Saturday, April 19, 2025

Monday, April 07, 2025

Romania Revisited

 I have revised and re-posted an older article at substack with some new photographs



Tuesday, March 18, 2025

The Mary Underground

My article on global Marian underground sanctuaries at Comment is out from paywall today: a photographic negative of architectural history to offset limelight-sickened faith. The designers outdid themselves:


Tuesday, February 18, 2025

After the Heresy Hunt

Here is my review of books by Cynthia Bourgeault... all of them (so far as I know). It's called The Wildest Christianity of All. Along the way I show how the notorious Bishop Spong accidentally embraced orthodox Christianity, and entertain (with caution) ways of assimilating G.I. Gurdjieff (of Enneagram fame) back into the church. Spoiler alert: I'm a traditional Christian, and so, I very much think, publisher marketing strategies notwithstanding, is she.


Saturday, February 15, 2025

Friday, February 14, 2025

Monsoon Season

 ...is how I refer to Wheaton's annual social media maelstrom. If you'd like my thoughts, they're on offer via x or facebook). I'm also cheating on millinerd https:illinea bit with substack.

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Friday, December 20, 2024

All the Horrible Ideas of 2024

(Not including the political ones.) With free links to antidotes.

1. "Nonduality" is an entirely Hindu concept. (antidote: The Tree of India)

2. Christian mysticism cannot be visualized. (antidote: That Man of Understanding)

3. Once you become "contemplative" you no longer need to go to church. (antidote: The Skeptical Mystic).

4. The Renaissance left mysticism behind. (antidote: Evagrius in Florence)

5. AI has revolutionized traditional Christian iconography. (antidote: Picturing Aphou)

6. If it's not trad, it's bad. (antidote: The Architecture of Prayer)

7. Dionysius the Areopagite is dead. (antidote: The Chief of Mystics at the Met)

8. The Whitney Biennial was moribund and New York is dead. (antidote: Giving the Whitney Biennial a Chance)

9. Prayer is a sedative. (antidote: Pray like a Cicada)

10. Womb or tomb: Pick one.  (antidote: A New Pro-Life Image

11. Jesus was hot. (antidote: Artistic Humility

12. The best theology is always written. (antidote: A Wedding in London)

13. Jesus may have defeated death but contemporary art was too much for him. (antidote: Art Haters Anonymous)

14. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's ideas should be uncritically adopted or handled like radioactive waste. (antidote: At the Field Museum with Father Teilhard)

15. Queer Theory fully explains the Canadian Cree artist Kent Monkman. (antidote: Missionary Position)

16. Alan Watts is a true sage and Christianity has never really understood Buddhism. (antidote: Hive Mind)

17. Sustained devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary beyond Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy is impossible. (antidote: The Secret of Walsingham).

18. The "end of wokeness" means we don't have to talk about Native Americans anymore. (antidote: Depth Mariology)

19. Emptiness is Buddhist (at best) or nihilist (at worst), and Our Lady of Guadalupe is exhaustible. (antidote: Our Lady of Emptiness). 

Untruths, each of them! May they becloud your mind no more. (if you prefer substack, it's all there too).

Merry rest of Advent and Christmas!

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Material Mysticism #12

The first season at Material Mysticism ends with my completely ayahuasca-free spiritual journey to Mexico. It's an unusual approach this year, I admit.



Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Depth Mariology

Here's an Advent epistle I wrote from Wheaton College to Notre Dame at Church Life Journal. Topics covered include Native Americans, abolitionism, football and contemplative prayer. More along these lines coming out early next years in Comment.


Tuesday, December 03, 2024

Material Mysticism #11

It’s been called the Marian event of 2024… by me. The latest of my continuing ADVENTures begins at Walsingham. Also, don't miss this very generous recent review of Mother of the Lamb. 



Thursday, November 21, 2024

The Global Grotto

It was a delight to present on Our Lady at Notre, not Votre, Dame University, for she's the mother of us all.


Monday, November 18, 2024

Hive Mind

A print essay of mine on the not so great Alan Watts, the occasionally great Thomas Merton, and the especially great (if ignored) mediating wisdom of the Church of the East, is on offer in the current Hedgehog Review.