Joseph Pearce

It's always exciting whenever a missing piece of the puzzle of William Shakespeare's life comes to light. One such piece was discovered recently in a London archive by Lucy Munro, Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Literature at King's College London. In doing research on the location of London playhouses, Dr. Munro stumbled upon a plan of the Blackfriars area in 1668 which confirms the exact location of the Blackfriars Gatehouse, which Shakespeare had purchased in 1613 and which his granddaughter would sell in 1665.

COMMENTARY: The world of literature is awash with villains and villainy, but the presence of saints is more subtle and understated.

Were Tolkien and Chesterton correct in defining the English as inherently inert and slavishly slothful?

The English have shown themselves to be as “revolting” as the French or the Russians but for a much nobler cause. Let's raise a glass of the best beer to those revolting Englishmen of the sixteenth century, who rose and died for the Faith of their fathers.

COMMENTARY: History and literature are full of femmes formidables who shine forth feminine faith and fortitude.

Robert Lazu Kmita's “The Ultimate Quest” is a mystery story in the truest sense of the word. Confessing that the quest for the location of Paradise is not merely physical but is “theological-metaphysical”, he seeks clues from those who endeavour to read Genesis literally and those who read it allegorically, mystically and symbolically.

In Oscar Wilde's story “The Selfish Giant,” the Giant is healed of his selfishness by the love of a child. Angered by his discovery that the innocent child had wounds on his hands and feet, the Giant is consoled by the child who tells him that “these are the wounds of Love”. (essay by Joseph Pearce)

The clear connection between tradition and conversion is of the Holy Spirit, which is the only spirit that can move the world and not be moved by it.

COMMENTARY: Hope, the humble David of the virtues, slays the mighty Goliath of the sins.

Insofar as we understand Plato and Aristotle, we understand where the great thinkers of Christendom, the great writers of Christendom, are coming from. If we don't understand those philosophers, we will be groping and grappling in the dark, or at least in the twilight, trying to make sense of something three or four parts removed from its source.