What is Critical Thinking? A useful way to approach that question is to ponder what uncritical thinking looks like. To think uncritically is to swallow things whole; to accept without question the ideas presented to us. Of course, many a barstool atheist will want to say, ‘Aha, so faith is uncritical thinking, because believers accept…
What is a liveable life? What is needed in order to make life, if not perfect, then as decent and as tolerable as it can realistically be? Questions like these are at the very heart of our so-called culture wars. They are personal questions, but also deeply political since the way we answer them will…
We’ve come to canonise uncertainty and to be suspicious of certainty, says Fr Chris Hayden “We take every thought captive, and bring it to obedience to Christ.” So writes St Paul in his Second Letter to the Corinthians (10:5). What we think, the set of ideas we hold, is not a matter of indifference.…
Our Christmas cribs generally include a more or less fixed set of characters: the Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the Wise Men, some shepherds, the ox and the ass, an angel, and perhaps a lamb or two. In Italy – especially in Naples – there is a tradition of extending the Nativity scene to include…
A few years ago, literary critic Declan Kiberd wrote a masterful preface to an edition of Richard Power’s novel, The Hungry Grass. The novel’s hero, Fr Tom Conroy, is a somewhat angular priest, who does not fit easily into either the lives of his people or the structures of the Church he serves. Of Conroy’s…
Hannah Arendt’s warning of the ‘banality of evil’ reveals how the routinisation of abortion masks its human cost In 1961, Adolf Eichmann, one of the most notorious architects of the Nazi Holocaust, was tried in Jerusalem. The German intellectual, Hannah Arendt, went to Jerusalem to report on the trial. While the world expected to…
Even in the mess, God is beneath it all, catching the pieces as they fall, says Fr Chris Hayden These are challenging times for the Church. Times, of course, have always been challenging; it was our Lord himself who said, “In the world you wil have trouble” (John 16:33), and that biblical realism has never…
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending, in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the Jubilee Year celebrations for seminarians and the priests involved in their formation. It was a very joyful gathering, which began with a procession along the Via della Conciliazione, towards the Basilica. We entered the Basilica a couple of…
The misunderstanding of technological advancement and human progress As we entrust Pope Francis to the loving mercy of God after his twelve years of Petrine ministry, it is good to ponder aspects of his legacy. One aspect – perhaps among the less obvious ones, but which we can ponder with great gratitude – is the…
Relentless Ministry For many priests, some of the most draining moments of their ministry are encounters with Catholics who approach faith and parish as a resource to be used, Fr Chris Hayden writes. The concept of ‘relentless ministry’ is not without limitations. It’s an entirely valid notion, of course, and if I were to suggest…