As an occasional continuation of our series ‘Lockdown Reading’. This week we are publishing an appreciation of an important book once very well known, but now neglected… Realizations: Newman’s own selections of his sermons edited by Vincent Ferrer Blehl, with a preface by Muriel Spark (Liturgical Press, 2009 [originally published 1964]) Teresa Whitington These 13 sermons…
We Built Reality: How social sciences infiltrated culture, politics and power by Jason Blakely (Oxford University Press, £64.00pb/$99.00hb/ €23.00pb) Frank Litton In a world of uncertainty one thing is certain: Ireland has changed significantly over the last 50 years. The way to describe, or evaluate, that change is less certain. Jason Blakely’s well-informed and accessible account…
Sacred Space: The Prayerbook 2021 (Messenger Publications, €12.95/£15.49) The cover of the new edition of this always popular book shows a lighthouse at dusk, and out at sea a barely visible sailing ship in the distance. There came into my mind at once those lines from Newman, “lead, kindly light, amidst th’encircling gloom…”, which is…
What with the #Golfgate row, the thirst for punishments and polarising conflicts worldwide you’d wonder if Covid-19 wasn’t infecting brains and temperaments. There has been much honest grappling with challenging issues but also much casting of first stones. On Thought for the Day (BBC Radio 4) last Wednesday morning, Anglican Bishop Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani took…
Writing about Beethoven’s Quartets last time, I got as far as his three Op 59s. Now I’ll go on a little further. Early in 1809, Princes Franz Lobkowitz and Ferdinand Kinsky together with Archduke Rudolph combined to grant the composer an annuity of 4,000 florins. As a result Beethoven considered marriage but his subsequent rejection…
Summer outings (No.6 in a six-part series) This book, edited from Tim White’s Irish diaries, was published in 1959, the year after the compilation of his separately published Arthurian novels appeared in one volume, The Once and Future King. This book became a major best seller here and in the Americas. It provided the source…
The boundary bet-ween traditional and social media is still pretty clear, but there are some interesting things going on in the blurred border area. Facebook Live, for example, merges TV and social media very effectively. It gathers video content that people have posted on Facebook and lets you watch them in one place. Last week…
Herbert McCabe. Recollecting a fragmented legacy by Franco Manni, foreward by David B. Burrell (Cascade Books, £50.00/$26.98) Frank Litton One man in his time can touch many minds and souls. Anthony Kenny, Alasdair MacIntyre, Stanley Hauerwas, David B. Burrell, Brian Davies, Rowan Williams, Denys Turner, are among today’s most eminent philosophers and theologians. All have produced…
Going to ‘the pictures’ during the pandemic isn’t much different for film reviewers. We usually experience social distancing at press shows anyway – what’s different is the hygiene regimen, the sanitisation, the often eerie silence. And of course the contactless payments. I feel like Jeff Bezos flashing my Visa card around. It will be difficult…
As an occasional continuation of our series ‘Lockdown Reading’, this week we are publishing an appreciation of a book once very well known, but now neglected… Seán Ryan Literature can generally be broken down to two forms – the easy-reading form encompassing the popular chic-lit, page-turner form, which high brows mightn’t even concede to be…
Peter Costello
Brendan O’Regan
Aubrey Malone