIEW ESSAY) OEN's Rob Kall is interested in charming psychopaths. One way to understand charming psychopaths is to recognize that they are manifesting certain "shadow" forms of the archetypes that Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette ably discuss in their accessible short 1990 book about the four masculine archetypes of maturity. Of course women may also be charming psychopaths, who are manifesting "shadow" forms of the feminine archetypes.
Camille Paglia no Fronteiras do Pensamento So Paulo 2015, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 7, 2017
Revisiting and Questioning Trump's Boasting to Billy Bush in 2005 On October 8, 2016, the Washington Post released unaired footage of Donald Trump, the Republican Party's 2016 presidential candidate, speaking in 2005 with Billy Bush of "Access Hollywood." Today an advocacy group is playing that videotape in front of the Washington Monument. First, I want to discuss Camille Paglia's recent comments about Hugh Hefner and Trump in the "Hollywood Reporter." Then I want to raise some questions.
Donald Trump, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 5, 2020
Front Row at the Trump Show (REVIEW ESSAY) When Jonathan Karl (born on January 19, 1968) was ten years old, his mother and stepfather pulled him out of school in Connecticut and relocated the family in a motel in Hill City, South Dakota. From there, his stepfather and mother set out to interview men who had worked for Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941) on Mount Rushmore. Their 1985 book is the definitive biography of Borglum. Their work inspired Karl to become a journalist.
Persone LGBT e media nell'era dei diritti - LGBTs in the media, From FlickrPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 18, 2019
Are Homophobic Vatican Clerics Secretly Homosexual? In a criminal trial in a court of law, the jury needs to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty as charged in order to convict him or her. But what about the court of public opinion? I want to set forth here a line of argument to persuade you to have reasonable doubt about Frederic Martel's claim that certain homophobic Vatican clerics are secretly homosexual.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 26, 2018
What Did Pope Francis Know About Cardinal McCarrick -- And When Did He Know It? Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the Vatican's top diplomat in the U.S. between 2011 and 2016, has posted a 7,000-word open letter online in Italian, which has been translated into English at the conservative American Catholic website LifeSite News. Vigano is a traditionalist Catholic. He is deeply critical of Pope Francis about how the case of the Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, now disgraced former archbishop of Washington, D.C.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 1, 2021
Walter J. Ong's Account of Big History (REVIEW ESSAY) Big History is in the new at the New York Times dated October 31, 2021. Consequently, it strikes me as a good time to review Walter J. Ong's still timely account of Big History.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 2, 2012
Walter J. Ong's Suggestion for a Spirituality for Our Times In the 1950s, Walter J. Ong, S.J. (1912-2003), suggested a way for his fellow Americans Catholics to develop a mystquique, or spirituality, for living in the modern world. But it strikes me that not just American Catholics today but also non-Catholic Americans of religious faith could adopt Ong's suggestion in their own lives.
General Audience with Pope Francis, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 9, 2021
What Makes Pope Francis Tick? (REVIEW ESSAY) Because Pope Francis' 2015 eco-encyclical has been widely read, some people may wonder what makes the first Jesuit pope tick, so to speak. Fortunately, before the Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope in March 2013, he himself explained his religious beliefs that make him tick in a preached retreat that he gave to his brother bishops of Spain. A record in English of his presentations has been published.
Josiah Royce., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 31, 2023
Josiah Royce and St. Ignatius Loyola (REVIEW ESSAY) July 31st is the feast day of the Spanish mystic St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), the founder of the Jesuit order and the author of the famous Spiritual Exercises. The "Contemplation to Attain Love" in the Spiritual Exercises (paragraphs 230-237) can be connected with what Harvard's philosopher Josiah Royce (1855-1916; Ph.D. in philosophy, Johns Hopkins University, 1878) says in his 1913 book in the philosophy of religion.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 24, 2013
Democrats Should Advocate Trickle-Up Economics (REVIEW ESSAY) Joan Walsh's book WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH WHITE PEOPLE is a substantial call to arms for the Democratic party. Her book is structured as a chronological memoir about politics in her family's life, with occasional historical flashbacks to discuss earlier political events. Like her father, she is a Democrat. She has many family relations who are white working class, but not Democrats, as she would prefer to see them to be.
awe, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 26, 2015
The Awe Spectrum: A Reply to Rob Kall's "Awe is a Bottom-up Experience" Rob Kall, the founder and publisher of OpEdNews.com and the host of a radio talk show, published the article "Awe is a Bottom-up Experience" on May 24, 2015. In reply, I want to suggest that we should think of the awe spectrum. At one end of the awe spectrum, there are people who are incapable of experiencing awe. However, not all people who are capable of experiencing awe are also capable of drawing fruit for their experience
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 23, 2023
Thomas D. Zlatic on Walter J. Ong, S.J. (REVIEW ESSAY) Thomas D. Zlatic has published a beautiful essay about the thought of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955): "The Articulate Self in a Particulate World: The Ins and Outs of Ong" in the book Language, Culture, and Identity: The Legacy of Walter J. Ong, S.J. (Hampton Press, 2011, pp. 7-29).
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 20, 2023
Ross Douthat on "What It Means to Be Woke" (REVIEW ESSAY) The self-styled conservative columnist Ross Douthat published his column titled "What It Means to Be Woke" (dated March 18, 2023) in the New York Times. In it, he profiles the American left today. But I prefer to use the mature work of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) to profile the American right today.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 24, 2017
Feeling Enraged and Practicing Non-Violence (REVIEW ESSAY) The classicist Emily Katz Anhalt of Sarah Lawrence College has published a remarkably accessible new book titled Enraged (Yale University Press, 2017). Taking a hint from her discussion of violence, I want to discuss feeling enraged in connection with non-violent political protest and certain related matters, including former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 7, 2014
The Roman Catholic Bishops Need to Be Exorcised -- and Thereby Freed from Their "Shadow" Spirits Can our American experiment in representative democracy long endure the religious zealotry of the Roman Catholic bishops? They represent pre-modern views that are at odds with modern America. Garry Wills, a practicing Catholic, has not been able to dispatch the hard-charging bishops. Arguably only an efficacious exorcist could exorcise them and thereby liberate them from their "shadow" spirits and their pre-modern views.
Martin Luther King%2C Jr.., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Louis Menand on Cold War Culture and Politics (REVIEW ESSAY) Harvard's fashionable scholar Louis Menand's new book The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2021) is an accessible tour de force that is overflowing with colorful portrayals of persons in the twentieth century.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 14, 2021
Macey Perceptively Aligns Foucault with Nietzsche (REVIEW ESSAY) Recently, I read the 2021 English translation of Michel Foucault's posthumously published book Confessions of the Flesh. More recently, I turned to David Macey's book The Lives of Michel Foucault to enhance my understanding of Foucault's thought. In it, Macey perceptively aligns Foucault with Nietzsche. But neither Macey nor Foucault happens to advert explicitly to the relevant work of the American Jesuit Walter J. Ong.
Herman Melville by Joseph O Eaton., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 27, 2021
Perry Miller on Antebellum America (REVIEW ESSAY) In my numerous OEN articles about Melville, I have discussed various secondary sources. In the present review essay about Melville, I discuss two books by Harvard's Americanist Perry Miller (1905-1963): (1) his 1956 book The Raven and the Whale; and (2) his 1965 posthumously published book The Life of the Mind in America: From the Revolution to the Civil War: Books One Through Three, edited by Elizabeth W. Miller.
pope-francis-1a, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 22, 2023
Sister Tracey Horan on Pope Francis (REVIEW ESSAY) The synod on synodality is underway at the Vatican. Pope Francis is the prime mover behind the process of synodality today. Sister Tracey Horan reflects on Pope Francis and snyodality in her provocative article "Can the church change? It's all about the collective." As she operationally defines and explains what she means by the collective, it resembles what Rob Kall means by bottom-up change, versus top-down change.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 28, 2014
Jung's Thought and the Age of Aquarius C. G. Jung, M.D. (1875-1961), the Swiss psychiatrist and psychological theorist, contributed his two-cents worth of ideas to the discussion of the possible Age of Aquarius. This tidbit of information is interesting in and of itself. But how is the possible Age of Aquarius connected with Jung's thought about the individuation process? And where does bottom-up change come into the discussion?
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 15, 2016
The American Catholic Law Professor M. Cathleen Kaveny Addresses Our Culture Wars (REVIEW ESSAY) Many non-Catholic progressives and liberals may understandably be weary of conservative American Catholic cultural warriors. The American Catholic law professor M. Cathleen Kaveny addresses our contemporary American culture wars in her new book PROPHECY WITHOUT CONTEMPT: RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE. Ironically, it has come out at a time when Donald J. Trump is freely expressing contempt in the public square.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 12, 2021
Highlights of My 496 OEN Articles (REVIEW ESSAY) In my recent OEN review essay "My 95 Documents Online" (dated November 2, 2021), I highlighted certain documents that I have published online over the years through the University of Minnesota's digital conservancy. In the present review essay, I highlight certain OEN articles that I have published over the years, starting with my first two OEN articles in 2009.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 27, 2023
Vittorio Montemaggi on Dante's "Commedia" (REVIEW ESSAY) The Italian-born Cambridge-University-educated Dante specialist Vittorio Montemaggi published the book Reading Dante's "Commedia" as Theology: Divinity Realized as Human Encounter (Oxford University Press, 2016). It serves as a handy counterpoint to Warwick Wadlington's book Reading Faulknerian Tragedy (Cornell University Press, 1987). Dantean comedy versus Faulknerian tragedy.
Donald Trump Laconia Rally%2C Laconia%2C NH 4 by Michael Vadon July 16 2015 19., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 6, 2020
Harold Bloom (Ph.D. in English, Yale, 1955) v. Walter J. Ong (Ph.D. in English, Harvard, 1955) In my 8,350-word review essay, I review the life and work of Harold Bloom (1930-2019) and Walter J. Ong (1912-2003). I focus on Bloom's 1992 book The American Religion, which I criticize. I argue that Americans today who are looking for guidance in their self-fashioning should look at Ong's work about our Western cultural history.
Pope Francis, From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Pope Francis Versus American Catholic Theocons? Pope Francis is doctrinally and temperamentally conservative. But he may be a wee bit less conservative than the American Catholic theocons that Damon Linker describes in his book THE THEOCONS: SECULAR AMERICA UNDER SIEGE (2006). Unsurprisingly, the pope's 2015 eco-encyclical challenges many American Catholic theocons -- and other American conservatives. The pope's thinking was deeply influenced by Romano Guardini.
Martin Luther King%2C Jr.., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 29, 2023
Josiah Royce on the Beloved Community (REVIEW ESSAY) The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968; Ph.D. in theology, Boston University, 1955) popularized the expression the Beloved Community. But Harvard's philosopher Josiah Royce (1855-1916; Ph.D. in philosophy, Johns Hopkins University, 1878) used the expression the Beloved Community in his 1913 book The Problem of Christianity (Macmillan; expanded edition published by the Catholic University of America Press, 2001).
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 25, 2015
Progressives and Liberals Should Be Wary of Pope Francis (BOOK REVIEW) Pope Francis is a charismatic sweet-talker. But American progressives and liberals should be wary of his charismatic talk. In his well-researched biography of Pope Francis, Austen Ivereigh shows that the charismatic pope's thought-world is deeply conservative. He represents the pre-modern thought-world of medieval European Christendom. Conservative American Catholics will be delighted when they read Ivereigh's book.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 6, 2014
For the Pursuit of Happiness, Try a Daily Dose of Non-Judgmental Awareness Each Fourth of July, we Americans celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence -- with its memorable words about "the pursuit of happiness." But we can be happy in a healthy way only after our Inner Child's archetypal wounding has been healed by archetypal healing. But how might we undertake such archetypal healing? Anthony de Mello suggests that we should try a daily dose of non-judgmental awareness about our day.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 27, 2012
The 100th Anniversary of Walter J. Ong's Birth This Friday, November 30, 2012, will be the 100th anniversary of the birth of the American cultural historian and theorist Walter J. Ong, S.J. (1912-2003). His work deserves to be more widely known today than it is, because he can help us get our cultural bearings. He has developed a perceptive way to think about our Western cultural history by taking into account certain subtle factors in Western cultural conditioning.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Pope Francis Still Not Responding to Accusations of McCarrick Coverup As I write, Pope Francis still has not responded to Archbishop Carlo Vigano's accusations of a cover-up by the pope and other church authorities about disgraced American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick's sexual abuse of young men (i.e., not minors). The pope does not want to dignify his accusations with a response. At time, it may be fitting not to respond to accusations. But the pope should respond about McCarrick.
Frederic Martel, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 25, 2019
Perceptive Book About Gay Vatican Clerics (BOOK REVIEW) The openly gay French sociologist and journalist Frederic Martel (born in 1967) perceptively explains gay Vatican clerics in his new book In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy, translated by Shaun Whiteside (London, Oxford, New York, New Delhi, Sydney: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2019). Pope Francis has figured out that certain Vatican clerics are hypocrites. But even he could learn a lot from this new book.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 11, 2014
Girls and Women Should NOT Be the Gold Standard for Judging Boys and Men Lisa Wade has published "American men's hidden crisis: They need more friends" at Salon Magazine. In effect, she uses girls and women as the gold standard for judging boys and men. Let us give girls and women credit where credit is due. However, with all due respect for girls and women, I want to argue that boys and men need to develop a distinctively masculine sense of identity -- instead of trying to be like girls and women.
Herman Melville by Joseph O Eaton., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 13, 2021
Sizing Up Melville for the 21st Century (REVIEW ESSAY) The 2018 third edition of the Norton Critical Edition of Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick is edited by the indefatigable Melville scholar and biographer Hershel Parker for 21st-century readers. Parker's five selections, headnotes, and footnotes in it help us size up Melville for the 21st century. Through my admittedly modest discussion here, I aim to add to Parker's far more ambitious efforts to size up Melville.
Marshall McLuhan - pix 04, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Beatrice Bruteau (1979) on Marshall McLuhan (1964) (REVIEW ESSAY) The late American philosopher and Catholic convert Beatrice Brutreau (1930-2014; Ph.D. in philosophy, Fordham University, 1954) perceptively discusses the late Canadian media theorist and Catholic convert Marshall McLuhan's 1964 book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (McGraw-Hill) in her 1979 book The Psychic Grid: How We Create the World We Know (Quest Books/ Theosophical Publishing House). I here highlight her book.
John T. McGreevy // Faculty // Department of History // University ..., From GoogleImages
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 7, 2016
John T. McGreevy's Account of Jesuit Globalization (REVIEW ESSAY) Pope Francis is the first Jesuit pope -- and the first pope from South America (Argentina). Centuries before he was born, Jesuit missionaries were active in South America. Certain Jesuit missionaries in South America are commemorated in the 1986 movie "The Mission." John T. McGreevy in history at the University of Notre Dame, which is not a Jesuit university, recounts the Jesuit spirit of globalization from 1814 onward.
Martin Buber portrait., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 13, 2021
Rabbi Dennis S. Ross on Martin Buber (REVIEW ESSAY) Rabbi Dennis S. Ross (born in 1953) has just published an admirably accessible book about the life and thought of Martin Buber (1878-1965) titled A Year with Martin Buber: Wisdom on the Weekly Torah Portion (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society; Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2021).
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 24, 2018
Some Reflections on Jesuit Higher Education The Rev. Michael C. McCarthy, S.J., an administrator at Fordham University, the Jesuit university in New York City, has published some reflections on Jesuit higher education in the Jesuit-sponsored magazine America. However, Fr. McCarthy fails to include the study of Catholic philosophy as a key component of Jesuit higher education. But without this, Jesuit higher education could degenerate into mere sophistry.
Ioannes XXIII%2C by De Agostini%2C 1958%E2%80%931963., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 3, 2021
An Easter Meditation on Pope John XXIII (REVIEW ESSAY) My Easter meditation is about the overweight Pope John XXIII (1881-1963; elected pope in 1958), the pope of my Catholic youth (my four high school years and my first year in college -- in Catholic educational institutions). Pope John XXIII was the pope during the scary Cuban missile crisis October 14-28, 1962. He also called and then convened the momentous Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) in the Roman Catholic Church.
Catholic Bishops, From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 9, 2013
In the Court of Public Opinion: ACLU vs. USCCB On behalf of a Michigan woman, Tamesha Means, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops regarding the ethical directives for Catholic health care services. The New York Times Editorial Board supports the ACLU's claims in the lawsuit. A lawsuit against the hospital involved appears to be in order, but the ACLU lawsuit against the USCCB is a publicity stunt.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 1, 2014
C. G. Jung Foresaw the Future (BOOK REVIEW) In his lengthy commentary on Friedrich Nietzsche's puzzling book THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA, the Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung, M.D., foresaw the future: psychological and spiritual individuation for more and more persons. However, because his commentary runs to more than 1,600 pages in length, I will undertake here to explain succinctly what I consider to be the most important points that he makes.
Perry Miller, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 4, 2021
Perry Miller's Excitements (REVIEW ESSAY) Harvard's Americanist Perry Miller (1905-1963) felt called to study American Puritan thought. I highlight his findings in the posthumously published essay collection The Responsibility of Mind in a Civilization of Machines, edited by John Crowell and Stanford J. Searls, Jr. (University of Massachusetts Press, 1979). I also highlight relevant points in the thought of Walter J. Ong, S.J., who studied under Perry Miller.
pope-francis-1a, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 28, 2022
Anthony M. Annett on Cathonomics (REVIEW ESSAY) What a valuable ally Pope Francis now has in Anthony M. Annett (Ph.D. in macroeconomics and political economy, Columbia University)! In his accessible new 2022 book Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy (Georgetown University Press), Annett examines Catholic social teaching, gleaning ten principles (pp. 42-63) and then expounding ten practical global macroeconomic solutions (pp. 283-284).
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 18, 2021
Yale's Bryan Garsten in Defense of Rhetoric (REVIEW ESSAY) Yale's political scientist Bryan Garsten published the guest op-ed essay "How to Protect America From the Next Donald Trump" in the New York Times (dated Nov. 9, 2020). At the end of it, he is identified as the author of the 2006 book Saving Persuasion: A Defense of Rhetoric and Judgment (Harvard University Press). So I decided to take a look at his 2006 book.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 6, 2014
Yikes! Yuval Levin is Resurrecting Edmund Burke (BOOK REVIEW) As a result of the 2012 election results, the Republicans have been in disarray. But in his new book Yuval Levin sets out to help his fellow conservatives feel good about being conservatives by presenting them with a detailed study of Edmund Burke's conservative political views -- just in time for the 2014 mid-term elections. Progressives and liberals should keep an eye on Levin's book.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 19, 2010
American Exceptionalism: GOP Presidential Hopefuls Versus President Obama The GOP presidentials hopefuls criticize one sentence of President Obama's view of American exceptionalism. But the view that he articulates in his full 300-word statement is realistic. However, the GOP presidential hopefuls seem to want to return to the heady triumphalism regarding American exceptionalism that has long characterized movement conservatism.
Monica Lewinsky 2014 IDA Awards (cropped), From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 24, 2016
Bill Clinton's Sexual Recklessness and the 2016 Election (REVIEW ESSAY) Progressive and liberal young women and men will learn more about President Bill Clinton's sexual recklessness with the young White House intern Monica Lewinsky by reading Gil Troy's accessible new book THE AGE OF CLINTON: AMERICA IN THE 1990S (2015). To be sure, President Clinton's sexual relationship with her was consensual. Nevertheless, Hillary Clinton carries baggage from the past that Bernie Sanders doesn't carry.
Pope Francis Visits the United States Capitol, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 25, 2021
John Cornwell on Pope Francis' Papacy and Its Controversies (REVIEW ESSAY) The seasoned English Vatican journalist John Cornwell (born in 1940) has just published an incisive and admirably accessible 300-page book about Pope Francis' papacy and its controversies titled Church, Interrupted: Havoc & Hope: The Tender Revolt of Pope Francis (San Francisco: Chronicle Prism, 2021). One of its many strengths is that Cornwell includes sharply worded commentaries by both conservative and liberal Catholics.
Herman Melville by Joseph O Eaton., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Take, and Read, Young Men! (REVIEW ESSAY) Young men today in search of meaning and direction in their lives are living in a proverbial waste land. But what can they do to find meaning and direction? The American poet Herman Melville (1819-1891)offers young men today sharply sketched possibilities for their lives in his long centennial poem Clarel (1876).
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 7, 2011
Mayor Bloomberg's Bold New Initiative Is Magnanimous Michael J. Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York City, has undertaken a bold new initiative to try to assist about 315,000 black and Latino young men in the city. Mayor Bloomberg is providing a substantial amount of funding for the initiative from his own personal fortune. For the initiative to be effective, the young men will have to be willing to pull themselves up from their bootstraps. They will need courage to do this.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 10, 2021
Hershel Parker Is the King of Melville Biography (REVIEW ESSAY) With the book Melville Biography: An Inside Narrative (Northwestern University Press, 2012), the prolific scholar and Melville biographer Hershel Parker (born in 1935; Ph.D. in English, Northwestern University, 1963) establishes beyond a shadow of doubt that he is indeed truly King of Melville Biography.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 22, 2010
Reflections on James T. Kloppenberg's READING OBAMA: DREAMS, HOPE, AND THE AMERICAN POLITICAL TRADITION In his new book about President Obama, James T. Kloppenberg deepens our understanding of Obama by situating him in the American tradition of political thought. But Obama's relative inarticulateness regarding abortion emerges in stark relief in this book. He needs to learn how to set forth a reasoned position regarding when specifically human life begins.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 21, 2018
No More Catholic U.S. Presidents Likely? No U.S. Pope Likely? (BOOK REVIEW) In the book In Rome We Trust: The Rise of Catholics in American Political Life (Stanford University Press, 2017), Manlio Graziano argues that no more Catholic U.S. presidents are likely. In addition, he argues that no U.S. pope is likely. Both of these arguments emerge from his carefully contextualized study of Catholics in American cultural history, and from his deep knowledge of popes and papal documents.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 13, 2013
Sandy Hook massacre: (1) plot to incite gun control, (2) plot to heighten right-wing paranoia, or (3) no plot? In a provocative op-ed piece about the Sandy Hook massacre, Jim Fetzer argues that Adam Lanza, 20, was not likely the shooter. Instead, the real culprits killed him and his mother beforehand, and then placed his body in the school. Fetzer conjectures that the real culprits were part of a plot to incite gun control measures. But I think that the real culprits wanted to heighten right-wing paranoia instead.
Charles darwin, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Agnostic Stephen T. Asma's Darwinian Defense of Religion (REVIEW ESSAY) Stephen T. Asma, professor of philosophy at Columbia College Chicago, describes himself as an agnostic. But he has undertaken a respectful Darwinian account of religion in his new book Why We Need Religion (Oxford University Press, 2018). I was able to understand his account because I could readily related certain points in Walter J. Ong's thought to Asma's thought. Asma's book is a serious study that deserves to be read.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 23, 2022
Eric McLuhan on Menippean Satire (REVIEW ESSAY) The late American-born James Joyce specialist and media ecology theorist Dr. Eric McLuhan (1942-2018; Ph.D. in English, University of Dallas, 1984) published two noteworthy books about Menippean satire: (1) The Role of Thunder in [Joyce's] Finnegans Wake (University of Toronto Press, 1997) and (2) Cynic Satire (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2015). I discuss them in the context of the work of Walter J. Ong and Marshall McLuhan.
Dr. Paula Fredriksen Interview Paul and Paula Dr. David Hulme interviews Dr. Paula Fredriksen., From YouTubeVideos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Contextualizing the Apostle Paul (REVIEW ESSAY) The conservative columnist Ross Douthat published a column titled "The Return of Paganism" in the New York Times (dated December 12, 2018). But the biblical scholar Paula Fredriksen contextualizes the Apostle Paul in the context of first-century paganism in her timely book Paul: The Pagans' Apostle (Yale University Press, 2017). From what she says about first-century paganism, it does not seem to me that paganism is returning.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 26, 2014
We Are Still Living with LBJ's Legacy (REVIEW ESSAY) In his new book LBJ: FROM MASTERMIND TO "THE COLOSSUS" (2014), Philip F. Nelson caries forward his examination of Lyndon Baines Johnson that he initiated in his earlier book LBJ: THE MASTERMIND OF THE JFK ASSASSINATION (2011). The large cast of characters in both books, including relatively unknown persons, makes them hard to follow. Nevertheless, Nelson's claim that we Americans are still living with LBJ's legacy is correct.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 14, 2015
Cardinal Rodriguez Criticizes the Pope's American Critics In the spirit of the Hebrew prophet Amos, Cardinal Rodriguez of Honduras fired back at the American conservatives who have criticized Pope Francis for issuing an encyclical about the environment. But is it really surprising that the first pope to take the name "Francis" to honor St. Francis of Assisi, who could be considered to be the patron saint of environmentalists, is going to issue an encyclical about the environment?
Herman Melville by Joseph O Eaton., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 1, 2021
Hershel Parker on the Making of Melville the Poet (REVIEW ESSAY) The American Melville scholar Hershel Parker (born in 1935) published a massive two-volume biography of the American novelist and poet Herman Melville (1819-1891). Subsequently, Parker further researched Melville's life and work and then published the book Melville: The Making of the Poet. In it, Parker discusses certain aspects of Melville's life that I can connect with Walter J. Ong's discussion of residual orality.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 27, 2010
A Reply to the New Vatican Document about "New Age" Spirituality The male chauvinists in the Vatican are once again up to no good in the new Vatican document about "New Age" spirituality. The male chauvinists in the Vatican try to rally conservative Roman Catholics to continue to believe the myths of orthodox Christianity because the male chauvinists in the Vatican want conservative Catholics to continue to support them in the lifestyle they've grown accustomed to.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 11, 2013
White Supremacy + Male Chauvinism = Conservative White Males Progressives and liberals need to get clear about what they are up against in the cultural wars with conservative white males: A potent mixture of historically conditioned white supremacy and male chauvinism. In short, the character Thomas Sutpen in Faulkner's novel ABSALOM, ABSALOM! is a symbolic representation of today's conservative white males. But how can we hope to overcome white supremacy and male chauvinism?
Donald Trump, From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 29, 2015
Donald Trump's antics are not amusing At times, progressives and liberals may be amused by Donald Trump's antics as a candidate for the Republican Party's presidential nomination. His antics include boasting about himself and insulting his opponents and others. Those antics are not attractive. He is a RINO. His antics may shake up the movement conservatives who have long dominated the Republican Party. But he's not likely to emerge as the Republican candidate.
President John F. Kennedy, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 28, 2020
Fredrik Logevall's New Book About JFK, 1917-1956 (REVIEW ESSAY) Swedish-born Harvard historian Fredrik Logevall has published a new biography about the life and times of President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) titled JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956 (Random House, 2020). Logevall's book is not without merit. After the onslaught of President Donald ("Tweety") Trump for more than four years now, the years 1917-1956 seem almost pre-historic. but refreshing to read about.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 3, 2012
Mitt Romney versus Walter Ong on What's Important in Our Western Cultural Heritage Mitt Romney believes in political freedom and economic freedom. So do I. These two kinds of freedom are as American as apple pie. If President Obama does not believe in these two kinds of freedom, he must be un-American. But Walter Ong's body of work about Western cultural history helps us understand how cultural conditioned our American political freedom and economic freedom are.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 8, 2021
On Conceptual Polarity and a Personalistic Orientation (REVIEW ESSAY) Two New York Times columnists have prompted me to write this learned commentary about conceptual polarity and either/or thinking: (1) Thomas B. Edsall's lengthy column "Trump True Believers Have Their Reasons" (dated Oct. 6, 2021); and (2) David Brooks' column "Here's the Mind-Set That's Tearing Us Apart" (dated Oct. 7, 2021).
From flickr.com/photos/88876166@N00/21581179719/: Bernie Sanders for President, From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 23, 2016
Disaffected White Men Many disaffected white men have supported Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the Democratic presidential primaries, just as certain other disaffected white men have supported the billionaire developer Donald Trump of New York in the Republican presidential primaries. Writing in the New York Times Book Review, the white novelist Mary Gordon inadvertently provides us with a hint about why so many white men are disaffected.
Herman Melville by Joseph O Eaton., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 22, 2021
Laurie Robertson-Lorant on Melville (REVIEW ESSAY) Laurie Robertson-Lorant's 700-page Melville: A Biography provides a handy one-volume biography of the American novelist and poet Herman Melville (1819-1891). Because I have discussed Melville's 1876 18,000-line centennial poem Clarel in two previous OEN articles, I will highlight Robertson-Lorant's discussion of Melville's long poem in the present review essay.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 1, 2023
Walter Ong (1912-2003) on Peter Ramus (1515-1572) (REVIEW ESSAY) My favorite scholar is the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955). With the financial assistance of two Guggenheim Fellowships, he undertook a massive doctoral dissertation on the French Renaissance logician and educational reformer and Protestant martyr Peter Ramus (1515-1572) -- which I examine.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 28, 2015
A Reply to Rob Kall's Comment In response to something Rob Kall said in an email message, I wrote a piece titled "On Ong's Thought and Capitalism: An Essay for Rob Kall" and published it at OEN (dated 7/21/2015). Today Rob Kall posted a comment on that piece. Rather than try to use the reply feature, I have chosen to write this new piece as a reply to his comment.
Herman Melville by Joseph O Eaton., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 17, 2021
Mary K. Bercaw Edwards on Melville (REVIEW ESSAY) Mary K. Bercaw Edwards surveys Melville's printed sources in her 1987 book Melville's Sources (Northwestern University Press). Next, she discusses his oral sources in her 2009 book Cannibal Old Me: Spoken Sources in Melville's Early Works (Kent State University Press). In her 2021 book Sailor Talk: Labor, Utterance, and Meaning in the Works of Melville, Conrad, and London (Liverpool University Press), she revisits Melville.
Pope Francis with Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner 4., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 4, 2020
Pope Francis' Let Us Dream (REVIEW ESSAY) If we consider Pope Francis to be a public intellectual on the world stage today, then his wonderfully accessible new book Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future (Simon & Schuster, 2020) should interest Rob Kall and others who share the pope's concern about top-down patterns of exploitation of the poor. Pope Francis urges us to use the Covid-19 worldwide pandemic as a wake-up call to undertake the path he explains.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 24, 2011
In Defense of Invective and Name-Calling (Against Rob Kall) In his February 19th editorial "How Angry Are You? Time To Channel and Say It Smartly," the estimable Rob Kall said, among other things, "We can't waste our time . . . calling right wingers names. . . . We must not call names." In response, I say that name-calling is OK, provided that it is not just vulgarities. Conservatives are crackpots, so we should denounce them for being crackpots.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 11, 2011
Good American Citizens Should Be Noble, Not Ignoble Like Anti-Government Republicans (Review Essay) President Ronald Reagan said that American government is the problem. But I say that Reagan and anti-government Republicans are the problem. Because they are anti-government, they are not fit to govern. Americans should find virtuous and noble Americans to govern. Our American government is for the common good. Thus government is good and necessary. But where are the virtuous and noble Americans we need in government?
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 6, 2012
Many Americans May Be Like Young George W. Bush Many Americans may be like young George W. Bush, who he did not learn how to mourn in a healthy way. As a result, we have probably not mourned losses later in life in a healthy way. When this happens, a backlog of unresolved (uncompleted) mourning builds up in our psyches. But the onset of complicated bereavement (aka complicated grief and complicated mourning) may give us a second chance to complete some unresolved mourning.
Inglehart Values Map.svg., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 12, 2021
Pollster Ronald F. Inglehart on the Recent Decline in Religion (REVIEW ESSAY) The American pollster Ronald F. Inglehart celebrates the decline in religion in his new 2021 book Religion's Sudden Decline: What's Causing It, and What Comes Next? (Oxford University Press). By religion's sudden decline, he means the decline in polling indexes between 2007 and 2020 -- the year in which the coronavirus pandemic emerged. But between 1981 and 2007, most countries polled in the indexes had become more religious.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 31, 2021
Childhood Memories: A Fourfold Heuristic Exercise In my OEN article "Dr. Albert Rothenberg on Creativity" (dated October 29, 2021), I discuss his 1988 book The Creative Process in Psychotherapy (New York: W. W. Norton). In it, he discusses the important role of articulation in psychotherapy. In the present essay, I discuss a memorable fourfold heuristic exercise that a psychotherapist once had me do about some of my childhood memories. OEN readers might want to try it.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 10, 2014
Jay Sherry Sees Jung as an Avant-Garde Conservative (BOOK REVIEW) As we weigh Martin Heidegger's anti-Semitism, we might find it informative to consider Jay Sherry's deeply researched account of C. G. Jung's anti-Semitism. Sherry ably situates this aspect of Jung's thought in the broader intellectual context of anti-Semitism in German intellectual history. In doing so, Sherry enables us to see Jung's break with Freud in a fresh light.
James Joyce - Sep 1922 Shadowland., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 3, 2022
Have You Read James Joyce's Novel Ulysses? (REVIEW ESSAY) The centenary of the 1922 publication of the Irish novelist James Joyce's experimental novel Ulysses is upon us. To commemorate the occasion of its publication, I thought I'd set forth here a few guides for any OEN readers who may undertake to read it for the first time.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Archetypes and the Fully Functioning Person Robert L. Moore, the Jungian theorist at the Chicago Theological Seminary, claims that each human person comes equipped with four feminine archetypes of maturity and four masculine archetypes of maturity in her or his psyche. Therefore, the fully functioning person is one who draws on the optimal forms of all eight archetypes of maturity. But it is not easy to learn how to do this. So I will discuss how this process works.
Donald Trump, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 1, 2020
The Paranoid Style in American Politics (REVIEW ESSAY) President Donald ("Tweety") Trump is the most prominent practitioner today of the deliberately divisive paranoid style of Us versus Them. But if Americans of goodwill today want to aoid succumbing to the paranoid style in American politics, what can they do to counter it in their own minds? Coleridge suggests how we can do this. I hasten to add that he does not offer a foolproof plan. But it's a plan worth considering.
Pope Francis Korea Haemi Castle 19., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 11, 2022
Anna Rowlands on Catholic Social Teaching (REVIEW ESSAY) The young English Catholic religion scholar Anna Rowlands of Durham University has published the new 2021 book Towards a Politics of Communion: Catholic Social Teaching in Dark Times (T&T Clark). Even though OEN readers may be familiar with the term Catholic social teaching (CST), they may be impressed by Rowlands' meticulous and incisive discussion of the theological principles of CST.
The Cost of Inequality, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 15, 2021
Rutger Bregman's Hopeful Evolutionary History of Humankind (REVIEW ESSAY) If you like truth in advertising, you should like the English title of the Dutch journalist Rutger Bregman's book Humankind: A Hopeful History, translated by Elizabeth Manton and Erica Moore (New York, Boston, London: Little, Brown, 2020; orig. Dutch ed., 2019). Starting with our pre-historic hunter-gatherer nomad ancestors, he constructs a hopeful evolutionary history of our human species, which I highlight here.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 10, 2012
Contraception and the Mal-formed Consciences of Conservative Catholic Bishops The conservative Catholic bishops are denouncing the Obama administration's contraceptive mandate. President Obama will probably cave in to the bishops' pressure for an expanded exemption from the contraception mandate. But he shouldn't. Instead, morally upright Americans should denounce the conservative Catholic bishops and their mal-formed consciences that we saw in the priest-sex-abuse scandal and cover up.
T.S. Eliot%2C 1923.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 4, 2022
A 1922 Poem That Is Still Worth Reading in 2022! (REVIEW ESSAY) The American-born Nobel Prize winning poet Thomas Stearns Eliot's famous 1922 poem "The Waste Land" is still worth reading in 2022. Fortunately, the new 2022 Second Norton Critical Edition titled T. S. Eliot: "The Waste Land" and Other Poems (W. W. Norton & Company) makes Eliot's 1922 poem available in a reasonably priced paperback edition. But I need to tell you how to read Eliot's 1922 poem.
Pope Francis Korea Haemi Castle 19., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 9, 2023
Pope Francis on the Joy of Love (REVIEW ESSAY) In 2016, Pope Francis issued the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love): On Love in the Family. In the op-ed commentary titled "Conservative defense of Humanae Vitae is not just about contraception" (dated February 6, 2023) in the National Catholic Reporter, the American Catholic moral theologians Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler of Creighton University highlight Pope Francis 2016 document.
The Spiritual Audacity of Abraham Joshua Heschel, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 1, 2020
James Bernauer's Jesuit Kaddish (REVIEW ESSAY) The American Jesuit philosopher James William Bernauer (born in New York City in 1944; Ph.D. in philosophy, SUNY Stony Brook, 1981; now professor emeritus in philosophy at Boston College) has published the hew 2020 book Jesuit Kaddish: Jesuits, Jews, and Holocaust Remembrance -- the cover of which features a photo of the Polish-born American Rabbi Abraham Heschel and the German Jesuit biblical scholar Cardinal Augustin Bea.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 8, 2011
Bercovitch on the American Self and the American Covenant (REVIEW) With important elections coming up in 2012, liberals should arm themselves to fight the Republicans by reading Sacvan Bercovitch's history of the American Self (his capitalization) and the American covenant. Is the American covenant dead, or just dormant? If the Republican party wins the 2012 elections, the Republicans will keep the American covenant dormant, so that it will seem like its dead.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 29, 2014
Can Marshall McLuhan Be Rehabilitated? (BOOK REVIEW) Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) was a celebrity in the 1960s. But he was also subjected to an enormous backlash by academics. Their backlash against him coincided with the widespread demonizing of the 1960s by conservative Republicans. Their demonizing of the 1960s has not been effectively countered by liberals and progressives to this day. Their demonizing of the 1960s should be countered, and McLuhan should be rehabilitated.
Pope Francis met with media, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 1, 2021
An Open Letter to Pope Francis: Upgrade Your Thinking! You, Pope Francis, are the first Jesuit pope. However, unfortunately, your Jesuit education was not excellent, to say the least. In addition, you failed to complete the doctoral dissertation in theology that you started. Consequently, at your advanced age now, you need to upgrade your thinking by carefully studying the mature thought of the American Jesuit Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955).
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 23, 2023
Walter J. Ong's Expansive Relationist Spirit (REVIEW ESSAY) In my 6,675-word review essay, I aim to persuade you to adopt Walter J. Ong's expansive relationist spirit as your own spirit as you proceed in your own efforts to understand our contemporary Western world today -- in short, make Ong's relationist way of proceeding to understand the Western world your own way of proceeding to understand the Western world.
Donaldson Sam, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 18, 2017
Commemorating the Watergate break in on June 17, 1972 On Friday, June 16, 2017, ABC broadcast 20/20 with Sam Donaldson to commemorate the forty-fifth anniversary of the Watergate break in early in the morning of June 17, 1972. In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon won re-election in a landslide victory by appealing to certain white people's resentments. Similarly, Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party's presidential candidate, appealed to certain white people's resentments.
Gerard_Manley_Hopkins_by_Thomas_C._Bayfield - detail-contrast, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 16, 2015
HOPKINS, THE SELF, AND GOD is Ong's Crowning Achievement (Review Essay) The short but densely packed book HOPKINS, THE SELF, AND GOD (1986) is Walter J. Ong's crowning achievement. A Kindle version of it is now available at Amazon.com. So I'd like to take the occasional to write about it. The poetry of the Victorian Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) is not everybody's cup of tea. But for those who are interested in his poetry and life, Ong's book repays careful study.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Toward a NEW Anti-Conservative Movement (REVIEW ESSAY) The conservative movement in American culture rose to political influence as an anti-sixties reaction. But it has been a backward-looking force, looking back to the fifties. We now need a NEW forward-looking anti-conservative movement in American culture. The work of the late Anthony de Mello, S.J., may help people to change and grow into the strong cultural warriors needed for a NEW anti-conservative movement to emerge.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 28, 2011
Too Many African Americans Are Murdered in the U.S. Too many African Americans are murdered in the United States each year. The time has come for a concerted civic effort to turn the tide. My position is that enhancing the functional literacy rates among African Americans would be the most effective way to reduce the murder rate.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 9, 2022
Getting Our Cultural Bearings from Walter J. Ong (REVIEW ESSAY) I urge college-educated Americans today to get their cultural bearings from the American Jesuit cultural historian and media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955).
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 21, 2014
Redeeming the Waste Land: Jung's Two Ideas for Older Adults After World War I (1914-1918), T.S. Eliot published his famous poem "The Waste Land" (1922). Then we had the Great Depression and World War II (1939-1945) and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and then the Cold War. To this day, Western culture is the blighted waste land. Can it be redeemed? Perhaps it can. But it will require massive bottom-up change, starting with American adults in the second half of their lives.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 2, 2021
My 95 Documents Online (REVIEW ESSAY) No doubt you have heard of Martin Luther's 95 theses. Well, I am writing to tell you about my 95 theses, figuratively speaking. Over the years of my retirement, during which I have published 494 articles at OEN, I have also published 95 documents online through the University of Minnesota's digital conservancy. My 95 online documents have been downloaded 8,890 times. Want to take a look at them? Here's how.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 16, 2015
Know the Enemy: Conservative American Catholic Reactionaries Most progressives and liberals know that the Roman Catholic bishops in the United States and their lay American Catholic collaborators are conservative reactionaries on certain issues. In the book GOD, PHILOSOPHY, UNIVERSITIES: A SELECTIVE HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY (2011), Alasdair MacIntyre, professor emeritus in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, unwittingly offers us a deeper glimpse at Catholic thought.
National Poverty Hearing: Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 7, 2020
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' 56 Life-Changing Ideas (REVIEW ESSAY) The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' second new 2020 book Judaism's Life-Changing Ideas: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible should be read carefully and taken to heart by President-elect Joe Biden and his transition team.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 28, 2022
Walter J. Ong on the World-as-Event Sense of Life (REVIEW ESSAY) The French Christian existentialist philosopher Louis Lavelle worked out a well-developed theistic metaphysics. The American Catholic philosopher James Collins discusses Lavelle's theistic metaphysics in his fine article "Louis Lavelle on Human Participation." I point out here that human participation involves what the American Jesuit cultural historian Walter J. Ong refers to as the world-as-event sense of life.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 12, 2010
Celibacy Is Not the Heart of the Matter in the Priest Sex Abuse Scandal -- the Bishops Are! James Carroll to the contrary notwithstanding, mandatory celibacy for diocesan priests is not the heart of the matter in the priest sex-abuse scandal -- the bishops are! Nevertheless, Carroll is right to call attention to the resistance to change in the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy.
File:Bernie Sanders 113th Congress.jpg - Wikimedia Commons, From GoogleImages
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 16, 2016
Marcia Pally Does the Heavy Lifting to Advance Bernie Sanders' Political Revolution (REVIEW ESSAY) Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has been channeling the ancient Hebrew prophet Amos. But our contemporary American consciousness and culture are a wee bit more evolved. As a result, the political revolution that Senator Sanders calls for in the U.S. will probably need the heavy lifting that Marcia Pally ably undertakes in her new book COMMONWEALTH AND COVENANT: ECONOMICS, POLITICS, AND THEOLOGIES OF RELATIONALITY.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 29, 2021
Dr. Albert Rothenberg on Creativity (REVIEW ESSAY) The American psychiatrist Albert Rothenberg's books are the gold standard in studies of human creativity. I discuss two of his books: (1) The Emergent Goddess: The Creative Process in Art, Science, and Other Fields (University of Chicago Press); and (2) The Creative Process in Psychotherapy (W. W. Norton). Because I consider Walter J. Ong's books to be the gold standard in scholarly studies, I discuss his conceptualizations.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 20, 2013
Pope Francis Is a Male Chauvinist In his recently published interview, Pope Francis says that he is against an ideology of female machismo. But he favors the ideology of male machismo represented by the Roman Catholic Church's teachings against legalized abortion in the first trimester. Women and men of goodwill who favor women's right to legalized abortion in the first trimester should speak out against his points regarding female machismo.
Donald Trump, From FlickrPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 5, 2016
President Donald J. Trump? Progressives and liberals should carefully consider the possibility that Donald J. Trump could be elected the next president of the United States. At the present time, his grass-roots appeal is spreading like a contagion in the Republican primaries. He could emerge as the Republican Party's presidential candidate in 2016, and he could be elected president of the United States in November 2016.
Josiah Royce., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 16, 2023
Frank M. Oppenheim, S.J., on Reverence for the Relations of Life (REVIEW ESSAY) To get their bearings on American culture in 2023, OEN readers might want to consider reading the late American Jesuit philosopher and theologian Frank M. Oppenheim's 500-page prophetic book Reverence for the Relations of Life: Re-imagining Pragmatism via Josiah Royce's Interactions with Peirce, James, and Dewey (University of Notre Dame Press, 2005 -- the year in which Oppenheim turned eighty).
T.S. Eliot%2C 1923.JPG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 1, 2022
A Tour de Force on T. S. Eliot's Poems, Plays, and Prose (REVIEW ESSAY) As part of my own ongoing personal commemoration of the centennial of the 1922 publication of T. S. Eliot's most famous poem "The Waste Land," I recently read the American Eliot specialist Jewel Spears Brooker's 2018 book T. S. Eliot's Dialectical Imagination (Johns Hopkins University Press) -- a tour de force on Eliot's poems, plays, and prose. If you are already familiar with his poems and plays, you might enjoy her book.
Pope Francis Visits the United States Capitol, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 14, 2022
Is America Falling Apart at the Seams? (REVIEW ESSAY) The self-described conservative columnist David Brooks has published "America Is Falling Apart at the Seams" in the New York Times (dated January 13, 2022). He paints an alarming picture of American society today. To help improve American society today, conservative American Catholics should take Pope Francis' call for Catholics to become a field hospital church to heart.
Donald Trump, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 24, 2016
Trump and Women Because of the number of undecided voters, it is still not unthinkable that Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party's 2016 presidential candidate, could emerge victorious. But at times, his campaign has seemed to be about his right to insult and denigrate certain women. In the second presidential debate, he said that he is not proud of his crude comments to Billy Bush in 2005. But that still leaves a lot of other comments.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Political Authority Comes from the Bottom Up? (REVIEW ESSAY) According to the prolific English Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (born in 1948), "Political authority, for the Torah, comes from the bottom up; it is not imposed top down (as in the doctrine of the 'divine right of kings')." Say what? He says this in his 2019 book Deuteronomy: Renewal of the Sinai Covenant (page 173), a volume in his Covenant & Conversation book series. I discuss this point and certain other points from his 2019 book.
Image from Twitter User ndmagazine, From TwitterPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Walter J. Ong's Thought in Relation to Michel Foucault's Thought (REVIEW ESSAY) Gary Gutting in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame died on January 18, 2019. A frequent contributor to The Stone feature in the New York Times, he was an expert in the thought of Michel Foucault. Therefore, I will use his 2005 book Foucault: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press) as a guide to Foucault's thought, as I outline how Walter J. Ong's thought can be related to Foucault's thought.
Michael Ignatieff and President Obama, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 19, 2021
Michael Ignatieff's New Book On Consolation (REVIEW ESSAY) The prolific Canadian author Michael Ignatieff's new 2021 book On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times (New York: Metropolitan Books/ Henry Holt) is a timely collection of well-written portraits of certain persons, arranged in historical order.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 9, 2016
Paul Moses' View of Why the Mainstream Media Missed on Trump Paul Moses is a former full-time journalist who is now a professor of journalism at Brooklyn College/CUNY. His analysis of why the mainstream media missed on President-elect Donald J. Trump's decisive electoral vistory might interest OEN readers.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Pope Francis Maintains His Doctrinally Conservative Approach The German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising, made the news on June 4th by publishing his letter of resignation to Pope Francis. But Cardinal Marx had not been accused of any wrongdoing. However, he was moved by the "catastrophic" scandals (his term) involving priest sex abuses and bishop cover-ups. Days later, Pope Francis made the news by rejecting Cardinal Marx's resignation -- surprising Marx.
Donald Trump, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 25, 2020
The Paranoid Style in American Politics Versus What Exactly? In Paul Krugman's latest column in the New York Times, he critiques President Donald Trump for engaging in the paranoid style in American politics. His critique is not unfounded. But Krugman conveniently sidesteps the fact that many African Americans live in big cities where the Democratic Party has been in power for years. If Black Lives Matter, then it should matter that Democratic Party has been in power in big cities.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 23, 2018
David Brooks: Prophet of Cultural Gloom and Doom Op-ed columnist David Brooks never tires of writing columns at the New York Times about cultural gloom and doom. But his piece titled "The Fourth Great Awakening" (dated June 21, 2018) needs to be analyzed carefully. In the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, I want to give him credit for alerting us about certain trends in superhero movies, video games, and sport. But I want to re-frame the cultural context.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 31, 2014
Heidegger on Modernity vs. Ong or McLuhan As the result of the recent publication of new volumes of Martin Heidegger's philosophic notebooks in German, the question of his personal anti-Semitism during his Nazi years has been renewed. Did the Nazi ideology influence his philosophic thought? He is famous for his critique of modernity. But both Walter J. Ong and Marshall McLuhan offered alternative critiques of modernity that deserve to receive more attention today.
Eat, Pray, Love, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 26, 2015
Are You Ready for BIG MAGIC? (Review Essay) Are you ready for "Big Magic" in your life? If you are, Elizabeth Gilbert is ready to help you with her aptly titled new self-help book BIG MAGIC: CREATIVE LIVING BEYOND FEAR. But moving beyond fear is easier said than done. Fear is at the base of abandonment feelings. It is not easy to resolve that early childhood fear. However, when it is resolved, it can unleash creative living.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Pope Francis Is a Die-Hard Visionary! (REVIEW ESSAY) In numerous OEN articles, I have discussed various aspects of Pope Francis' life and thought. In the present review essay, I highlight his thought in his "Preface" to a new book in Italian by Cardinal Michael Czerny and Father Christian Barone. An English translation of his "Preface" is now available at the website of the lay Catholic magazine Commonweal. In it, the pope proves that he is a die-hard visionary.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 6, 2022
Amy-Jill Levine on Jesus's Parables (REVIEW ESSAY) The self-described "Yankee Jewish feminist" biblical scholar Amy-Jill Levine of the Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee, explicates key parables of the genius Jewish teacher/preacher Jesus in her deeply learned and accessible book Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi (New York: Harper One/ Harper Collins, 2014).
Josiah Royce., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 3, 2023
Frank M. Oppenheim's Loyalty to Josiah Royce (REVIEW ESSAY) The prolific American philosopher Josiah Royce (1855-1916; Ph.D. in philosophy, Johns Hopkins University, 1878) is the author of the 1913 exploratory book The Problem of Christianity (Macmillan), his mature philosophy of religion and his mature philosophy of loyalty. Loyalty, broadly conceived, is a characteristic of the late American Jesuit philosopher and theologian and Royce specialist Frank M. Oppenheim (1925-2020).
Pope Francis Visits the United States Capitol, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 5, 2022
Massimo Borghesi's New Book Catholic Discordance (REVIEW ESSAY) The Italian philosophy Professor Massimo Borghesis (born in 1955), the author of the 2018 intellectual biography of Pope Francis, has just published the new book Catholic Discordance: Neoconservatism vs. the Field Hospital Church of Pope Francis, translated by Barry Hudock (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press Academic, 2021). Borghesi centers his attention on three American Catholic neoconservatives.
TEMPLETON PRIZE CEREMONY HONOURING RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 15, 2020
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (1948-2020): In Memoriam As a gentile, I celebrate here the life and work of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (1948-2020), a gifted communicator. His publications, including his two new books in 2020, remain here on earth with us as an international treasure for all people of good will in the English-speaking world to savor.
pope-francis-1a, From FlickrPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 12, 2020
Historical Light on Priest-Sex-Abuses and Bishop-Cover-Ups (REVIEW ESSAY) Dyan Elliott's accessible new 2020 scholarly book The Corrupter of Boys: Sodomy, Scandal, and the Medieval Clergy (University of Pennsylvania Press) sheds historical light on recent priest-sex-abuses and bishop-cover-ups in the Roman Catholic Church.
Benedict XVI Blessing-1., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Remembering Pope Ratzinger/Benedict XVI (REVIEW ESSAY) To commemorate the recent death of the retired Pope Ratzinger/ Benedict XVI that is in the news, I am now here recycling my OEN article dated June 25, 2011: "Matthew Fox's Critique of the Roman Catholic Church," a meditation on Fox's 2011 book The Pope's War: Why Ratzinger's Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved (Sterling Ethos) -- about Pope Ratzinger/Benedict's greatest hits, figuratively speaking.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 7, 2013
Can Martha C. Nussbaum Help Save Our Embattled Democracy? Our American experiment in democratic government is embattled today because the Republicans are up to no good. But Martha C. Nussbaum has just published a timely book about why love matters for political justice. But will conservative Republicans read her book? Probably not. But perhaps Senator Elizabeth Warren and other articulate Democrats will. Her book deserves to be widely read and discussed.
Roger Scruton speaking about his book 'Green Philosophy', From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 6, 2018
What Scruton Doesn't Get About American Conservatives The British political philosopher Roger Scruton's op-ed "What Trump Doesn't Get About Conservatism" in the New York Times (dated July 4, 2018) critiques Trump for supposedly failing to "get" (understand) what movement conservatism is about. However, Scruton himself doesn't "get" (understand) anti-abortion zealotry in the United States and Trump's campaign pledges to overturn Roe v. Wade by appointing conservative justices.
Mario Vargas Llosa for PIFAL, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 31, 2015
The Pope's Eco-Encyclical and Mario Vargas Llosa's New Book (REVIEW ESSAY) The Peruvian novelist and essayist Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010. In 2012, he published a short book of essays. In 2015, his book was translated into English as NOTES ON THE DEATH OF CULTURE: ESSAYS ON SPECTACLE AND SOCIETY, translated by John King. Like Pope Francis' eco-encyclical, Vargas Llosa's book is a wide-ranging lamentation about our contemporary culture -- and both are jeremiads.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Harold Bloom and Walter Ong Can Help Us Formulate a More Rigorous Critique of Biblical Fundamentalism In their op-ed piece in the New York Times titled "The Evangelical Rejection of Reason" (Oct. 17th), Karl W. Giberson and Randall J. Stephens are far too lenient in their critique of their fellow evangelical Protestants. A more rigorous critique of Protestant biblical fundamentalism is needed. Harold Bloom and the late Walter J. Ong, S.J., working independently of one another, provide us with ways of understand the Bible.
File:TheDonald.jpg - Wikimedia Commons, From GoogleImages
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Is Donald J. Trump a Fascist Candidate, or a Semi-Fascist Candidate? Is Donald J. Trump a fascist candidate, or a semi-fascist candidate? I don't want to sound unduly alarmist about Trump. But I want to review nine features of fascism that Robert O. Paxton in history at Columbia University discerns as characteristics of fascism in Europe in the twentieth century. Then I want to turn to Peter Steinfels recent op-ed piece describing Trump as a semi-fascist.
Donald Trump : News, Pictures, Videos and More - Mediamass, From GoogleImages
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 10, 2016
Some Reflections on Trump's Victory The Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series in extra innings in the seventh game. So persistence can pay off at times. But the persistence of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was born and raised in suburban Chicago, did not pay off in a victory for her in 2016. But liberals and progressives now need to cultivate their own persistence in fighting the good fight against conservatives.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Marcus J. Borg calls on Christians to embrace social transformation (BOOK REVIEW) Progressives and liberals are no doubt familiar with the Christian Right. But now the biblical scholar Marcus J. Borg has written an admirably accessible book calling on Christians to embrace the spirit of social transformation he finds in scripture -- and become progressives and liberals. Three cheers for Borg -- Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! But will his book galvanize American Christians? That's hard to say. But it's a good read.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 12, 2014
Watch Out for Catholic Theocons (REVIEW ESSAY) As every American of voting age knows, the law of the land does not require American Catholic women who are pregnant to have abortions in the first trimester. Whew! We should all be thankful for this. But anti-abortion Catholics would like to make legalized abortions in the first trimestert unavailable to all pregnant American women. So what's going on with the Catholic theocons? I'll explain Catholics in this book review.
General Audience with Pope Francis, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 14, 2021
James Carroll Calls on Catholics to Resist Certain Church Teachings and Practices (REVIEW ESSAY) The American Catholic novelist and non-fiction writer and Boston Globe columnist James Carroll (born in 1943), a laicized former priest, has published a new book titled The Truth at the Heart of the Lie -- A Memoir of Faith (New York: Random House, 2021). In it, he calls on Catholics to resist certain Church teachings and practices.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 10, 2014
The CDF vs. the LCWR is back in the news again The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) is once again in the news for its criticism of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious(LCWR)in the Roman Catholic Church. One of the CDF's criticisms of the LCWR involves their discussion of conscious evolution. But Walter J. Ong, S.J. (1912-2003) wrote extensively about the evolution of consciousness without ever being censured by the Vatican for doing so.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 31, 2016
William Egginton Celebrates Cervantes' Achievement (REVIEW ESSAY) OEN readers might want to take a step back from the news cycle by checking out young William Egginton's accessible new book THE MAN WHO INVENTED FICTION: HOW CERVANTES USHERED IN THE MODERN WORLD. When Cervantes died in 1616, the American colonies were struggling. But the emerging American culture went on to epitomize the modern world that Egginton credits Cervantes with ushering in. But what about American culture today?
Hillary Clinton April 2015, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 6, 2016
Profiling the Oppo-Appeals in the Match-Up of Donald J. Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016 The results of the most recent presidential primaries show Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Democratic front-runner and Donald J. Trump as the Republican front-runner. If these two front-runners emerge as the candidates in the 2016 presidential election, certain basic profiles will be used as oppo-appeals against each candidate.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 5, 2018
Michael Massing's Book about Erasmus and Luther (REVIEW ESSAY) In a dual biography of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) and Martin Luther (1483-1546), the American journalist Michael Massing, a Jew, captures the excitement of their lives and times. The brilliant and talented American philosopher and novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein has published a perceptive review of massing's book that I also want to discuss in connection with Walter J. Ong's thought.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 8, 2021
Dr. Albert Rothenberg on Scientific Creativity (REVIEW ESSAY) As a follow up to my earlier OEN article "Dr. Albert Rothenberg on Creativity" (dated October 29, 2021), I now discuss his 2015 book Fight from Wonder: An Investigation of Scientific Creativity (Oxford University Press).In it, he operationally defines and explains what he refers to as the separation-connection articulation process in scientific creativity, which he distinguishes from the janusian and the homospatial processes.
Portrait de Dante., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 16, 2023
A Cogently Argued Book about Dante's "Divine Comedy" (REVIEW ESSAY) If you are interested in Dante's "Divine Comedy," you may want to read Sheila J. Nayar's exploratory book Dante's Sacred Poem: Flesh and the Centrality of the Eucharist to Dante's "Divine Comedy" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2014). It is the most cogently argued literary study that I have ever read.
Hillary Clinton - The New Yorker, From GoogleImages
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 12, 2016
Hillary Deserves Her Fair Share of Blame for Losing Decisively in the Electoral College Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential candidate, holds a small lead in the popular vote over the Republican Party's candidate. But she lost decisively in the Electoral College, because he managed to turn enough battleground states from blue to red. He successfully baited her with his assaults on the spirit of "political correctness." She took the bait and responded with proper indignation and lost.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 19, 2022
Patrick Hastings on James Joyce's Ulysses (REVIEW ESSAY) For years, Patrick Hastings worked on his website UlyssesGuide.com. Now, his new 2022 320-page book The Guide to James Joyce's "Ulysses" (Johns Hopkins University Press) "represents an enhanced version of the content of [his] website, but [his] intention remains consistent with [his] initial project: to equip first-time readers with helpful contextual information . . . " (p. 2).
John Lennon 1969 %28cropped%29., From WikimediaPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 15, 2020
Pope Francis' Vision for the World The Italo-Argentine Pope Francis (born in 1936; elected pope in 2013) is not a hippie. Indeed, he may not have heard the English hippie John Lennon's 1971 song "Imagine." But Pope Francis calls on us to imagine the utopian world he envisions in his new 43,000-word social encyclical.
File:Pope Francis Palo 11.jpg - Wikimedia Commons, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 21, 2015
On Ong's Thought and Modern Capitalism: An Essay for Rob Kall After Rob Kall read a short essay of mine about Walter J. Ong's thought, he sent me a brief email message saying that he did not quite understand what all Ong means by the world-as-view sense of life, which was involved in modern capitalism. So I have undertaken to write this piece to explain Ong's thought further. I show that there is reason to hope that Pope Francis' critique of modern capitalism may resonate with Americans.
Marshall McLuhan - pix 04, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Graham Majin on Marshall McLuhan (REVIEW ESSAY) The young conservative British journalist Graham Majin has no interest in the philosophical background of Marshall McLuhan's cagey thought. Majin makes this abundantly clear in his superficial hatchet job on McLuhan titled "Bitter Fruit: Marshall McLuhan and the Rise of Fake News" in the conservative online outlet Quillette (dated Jan. 18, 2022). But I am interested in the philosophical background of McLuhan's thought.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 9, 2022
John Dominic Crossan on Jesus's 93 Original Sayings (REVIEW ESSAY) The pioneering historical Jesus scholar John Dominic Crossan distills his pioneering research in his short 1994 book The Essential Jesus: Original Sayings and Earliest Images (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco/ HaperCollins). In it, he provides what he judges to be 93 original says of Jesus (pp. 25-144). Scattered throughout those pages are 65 images involving Jesus that Crossan judges to be the earliest images of Jesus.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 10, 2014
Looking Forward to the 2016 Elections: An Ongian View Not surprisingly, Republican candidates emerged victorious over their Democratic opponents in numerous electoral contests. The quantity of Republican victories has prompted many people to reflect on the 2014 mid-term elections. I would say that the 2014 elections show how effective the conservative noise machine can be in getting out the white vote. But I want to take the long view by drawing on Walter J. Ong's thought.
File:Simone De Beuvoir2.jpg - Wikimedia Commons, From GoogleImages
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 22, 2016
Sarah Bakewell Wants Us to Become Existentialists (REVIEW ESSAY) In her informative and accessible new book AT THE EXISTENTIAL CAFE: FREEDOM, BEING, AND APRICOT COCKTAILS: WITH JEAN-PAUL SARTRE, SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR, ALBERT CAMUS, MARTIN HEIDEGGER, KARL JASPERS, EDMUND HUSSERL, MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY, AND OTHERS (2016), the British author Sarah Bakewell aims to persuade people in the English-speaking world to reconsider the existentialists. -- and perhaps become existentialists ourselves.
Ignatius Loyola., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 1, 2022
Joseph F. Conwell, S.J., on Jesuit Renewal (REVIEW ESSAY) The subject of my length meditative review essay is the American Jesuit spiritual director Joseph F. Conwell's admirably accessible and deeply learned 1997 book Impelling Spirit (Chicago: Jesuit Way/ Loyola Press). It is about Jesuit personal and group religious renewal. However, it may help all Christians advance their own personal religious renewal.
Marshall McLuhan - pix 04, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 30, 2022
John Fraim on Marshall McLuhan's Sense of Religious Faith (REVIEW ESSAY) John Fraim, who holds a B.A. from the University of California - Los Angeles and a J.D. from Loyola Law School, ably reviewed Marshall McLuhan's posthumously published 1999 book The Medium and the Light: Reflections on Religion, edited by Eric McLuhan [Marshall and Corinne'McLuhan's eldest son] and Jacek Szklarek [a Roman Catholic priest] (Toronto and New York: Stoddart Publishing) in the new online journal New Explorations.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Are some guys in philosophy at the University of Colorado-Boulder bullies? On Jan. 31, 2014, the administration of the University of Colorado-Boulder made public a resport about the Department of Philosophy there. The report by three external reviewers was requested to assess the department's work-place atmosphere for women. The report says that department is not women-friendly. Among other things, some guys in philosophy are described as bullies. But the report says they are largely unaware of this.
West Midlands Police - Papal Visit - Pope Benedict XVI, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 11, 2019
Retired Pope Benedict XVI's "Notes" About the Priest-Sex-Abuse Crisis Are Not Insightful In response to the unprecedented summit meeting about the priest-sex-abuse crisis and cover-up that Pope Francis convened at the Vatican in March, retired Pope Benedict XVI has prepared "some notes" about the crisis for publication. Unfortunately, his "notes" are not insightful.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 30, 2014
Will the Ferguson Protests Lead to a Republican Replay from the 1960s? In the 1968 presidential election, Richard M. Nixon ran a law-and-order campaign and won. Riots in certain cities had followed the assassination in 1968 of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Anti-war protests against the Vietnam War had also become fairly common. So Nixon's campaign appealed to many voters. But will Republicans today now try to use the Ferguson protests to replay Nixon's 1968 campaign in the 2016 elections?
File:Pope Francis Malacanang 6.jpg - Wikimedia Commons, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Pope Francis and Jean Houston: Brother, Can You Paradigm? At the present time, Pope Francis is visiting the United States. However, in a recent article in the NEW YORK TIMES, Jim Yardley quote an Argentine professor of the sociology of religion as claiming that Pope Francis does not represent an empowering force, but a paternalistic force. So does Pope Francis represent an empowering force, as Jean Houston does, or does he represent a paternalistic force?
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 1, 2016
Are We Now Going to Have a Race to the Bottom of the Well of Resentment? Thanks to Jill Stein's interventions, it looks like we are now going to have recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Should each recount result in Trump losing his electoral victory in each of those crucial battleground states, he would not be President-elect Trump. In the meantime, I suspect that liberal and progressives should get ready to endure President Trump and his administration. The rich will get richer
Martin Buber - Das Wort, das gesprochen wird (Audio) Vortrag des Philosophen Martin Buber (1878-1965) aus dem Jahr 1962. Darin widmet sich Buber dem Gesprch als .Matrix. des Denkens., From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 13, 2019
Martin Buber Can Explain the Trouble with Trump (REVIEW ESSAY) The Irish scholar Phil Huston's book Martin Buber's Journey to Presence (Fordham University Press, 2007) concentrates on Buber's early work before his famous 1923 book I and Thou. Her lengthy discussion of Buber's 1913 pivotal work Daniel: [Five] Dialogues on Realization (pages 106-184) can help us explain the trouble with Trump.
General Audience with Pope Francis, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 20, 2021
My Interpretation of Vociferous Contemporary American Conservatives Today Today is Father's Day 2021. So today I will celebrate the thought of the American Jesuit Father Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955). Figuratively speaking, Father Ong was a father figure to me in my adult life. In the process of celebrating his thought, I will indicate how I use his thought about print culture in Western culture to interpret vociferous contemporary American conservatives today
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Reflections on the Vatican's Condemnation of Farley's Book JUST LOVE Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican have publicly condemned Sister Margaret Farley's award-winning book JUST LOVE: A FRAMEWORK FOR CHRISTIAN SEXUAL ETHICS (2006). Because of the political activism of the conservative Catholic bishops in the U.S., not only Catholic Americans but also non-Catholic Americans should be concerned about the Catholic Church's misguided doctrines regarding sexual morality.
The Poetry of Emily Dickinson, Metaphor and its Philosophi. | Flickr1024 Ã-- 576 - 161k - jpg, From GoogleImages
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 20, 2018
Somebodies v. Nobodies: Guess Who's Winning? To avoid customary political categories, I borrow the terminology from a short poem by Emily Dickinson. In it, she says that she is a Nobody. Like her, I am also a Nobody. But I am writing about two recent articles by authors who are Somebodies. Moreover, each author alerts us to the adverse influence of certain other Somebodies on my fellow Nobodies in America, especially on non-college whites and non-college people of color.
Michele Goodwin - .Reproductive Justice in An Era of Resistance., From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 1, 2022
Michele Goodwin on Abortion (REVIEW ESSAY) In response to the Supreme Court's disturbing Dobbs ruling, overturning the 1973 Supreme Court's Roe ruling and the constitutional right to abortion, I posted my OEN article "Samuel Alito on Abortion" On the same day, the prolific law-school professor Michele Goodwin published her cogent rejoinder to the Dobbs ruling, "No, Justice Alito, Reproductive Justice Is in the Constitution," in the New York Times.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 21, 2013
To Understand President Kennedy's Assassination, Janney's and Douglass's Books Are Must Reading Lately, the media have bombarded us with superficial stuff about President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963. But the media uphold the official myth that Lee Harvey Oswald alone shot and killed President Kennedy. For those Americans who want to get beyond the official myth about Oswald, Peter Janney and James W. Douglass offer us two in-depth books about the CIA.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 18, 2015
Take Note of Jonathan Gottschall's New Book (REVIEW ESSAY) Progressives and liberals should take note of Jonathan Gottschall's new book THE PROFESSOR IN THE CAGE (2015). No, all progressives and liberals do not need to practice mixed martial arts as the way to evoke traditional manliness in their psyches, as Professor Gottschall did. But progressives and liberals should gird themselves to fight the good fight against conservatives by evoking traditional manliness in their psyches.
Keynes 1933., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, April 11, 2021
How Radical Will Biden and Yellen Be? (Book Review) Because of the Covid-19 pandemic's economic fallout, Americans today are re-learning the radical lessons of Keynesian economics pioneered by the Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt. If you want a refresher about Keynesian economics, I recommend the American journalist Zachary D. Carter's accessible 650-page 2020 book The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes (New York: Random House).
The relationship of professor and student, and the responsibility., From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 22, 2015
I Support Katie Roiphe's Moral Stand Katie Roiphe (born in 1968), a professor at New York University, has taken a public stand in her article "Why Professors Should Never Have Affairs With Their Students" at Slate Magazine online. I support her stand by drawing on Walter J. Ong's characterization of the professor-student relationship as a fiduciary relationship. But I also discuss certain other matters she raises.
From commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hillary_Clinton_official_Secretary_of_State_portrait_crop.jpg: File:Hillary Clinton, From Images
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 30, 2016
Hillary Rodham Clinton as Symbol of the 1960s Hillary Rodham Clinton (born in 1947) may emerge as the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016. But her political journey in the 1960s and 1970s and later makes her a symbol of the 1960s. For decades now, conservatives have used anti-60s rhetoric to denounce the 1960s and 1970s. So to understand the 1960s and 1970s, we should try to grasp the import of Walter J. Ong's account of print culture 1.0 and oral culture 2.0.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 22, 2012
Let Us Give Thanks for the Federal Government During President Obama's first term in office, Republicans in Congress were obstructionists. Following a quip made by President Reagan, many Republicans see the federal government as a problem. But their defeatist attitude should be replaced with an attitude of thanks for the benefits of the federal government in our lives, not just on Thanksgiving but year-round. We should work to make the federal government more effective.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 1, 2012
Complicated Bereavement: Some People Experience It But Others Don't: Why? Complicated bereavement is puzzling. Certain people experience, but most don't. Based on my own experience of it, and on my reading about it, I want to share my reflections about it in an accessible way. At the end of my analysis, I suggest a hypothesis about it for others to consider in light of their own experiences of it. I've not seen this hypothesis discussed in the professional literature about complicated bereavement.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Whereforth Are Thou, Harvard? To turn the terrible tide of political and cultural conservatism that has plagued the United States during the last four decades, we need to renew not only political liberalism, but also liberal arts college education against the inroads of professional education, including specialist graduate education in liberal arts fields. Therefore, I call of the faculty of arts and sciences at Harvard to lead us in the needed renewal.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Meeting Homer Again for the First Time (REVIEW ESSAY) Adam Nicolson's new book WHY HOMER MATTERS (2014) is deeply informed and accessible. Nicolson characterizes the imagined Trojan War as a conflict between a heroic warrior culture dating back to the Bronze Age (the Greeks under Agamemnon) against the city-culture represented by the Trojans. But Nicolson brings this imagined conflict to new life by likening the loose Greek confederation of forces to street gangs today.
Louislavelle, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Walter Kirn Alerts Us about Big Data and Big Surveillance Walter Kirn (born in 1962), a self-described neurotic, alerts us to the existential threat posed by Big Data and Big Surveillance. But the French existentialist philosopher Louis Lavelle (1883-1951) suggests how Kirn and others can overcome neurotic anxiety aroused by such existential threats.
Father John Dear., From WikimediaPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 31, 2024
John Dear on the Synoptic Gospels and Bottom-Up Nonviolence (REVIEW ESSAY) If you are not interested in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), then you should not be interested in the prolific activist Father John Dear's new 2024 book The Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark, and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence (Orbis Books). But if you are interested in bottom-up imagery, then you should be interested in the author's claim that Jesus campaigned for bottom-up nonviolence.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Mighty administrators at the University of Colorado-Boulder are bullying the philosophy department Troubling new questions have emerged about the outside assessment of the philosophy department at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Three women from the American Philosophical Association visited the campus to assess the climate for women in the department. In their report, unexpectedly made public by the administration, the women revealed that "at least 15 complaints" had been filed against men in the department.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 5, 2014
Fighting Rape Culture: A Proposal for Action Lately Senators Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, and Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, have once again been calling attention to rape culture in the American military. Recently Sabrina Rubin Erdely published a graphic article about an alleged gang rape of a first-year student at the University of Virginia in 2012. The time has come for a concerted effort to fight rape culture.
Pope Francis, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 13, 2015
A Dialogue with Pope Francis' Eco-Encyclical (REVIEW ESSAY) Pope Francis is scheduled to visit the United States in September. In his major public statements during his visit, he most likely will develop certain themes from his recent encyclical letter about climate change. In his eco-encyclical, he repeatedly says that he welcomes dialogue about the views he expresses in it. So in the spirit of back-forth dialogue, I will highlight certain points he makes and comment on them.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 6, 2015
Donald Lazere's New Book Might Interest Progressives and Liberals (REVIEW ESSAY) Progressives and liberals who are interested in education and political literacy might find Donald Lazere's new book POLITICAL LITERACY: DEFENDING ACADEMIC DISCOURSE AGAINST POSTMODERN PLURALISM (2015) engaging to read. He styles himself as "an unreconstructed New Leftist." His book takes me back to an earlier period in my life when I was publishing articles in composition and rhetoric and to many of my earlier interests.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 6, 2010
An Open Letter to John Rickford of Stanford About the Ebonics Debate Gary Simpkins' reading research shows that dialect readers help improve reading instruction for African American students. Of course reading is important for the aural-to-visual shift in cognitive processing that Walter Ong has described, which is involved in the actuation of cognitive potential.
Father John Dear., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 18, 2024
John Dear on the Questions of Jesus (REVIEW ESSAY) In my recent OEN article "John Dear on the Synoptic Gospels and Bottom-UP Nonviolence" (dated January 31, 2024), I commented on the prolific American diocesan priest and peace activist Father John Dear's new 2024 magnum opus commentary The Gospel of Peace (Orbis Books). I now want to comment of his thought-provoking earlier book of meditations titled The Questions of Jesus (Image Books/ Doubleday/ Random House, 2004)
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 27, 2012
Gary Gutting on the Skidelskys' Views of Capitalism Gary Gutting has admirably initiated a much needed discussion of our American life. He develops his learned and perceptive points in a review essay about a book by the Skidelskys about our capitalist economy and our individual desires. In his view, legislative measures will not adequately address the problems highlighted by the Skidelskys. In his estimate, bottom-up action is required instead. In my estimate, he's right.
Dr. Larycia Hawkins Speaking in 2016, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 11, 2016
Dr. Larycia Hawkins of Wheaton College in Illinois Progressives and liberals should be concerned about how the Wheaton College administration is proceeding against Dr. Larycia Hawkins. On December 10th, she posted a statement of solidarity with Muslim Americans on her Facebook page. It prompted outcries from other evangelical Protestants to the administration of the evangelical Protestant college. On January 4th, the administration initiated the process of terminating her.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 14, 2010
What's Wrong With Stanley Fish? Commenting on cuts to the humanities at SUNY-Albany, Stanley Fish calls on university presidents and chancellors to defend the claims of the humanities in public discourse. But Fish himself does not defend the humanities in his opinion piece. Moreover, in his book SAVE THE WORLD ON YOUR OWN TIME (2008), he tries to debunk the over-arching goals that can be used to defend the humanities, for example, social justice.
Public Domain Review (@PublicDomainRev) Influencer Profile | Klear, From GoogleImages
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 31, 2016
Rebecca Onion on Donald Trump and Women Rebecca Onion, who holds a Ph.D. in American studies, has published a perceptive op-ed commentary on Donald Trump and women, "No Girls Allowed" (dated Oct. 28, 2016). She has raised certain interesting issues that I myself did not mention in my earlier OEN piece "Trump and Women" (dated Oct. 24, 2016). So I'd like to discuss further certain points that she ably makes.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 12, 2010
Can There Be Bottom-Up Change Without Proverbs? (BOOK REVIEW) Martin Luther King, Jr., was an effective agent of change in the United States. Wolfgang Mieder's new book about King shows how extensively King used proverbs and proverbial expressions in his sermonic rhetoric. Aspiring agents of change should follow his example and use proverbs and proverbial expressions in their speeches and talks.
Pope Francis Korea Haemi Castle 19., From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 10, 2020
Can Pope Francis Re-Form the Roman Catholic Church? After seven years of the pontificate of Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope, the Italian Jesuit Antonio Spadaro examines the pope's way of governing the church in his effort to re-form the church. In a kind of play on words, Fr. Spadaro turns to the pope's Jesuit formation as the key to understanding his efforts to re-form the church.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 21, 2012
Pope Benedict XVI is not preaching social justice regarding same-sex marriage in civil law Pope Benedict XVI used his 2012 Christmas address to advance his misguided objections to same-sex marriage in civil law. As a result, Americans who favor same-sex marriage in American civil law should escalate their efforts to oppose Pope Benedict's misguided reasoning.
Daniel Horan OFM., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 2, 2022
Lowercase catholicity as hermeneutic tool for Catholic theology? (REVIEW ESSAY) The American Franciscan friar Daniel P. Horan's book Catholicity and Emerging Personhood: A Contemporary Theological Anthropology (Orbis Books, 2019) explores the hermeneutic of catholicity for contemporary Roman Catholic theological anthropology. It is a lively and thought-provoking book, which I will highlight here.
Governor Jerry Brown, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 20, 2015
An Open Letter to the Honorable Jerry Brown, Governor of California As a follow up to my OEN piece "SOS to American Politicians: Save Our Schools!" I am writing an open letter to the Honorable Jerry Brown, the Governor of California, urging him to establish a national showcase multi-year program using Gary Simpkins' approach to reading instruction in the public schools in Oakland. John Rickford, the African American linguist at Stanford University, is familiar with Gary Simpkins' work.
pope-francis-1a, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 31, 2022
Pope Francis Should Now Follow Up His Historic Visit to Canada Pope Francis' historic visit to Canada has come to an end. Now he should follow up his visit by issuing a document formally abrogating the centuries-old "Doctrine of Discovery."
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 19, 2014
The Way for Men Today to Experience Profound Psycho-Spiritual Rebirth (REVIEW ESSAY) I and other OEN writers often critique conservative white men in the U.S. today. But we men who consider ourselves to be progressives and liberals should also reflect on our own psycho-spiritual development. Men in the second half of their lives should work toward their own integration and individuation. Jungian analyst M. Esther Harding, M.D., elucidates the way men need to work on the feminine spirit in their psyches.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 16, 2018
R. Marie Griffith Surveys a Century of Moral Combat Involving Christians (REVIEW ESSAY) At times, it is a good practice to step back from the latest controversies in the news and consider the larger picture. In her new book Moral Combat: How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics (Basic Books, 2017), R. Marie Griffith surveys a century or so of certain sex-related controversies in American culture and politics. Her book is well-researched and well-written.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Sex and the Single Jesus Bill Keller, a self-described former Catholic, has published an op-ed column titled "Sex and the Single Priest" in the New York Times. Briefly, he argues that the Roman Catholic Church should abolish the requirement of celibacy for priests. Doing so would open the door for married priests. Keller says that there are hints that Pope Francis may be open to doing this. But I think there may be some reasons for not doing this.
Lunch with President-to-be Joe Biden, From FlickrPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 9, 2020
An Open Letter to the Most Honorable President-Elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr. In my 1,500-word open letter, I draw on the thought of a few authors to set forth my view for President-Elect Joe Biden, who is only the second Roman Catholic ever elected to the highest office in the country.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 19, 2022
Daniel Bergner on Hearing Voices (REVIEW ESSAY) The American journalist Daniel Bergner published a somewhat lengthy eye-opening article in the New York Times titled "Doctors Gave Her Antipsychotics. She Decided to Live With Her Voices" (dated May 17, 2022). It is based on his new 2022 book The Mind and the Moon: My Brother's Story, the Science of Our Brains, and the Search for Our Psyches (Ecco).
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Pope Francis Urges Encounter and Dialogue (REVIEW ESSAY) Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope, urges encounter and dialogue. When dialogue is not unsuccessful, it can be frutiful and transformative. But what exactly makes dialogue fruitful and transformative? In the book TRANSFORMATION: EMERGENCE OF THE SELF, Jungian psychotherapist Murray Stein discusses the psychodynamics involved in transformation and transformative relationships.
Michael Tomasky, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 9, 2019
Our Political Polarization (BOOK REVIEW) Do you want to be part of the outside forces that demand change from our politicians? Michael Tomasky does. Unfortunately, he frames his argument in his new book as an argument for changing the recent (1980-2016) 36% rate of political polarization to something closer to the 34% rate of polarization in the previous period (1933-1980). But with Trump as president, even such a modest change in polarization might be desirable.
Heather McGhee, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Heather McGhee on Progressive Alternative Thinking (REVIEW ESSAY) The African American activist Heather McGhee (born in 1980) of the progressive American think-tank Demos has just published her first book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone [in the United States] and How We Can Prosper Together (New York: One World/ Random House/ Penguin Random House, 2021), a work of non-fiction in which some names and identifying details have been changed. I highlight and comment on her book.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 27, 2014
At least Stephen Mansfield's book title doesn't sound cowardly Hanna Rosin has advanced the unfortunate feminist spirit of misandry in her book THE END OF MEN. Stephen Mansfield sets out to counter her misandry in his new book titled MANSFIELD'S BOOK OF MANLY MEN, which is aimed primarily at conservative white Protestant Evalgelical boys and men -- the voters Karl Rove keeps hoping will vote and help put more Republicans in office. Fortunately, Mansfield's book is free of misogyny.
TurksonPeter, From FlickrPhotos
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 17, 2018
Vatican Document Calls for Economic Regulation The Vatican has issued a document calling for economic regulation. The problem is the economic crisis that disrupted the 2008 presidential campaign in the United States. As a solution, the Vatican document calls for economic regulation to avoid another such economic crisis.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 7, 2015
Conservative Journalist Tod Lindberg's New Book (REVIEW ESSAY) Progressives and liberals are aware that movement conservatives tend to use fear and fear-mongering to advance movement conservatism in the United States. In the accessible new book THE HEROIC HEART: GREATNESS ANCIENT AND MODERN (2015), the conservative journalist Tod Lindberg cherry picks his way through a vast sweep of our Western cultural history to help advance movement conservatism in the U.S.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Right vs. Left Culture Warriors in the U.S. (REVIEW ESSAY) The Argentine Jesuit priest Jorge Mario Bergoglio (born in 1936), who became Pope Francis in March 2013, wrote the 1991 essay "Some Reflections on the Subject of Corruption." I want to add some of my reflections to his on the general subject of the corruption (in his terminology) of both the right and the left culture warriors in the United States today.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 9, 2018
Pope Francis Reminds Catholics of the Call to Holiness Pope Francis has issued an apostolic exhortation reminding practicing Catholics that they are called to holiness. Because I am not a practicing Catholic, I would be delighted to see practicing Catholics respond positively to the call to holiness. But I suspect that certain American Catholics will criticize the pope's reminder of the call to holiness. As to non-Catholic Americans, we'll have to wait and see how they respond.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 22, 2022
Austen Ivereigh on Pope Francis and Dialogue (REVIEW ESSAY) The British journalist Dr. Austen Ivereigh (born in 1966) has published two biographies of the Argentine Jesuit Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936; elected pope in March 2013). Pope Francis has repeatedly urged dialogue. But Dr. Ivereigh has recently explored the Argentine Jesuit Father Bergoglio's 1991 essay "Some Reflections on the Subject of Corruption" to indicate when dialogue is not called for.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 17, 2009
Stop American Evil, President Obama! For humanitarian reasons, President Obama should stop American involvement in the supposedly humanitarian wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Too many people have already been killed in these two unjust wars. But the two top al Qaeda criminals still have not been captured and brought to justice.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 17, 2014
The Islamic State, the Caliphate, and Theocons The Islamic State has recently beheaded Peter Kassig, an American aid worker and former Army Ranger. President Barack Obama has vowed to degrade the Islamic State -- evidently, through air strikes. But the Islamic State is making a powerful appeal to Muslim young men to join the cause by invoking the dream of the caliphate. I want to explore the caliphate and related ideas from European history.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 9, 2009
What Kind of Man Are You, President Obama -- Another LBJ? President Obama is escalating American involvement in the war in Afghanistan, just as President Johnson escalated the war in Vietnam. But Obama should stop following LBJ's example and start following President Kennedy's example of resisting military ventures. Just as LBJ's war in Vietnam was a hopeless cause, so too Obama's war in Afghanistan is a hopeless cause.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 8, 2017
Senator Al Franken of Minnesota to Resign On December 7, 2017, Senator Al Franken of Minnesota announced that he will resign soon. In my estimate, he made the right decision under the circumstances. Nevertheless, I want to comment on his case and certain other cases involving elected politicians.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 30, 2014
The Time Has Come for American Men to Manifest the Overman in Their Lives C. G. Jung has suggested that Friedrich Nietzsche's Superman should be understood as a super-Protestant. Both Jung and Nietzsche were sons of Protestant pastors. But over against Jung's suggestion, I suggest that the Overman should be understood as post-Christian. The time has come for American men today to manifest the Overman in their lives.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 31, 2020
Walter J. Ong Tells It Like It Is With all the Covid-19 deaths and hospitalizations in 2020, combined with all the antics of President Donald ("Tweety") Trump, I am happy to see 2020 draw to an end. To ring out the old year and ring in the new one, I want to urge you to read Dr. Joanna Gardner's online essay "The Politics of Literacy and Orality," in which she draws on Walter J. Ong's summative 1982 book Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of Word.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 12, 2014
The Healthy Opposite of the Psychopathic Spectrum Is the Relatedness Spectrum In an article published at OpEdNews.com on May 12, 2014, Rob Kall asks, "What is the opposite of the psychopathic spectrum?" The healthy opposite of the psychopathic spectrum is the relatedness spectrum. But a more extreme opposite is possible, and it is unhealthy.
Abraham Joshua Heschel speaking at UCLA 5/25/1963 From the archives of the UCLA Communications Studies Department. Digitized 2013. The views and ideas expressed in these videos are not necessarily shared ..., From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Rabbi Heschel Writes With Moral Clarity That Pope Francis Lacks On March 28, 2019, the Jewish columnist David Brooks (born in 1961) highlighted Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's 1951 book The Sabbath in a column in the New York Times. Subsequently, I read his short book. In it, he uses a time/space contrast with moral clarity to critique not only modern Western culture but also pre-modern cultures. He writes with moral clarity that Pope Francis lacks in his critique of modern culture.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 20, 2016
Humility, Anyone? Did you hear about the Princeton University pollster who ate a bug on CNN as punishment for overstating the likelihood of Hillary Rodham Clinton winning the 2016 presidential election? Then he published an op-ed in the New York Times about his overstatement and promised to teach his spring course at Princeton with "a heavy dose of humility." Imagine what the world would be like if more Americans cultivated humility.
Donald Trump, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 10, 2021
Will Our American Democracy Die or Survive? In the 2018 book How Democracies Die (Crown), the Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt alerted us to the threat that President Donald ("Tweety") Trump poses to our American democracy. Recently, he incited a mob of domestic terrorists to storm the Capitol, resulting in five deaths, including the death of a police officer murdered by the terrorists. Will our American democracy now die -- or survive?
From commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bergen,_Peter_(2007)_crop.jpg: File:Bergen, Peter (2007) crop.jpg - Wikimedia Commons, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 15, 2016
My Reply to Peter Bergen's Op-Ed about Terrorists Peter Bergen has published a well-informed op-ed in the New York Times about terrorists. So I want to reply to it.
Barack Obama (used by Wikipedia, etc), From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 18, 2015
SOS to American Politicians: Save Our Schools! What do standardized IQ tests measure? Are the results on standardized IQ tests important for any reason? Let me explain how I see standardized IQ tests and IQ test results. If my view has any merit, then my hypothesis about IQ test results may be worth testing. My hypothesis is testable. But it would take big bucks to test it properly.
Irish Ambassador and exchange participant, Daniel Mulhall returns to Kansas City after 45 years, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Daniel Mulhall on James Joyce's Ulysses (REVIEW ESSAY) The current Irish ambassador to the United States is Daniel Mulhall (born in 1955). Ambassador Mulhall has published the new 2022 320-page book Ulysses: A Reader's Odyssey (Dublin: New Island Books). Published as part of the centenary celebration of the Irish novelist James Joyce's famous 1922 novel Ulysses. I will highlight the Irish ambassador's reader-friendly guidebook for you.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 25, 2013
Antoinette Tuff and the Prevention of Suicide by Cop Antoinette Tuff prevented a young man from committing suicide by cop and possibly killing her and others in the process. She told him that she understood how he felt because she had felt the same way after her husband had left her. Her non-death loss in her life moved the young man to surrender to the police. But we Americans should do more to understand how non-death loss causes depression and suicidal thoughts.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 22, 2015
On Harry G. Frankfurt's Book ON INEQUALITY (Review Essay) Progressives and liberals concerned about the inequality of wealth of the super-rich might want to look at Harry G. Frankfurt's short new book ON INEQUALITY. Basically, he argues that we should not be concerned about wealth inequality, but about eliminating poverty. But would it be practical for progressives and liberals to talk up the idea of eliminating poverty in the United States?
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Katha Pollitt Favors Abortion Rights for Women (BOOK REVIEW) Unfortunately, anti-abortion zealots have made significant headway in curbing abortion rights for women. Columnist Katha Pollitt hopes to move more Americans to support about rights with her new book PRO in favor of abortion rights. Along the way of making her overall case for abortion rights, she skewers numerous well-known conservatives for various things they've said about women.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Congress Should Pass Public Funding for Abortion in the First Trimester Conception without the woman's consent is tantamount to rape. As a result, legalized abortion in the first trimester should stand as the law of the land, and it should be legally supported through public funding.
Donald Trump, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 19, 2020
Barbara H. Rosenwein on Anger (REVIEW ESSAY) In Barbara H. Rosenwein's new 2020 book Anger: The Conflicted History of an Emotion (Yale University Press), she exuberantly and triumphantly expresses her unqualified enthusiasm for the conceptual construct of emotional community. Perhaps her enthusiasm for it is an example of what Pope Francis means by overflow. But she does settle down a bit in her discussion of James Madison on political factions in her last chapter.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 2, 2018
What Should Pope Francis Do Now? Pope Francis has no clearcut good choices about how to proceed to respond to Archbishop Carlo Vigano's allegations. But Pope Francis has urged Catholics to engage in encounter and dialogue. Now, if he were to say anything publicly about Vigano's allegations, Vigano would no doubt reply online with a written rejoinder. That would be a back-and-forth exchange of views -- a kind of dialogue. But it would be risky for the pope.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 29, 2024
Thomas J. Farrell on Drafting His Own Obituary This admittedly short article rounds off two of my earlier OEN articles: (1) "Thomas J. Farrell on Walter J. Ong, S.J." (dated November 7, 2023); and (2) "Thomas J. Farrell on Thomas J. Farrell" (dated November 17, 2023). The present article provides certain further information that was not included in either of those two previous OEN articles.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Will the Pope's Interview Lead Dolan and Other Catholic Theocons to Change a Wee Bit? On September 19th, the Jesuit-sponsored magazine AMERICA and 15 other Jesuit-sponsored magazines published a wide-ranging interview with Pope Francis, himself a Jesuit by training. The usually combative Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York has praised the "magnificent interview" as a "breath of fresh air." But will the pope's interview lead Dolan and other American Catholic theocons to change a wee bit? Stay tuned.
Samuel Alito official photo., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 26, 2022
Samuel Alito on Abortion (REVIEW ESSAY) President Harry Truman dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima to give the Allied Forces victory in World War II. Figuratively speaking, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito dropped nuclear bombs on the American people in May and June 2022 to give the anti-abortion forces in the United States victory in their campaign to overturn the 1973 Roe ruling. But can Democrats now galvanize voters in the 2022 mid-term elections?
Donald Trump Sr. at #FITN in Nashua, NH, From FlickrPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Progressives and Liberals Should Keep an Eye on the Republican Presidential Primaries Progressives and liberals should keep an eye on the Republican presidential primaries. For understandable reasons, progressives and liberals may not be interested in the Republican presidential contestants. But one of them will emerge as the Republican Party's candidate. Thus far, Donald J. Trump has emerged as the front-runner in the primaries because of the insurgency of anti-60s rage-aholics in the Republican Party.
Pope Francis Philadelphia 2015 (cropped), From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 6, 2016
Pope Francis Reaffirms the Ban on Women Priests For understandable reasons, OEN readers may be preoccupied with the 2016 presidential election. Compared to it, Pope Francis' recent reaffirmation of the Roman Catholic Church's ban on women priests may have escaped the notice of many OEN readers. So I want to explore certain issues involved in that ban.
Cabada1., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 24, 2022
Andrew Tallon on Karl Rahner (REVIEW ESSAY) The prolific German Jesuit philosopher and theologian Karl Rahner (1904-1984) was one of the most important Roman Catholic theologians in the twentieth century. However, here I focus on his 1941 philosophical book Hearer of the Word: Laying the Foundation for a Philosophy of Religion (New York: Continuum Publishing, 1994). More specifically, here I discuss Andrew Tallon's helpful "Editor's Introduction" (pp. ix-xxii).
CGJung., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 1, 2020
Attuning Ourselves to the Creative Universe (REVIEW ESSAY) Forrest G. Robinson's book Love's Story Told: A Life of Henry A. Murray (Harvard University Press) tells in detail the sad story of the secret extramarital love affair for more than forty years of Dr. Murray, M.D., Ph.D. (1893-1988) and Mrs. Christiana Morgan (1897-1967), both of the Harvard Psychological Clinic. In the 1920s, each of them was analyzed in Zurich by the Swiss psychiatrist Dr. C. G. Jung, M.D. (1875-1961).
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Can Deliberate Human Destructiveness Be Staved Off? (REVIEW ESSAY) The news media often report examples of deliberate human destructiveness. But can such destructiveness be staved off? In the book RETURN OF THE GODDESS, Edward C. Whitmont, M.D., argues that it is possible to stave off human destructiveness. But it won't be easy to do, especially for men. For men to stave off their destructive potentialities, they will need to integrate the archetypal feminine in their psyches.
EJ Dionne, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 10, 2016
E.J. Dionne's New Book about Radical Conservatives (REVIEW ESSAY) Progressives and liberals who are interested in following the old military advice to know the enemy might want to read E.J. Dionne's new book WHY THE RIGHT WENT WRONG: CONSERVATISM -- FROM GOLDWATER TO THE TEA PARTY AND BEYOND. Dionne says the right went wrong by following the radical conservative Senator Barry Goldwater, who lost the 1964 presidential election, instead of the moderate Republican President Eisenhower.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 13, 2016
Secondary Oral Culture Roils Our Psyches Deep Down Walter J. Ong's account of the communications media that accentuate sound in our contemporary secondary oral culture can help us understand why many conservatives today, including many white males who support the wealthy developer Donald J. Trump of New York.
Papa Francisco en Canonizazion de Juan XXIII y Juan Pablo II.PNG, From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Thomas Cahill and Pope Francis Celebrate Oral Cultural History (REVIEW ESSAY) In the 1995 book How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome [in 476] to the Rise of Medieval Europe, the Irish American author Thomas Cahill even-handedly celebrates Irish oral and written cultural history in the Dark Ages. In this way, he anticipates the spirit of Pope Francis' 2020 Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia (Beloved Amazon).
RobertKanigel., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 8, 2021
Robert Kanigel on Milman Parry and Albert B. Lord (REVIEW ESSAY) The combined efforts of the Harvard classicist Milman Parry (1902-1935) and his student Albert B. Lord (1912-1991) launched a thousand studies of oral traditions, "touch[ing] on more than one hundred ancient, medieval, and modern traditions," according to John Miles Foley (1947-2012). Robert Kanigel provides a dual biography of Parry and Lord in his new book Hearing Homer's Song: The Brief Life and Big Idea of Milman Parry.
pope-francis-1a, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Mary Harrington on Feminism, Legalized Abortion, and the Pill (REVIEW ESSAY) The Oxford-educated conservative British author Mary Harrington (born in 1979) has published the accessible new 2023 book Feminism Against Progress (Regnery). In it, she discusses her life, feminism, legalized abortion, the Pill, and much else in contemporary popular culture.
Ignatius Loyola., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 9, 2022
Joseph F. Conwell, S.J., on Walking in the Spirit (REVIEW ESSAY) The late American Jesuit spiritual director Joseph F. Conwell (1919-2014) has written a perceptive book for our reflection about the early Jesuit Jeronimo Nadal (1491-1556) and St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) titled Walking in the Spirit: A Reflection on Jeronimo Nadal's Phrase "Contemplative Likewise in Action" (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2003). Our reflection should include Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope.
David-Brooks-2022 %28cropped%29., From WikimediaPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 27, 2023
David Brooks' Accessible New 2023 Book (REVIEW ESSAY) Pope Francis (born in 1936), the first Jesuit pope, has urged people, not just practicing Catholics, to engage in encounter and dialogue. Those people who respond positively to his urging to engage in encounter and dialogue might find David Brooks' accessible new 2023 book How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen (Random House) informative and instructive and encouraging.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 22, 2009
How and Why Communication Media That Accentuate Sound Helped Engender Conservative Currents in the U.S. and Elsewhere Unfortunately, Republican politicians have skillfully exploited conservative orthodox Christians to prevail in elections over the last half century. As a result, Democratic politicians are going to have to learn how to appeal to homo religiosus to win elections in the future.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 3, 2024
Pope Francis, David French, and Walter Ong on Gender Differences (REVIEW ESSAY) Pope Francis (born in 1936; elected pope in 2013), David French (born in 1969; J.D., Harvard University, 1994), and Walter Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) call attention to gender differences.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Do Rob Kall and other OEN readers want to support Pope Francis' critique of capitalism and social Darwinism? The news media have reported Pope Francis' critique of capitalism and its social Darwinism. But the news media have reported mostly soundbites. The pope is scheduled to visit the U.S. in September, at which time he will predictably repeat his critique. Now, Rob Kall and perhaps other OEN readers might generally agree with the pope's critique. But his critique deserves to be examined for more than just soundbites.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 15, 2014
Tanner Colby's tough-minded look at integration Tanner Colby undertakes a tough-minded look at integration. He focuses primarily on busing. But he also looks at housing, because it is involved in the formation and funding of neighborhood schools. Because the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., helped inspire the dream of racial integration, Colby refers to the Children of the Dream and the Children of White Flight. Overall, the results of busing have not been impressive.
An argument against tax-payer funded psychotherapy clinical trials., From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 19, 2015
An Argument Against the Taxpayer-Funded Research Advocated by Richard A. Friedman, M.D. Writing in the New York Times, Richard A. Friedman, M.D., a psychiatrist at a prestigious New York City medical school, advocates increasing taxpayer-funded well-controlled psychotherapy clinical trials. But I see no good reason for increasing public for such research. No one way works for everybody. There's no Procrustean bed. Each person needs to find ways that work for him or her.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 22, 2015
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Confronts Religious Violence (REVIEW ESSAY) The recent attacks on Paris have made us aware, once again, of religious violence. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks confronts religious violence in his new book NOT IN GOD'S NAME: CONFRONTING RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE (2015). If you are interested in the religious violence of radical jihadists and suicide bombers, you will most likely find his new book enormously thought-provoking. I did. But I don't find everything he says entirely convincing.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Tea Party Anarchists Challenge the Caveman (aka President Obama) The Tea Party Republicans in the House have shut down the federal government. Will President Obama (aka the Caveman) cave and give in to their demands? If he does, then what will they demand in the upcoming vote on the debt limit? If the Tea Party anarchists win out against Obama in these two crucial battles, then happy days will be here again for the Republicans in 2014 and 2016. I hope that Obama does not cave.
Buddha Bridge, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Clifford W. DeSilva's First Book (REVIEW ESSAY) Progessives and liberals who are interested in working further on their psycho-spiritual development and growth might be interested in Clifford W. DeSilva's new self-help book NOT A SERPENT, NOT A ROPE (2015). In it, Clifford W. DeSilva recounts a number of stories that he thinks are suitable for contemplating because one story may "worm its way into your heart and break down barriers to the divine" (quoted on page 22).
Joe Biden, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 22, 2021
President Joseph R. Biden's Inaugural Address Highlighted President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., delivered a somber assessment of our cascading problems in his edifying inaugural address at the Capitol on January 20, 2021. But his edifying fantasy about unity may not materialize in the near future.
06.06.15-Pope Francis, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 1, 2015
The Pope Is Coming! The Pope Is Coming! The itinerary for Pope Francis' visit to the United States in September has been released. But it's not hard to predict certain themes that he will advance in his various prepared speeches.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 25, 2013
In Memoriam: Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) Chinua Achebe (1930-2013), the Nigerian novelist, was the author of the widely read novel THINGS FALL APART (1958) and its sequel NO LONGER AT EASE (1960), which deserves to be more widely read. Achebe was also the author of a controversial essay about Joseph Conrad's novel HEART OF DARKNESS. Even though I came to disagree with Achebe about Conrad's novel, Achebe's essay prompted me to think through exactly why I disagreed.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 30, 2014
Phyllis Zagano has drafted a pastoral letter about men for Pope Francis to issue Pope Francis has charmed the media. But Phyllis Zagano, a columnist at the National Catholic Reporter online, wants him to issue a pastoral letter about men. So she has drafted and published one for him to issue. Some of her criticisms of men may be reasonable. No doubt if the pope were to make such criticisms of men, the media would report them. But her criticisms involve issues individual men would would have to address.
General Audience with Pope Francis, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 20, 2020
Biden-Harris Voters, America Needs You! Thomas B. Edsall has alerted us in his op-ed "America, We Have a Problem" in the New York Times to the problem of partisan hostility. We need all Biden-Harris voters to learn how to cope with this problem by reading and taking to heart Pope Francis' new 2020 book Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future (Simon & Schuster). In short, we need Biden-Harris voters to form a Domestic Peace Corps.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 19, 2010
Pope Benedict Speaks About Penance, But Without Any Specifics! At a Mass closed to the public, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about penance. But he "didn't specifically mention priest sex abuse" or specific actions by bishops or specific penance. He did quote Peter the Apostle on the "need to obey God instead of men." So I would urge Roman Catholics and others not to obey the men in the Vatican about abortion in the first trimester, because they do not have a monopoly on moral reasoning.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 31, 2013
BOOK REVIEW: What the World Needs Now! What the world needs now is for more men and women to learn how to access and embody the optimal forms of the archetypes of maturity discussed by Jungian theorist Robert Moore of Chicago Theological Seminary. In Anthony de Mello's posthumously published book THE WAY TO LOVE: MEDITATIONS FOR lIFE (reissued 2012), he urges us to cultivate awareness, which can open the way for us to experience the optimal forms of maturity.
Donald Trump, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 5, 2021
The Spirit of Contesting -- in Life and in Politics For better or worse, President Donald ("Tweety") Trump excels in contesting behavior. Therefore, I propose to survey here the thought of two scholars about the spirit of contesting behavior in life and in politics: (1) the American Jesuit cultural historian Walter J. Ong (1912-2003) and (2) the self-described conservative Harvard political scientist Harvey C. Mansfield (born in 1932).
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, February 10, 2013
Can Democrats Stop Republicans from Winning Big in 2014 and 2016? Can Democrats stop Republicans from winning big in the 2014 and 2016 elections? the outcome of the 2014 and 2016 elections will depend of who prevail within each political party -- the realists who want to win elections, or the purists who want to hold out for ideological purity, even at the expense of losing elections.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 14, 2024
Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr., and Walter J. Ong, S.J., on Male Agonism (REVIEW ESSAY) In this wide-ranging 6,000-word review essay, I discuss the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian Walter J. Ong's studies of male agonism and the conservative American political philosopher Harvey C. Mansfield's views.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Where Do We Stand Now? Some Cultural Considerations We should step back for a moment from the political controversies of the day and consider the bigger picture of American culture today. Are we Americans today on the brink of entering Aldous Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD of serial hook ups and orgies? Wow! Have we ever come a long way from the Puritans! But we now have an unprecedented opportunity to work toward more meaningful social relationships in our culture.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 29, 2016
What's Coming Next in the Republican Presidential Primary? In the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, I want to give Donald J. Trump credit for NOT taking out his male appendage and displaying it on national television to show us how big it is -- after he had boasted on national television about how big it is. By NOT doing this, he showed a modicum of restraint. More recently, he and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas have exchanged barbs about their wives. So what's coming next?
thierry Ehrmann le 112 me est Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis), painted portrait DDC_7829, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 29, 2019
The Unexpected Abdication of Pope Benedict XVI and the Unexpected Election of Pope Francis Are you interested in the unexpected abdication of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013 and the unexpected election of Pope Francis? If you are, then you might be interested in Gerard O'Connell's new short book The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Account of the Conclave That Changed History (Orbis Books, 2019). It is a well-informed and well-written day-by-day account -- terse and fast paced.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 12, 2010
Hold on There, Robert Samuelson! Let's Think This Through! In his NEWSWEEK column, Robert J. Samuelson has denigrated what he styles "the politics of self-esteem." But the rhetorical tendency involved in what he describes is a tendency associated with what Aristotle refers to as epideictic rhetoric, civic rhetoric about values -- not self-esteem. Proposed legislation usually involves competing goods. As a result, debates about the various values involved are inevitable.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 12, 2013
TIME's Person of the Year Exemplifies Open Closure The editors of TIME have selected Pope Francis as their Person of the Year. As they suggest, he has had an impact on our awareness in the short time that he has been pope -- thanks to all the media coverage he has received. But he did say and do things that deserved media coverage. In the way he speaks and acts, he exemplifies open closure. But it still remains to be seen if his words and example will help change the church.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 11, 2010
With Pluck American Liberals Should Fight Today's Conservatives American liberals today should strengthen their inner-directedness and idealism and optimism and adaptability, so that they can effectively fight the conservative challenges of our time. With pluck and a little luck, liberals should be able to prevail against today's conservatives.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 13, 2009
Archbishop Burke: No Communion or Church Funeral for Pro-Choice Catholics Archbishop Raymond Burke and his followers want to punish pro-choice Catholics by denying them communion and a church funeral. But the time has come for Catholics and others to think through the dubious moral premises of the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion, before the Senate limits legalized abortion on demand in the first trimester, as the House health care bill does.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 8, 2013
Congress Should NOT Vote for a Military Attack on Syria to Punish Assad For understandable reasons, President Barack Obama wants to save face. He publicly warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad not to use chemical weapons to kill his own people. But chemical weapons were used to kill close to 1,500 Syrians. So Obama wants to use a limited U.S. military attack on Syria to punish the alleged culprit. As outrageous as the use of chemical weapons is, Congress should NOT vote for a military attack.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 24, 2013
Profiling for the Big Debate About Government's Role In President Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address, he said that government is the problem. However, in President Obama's second inaugural address recently he answered Reagan and his fans. So the debate has now been joined about the government's role. As we undertake to carry out this important debate, I want to profile the typical Reagan fans and the typical Obama fans in this crucial debate.
Walter Ong, From CreativeCommonsPhoto
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 8, 2024
David Brooks on "What Biden Needs to Tell Us" (REVIEW ESSAY) The self-described conservative columnist David Brooks published "What Biden Needs to Tell Us" in the New York Times (dated January 4, 2024). I highlight it here. I also highlight the American Jesuit cultural historian Walter J. Ong's subtle 1962 title essay "The Barbarian Within: Outsiders Inside Society Today" in his 1962 book The Barbarian Within: And Other Fugitive Essays and Studies (Macmillan, pp. 260-285).
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, March 7, 2010
Garry Wills Wants Liberals to Fight the Good Fight Against the National Security State I hope that American liberals will heed Garry Wills' call to fight the good fight against the National Security State that conservatives have instituted. The National Security State overthrows our American way of life. So liberals should get their act together and muster the political courage to stand up and defend our American way of life against the conservative onslaught of the National Security State.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Speak Up for the Health Care Bill, President Obama! President Obama should speak up more strongly for the health care bill. This bill is one way for the federal government to lend a helping hand to those among us who need a helping hand with health care coverage. Obama should speak up more strongly to rally voter support for the bill.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 15, 2024
Pope Francis on His Life and Times (REVIEW ESSAY) In Pope Francis' new 2024 book Life: My Story Through History, with the Italian journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona, translated from the Italian by Aubrey Botsford (HarperOne/ HarperCollins), the first Jesuit pope discusses his life and times in what the American Jesuit literary scholar Walter J. Ong referred to as a "talked book." I highlight here what the pope says about corruption, because Trump exemplifies such corruption.

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