Reviews

Ancient Church Orders Reviewed

Paul L. Bradshaw, Early Church Orders Revisited, Joint Liturgical Studies 80 (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2015). This little book was my Christmas present to myself this year. (Along with Günter Wand’s recording of Bruckner 8 in Lübeck Cathedral – magnificent.) I’d been wanting to read it for some months, and the

Reviews

The Magicians

I wish to begin this review by saying that The Magicians by Lev Grossman (2010, Penguin Books) ranks among my favourite books, so my criticism comes from the only place that truly good criticism can come from: fondness. Grossman’s work was first introduced to me by my closest friend, who

Reviews

Saintly Insanity: The Island (2006)

God knows what he is about, Newman muses, and our part is but to cooperate with his grace, however unusual the guise in which that grace comes to us. After all as St. Paul says, “the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom” (1 Cor 1:25). This is what

Reviews

The Anglican Mystic

“An hour’s conversation on literature between two ardent minds with a common devotion to a neglected poet is a miraculous road to intimacy.” War in Heaven, Charles Williams In the town of Oxford, there is a small tavern called the Eagle and Child, known locally as the “Bird and Baby.”

Reviews

Christ the Ideal of the Priest

One of my priest classmates on an Ordination picture he gave me penned: De laudatoribus temporis acti fiemur fautores temporis laudabilis in servitio Dei. A rather free translation would be: “Just as we esteemed a time gone by as worthy of praise, may we now become agents of praise and

Reviews

Martin Scorsese, Advocatus Angeli

Martin Scorsese’s central artistic concern is the city of New York, but the stories he chooses to depict are also linked by a common moral structure. He is powerfully drawn to opportunities to show how people maintain a belief in their own innocence. His protagonists are usually deeply flawed (to