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From the NOR Dossiers

Conversion Stories

Things Fall Apart. By Chinua Achebe.
May 2020Achebe centers on the clash of civilizations between his native Ibo culture and Christian missionaries who established colonial government in Nigeria.
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The Ideology at the Root of Our Moral Disorder
December 2019In the sociological imagination, it is man who creates God. Once he frees himself from God, anything is possible, or at least appears to be.
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Exotic Seed, Sown Deep in the Persian Dust
November 2019God leads us singly, according to our soul’s most intricate pathways, to the joy that we were born to know as unrepeatable individuals.
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The Final Journey of the Jesuit Martyrs of North America & the Birthplace of St. Catherine Tekakwitha
July-August 2019The missionaries' love enabled them to long for martyrdom for the salvation of souls.
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On the Trail of the Jesuit Martyrs of North America & St. Catherine Tekakwitha
June 2019Historians have to “get inside” their subjects if they are to understand and represent them well. 2,845 miles' worth of investigations are reported here.
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A Tree Grows in St. Louis
June 2019A remarkable family and their little spiritual oasis in the Gateway to the West have become, as divine fate would have it, a gateway to Catholicism.
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On Being at Once Catholic & Chinese
June 2019How much of Chinese daily and intellectual life, so utterly foreign to men from both Athens and Jerusalem, can be carried over into communion with Rome?
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Dale Vree: A Remembrance
A LIFE UNLIKE ANY OTHER
May 2019Twelve writers offer recollections of Dale Vree in tribute to his mind, his character, and the impact he had on the American Catholic intellectual scene.
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Dale Vree, R.I.P.
January-February 2019With a heavy heart I announce the death of Dale Vree, my father and former editor of the NEW OXFORD REVIEW. He passed away peacefully on December 10.
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The Strange Magnetism of Virtual Fisticuffs
November 2018What happens when a fairly obscure writer picks a fight with a Christian YouTube celebrity who has over 200,000 followers?
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An Extraordinary Educator's Enduring Legacy
September 2018A review by Christopher Beiting of Francis Bethel, O.S.B's book John Senior and the Restoration of Realism
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Saving Pop
January-February 2018At every step, what I wanted was for my grandfather to know and love Christ. What I expected that to look like changed and matured as I did.
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The Truth About Claude Newman
October 2015The story of this repentant and reformed killer is an astounding tale of redemption and sacrifice that has inspired authors, playwrights, and filmmakers.
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Newman in Italy: From Tourist to Pilgrim
December 2014Newman was both enchanted and perplexed by the new scenes and ceremonies he encountered, especially those related to the strange and exotic Catholic Church.
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The Whole House
October 2014The Catholic must, when he can, tell his Protestant friends that they should complete their faith by entering the Catholic Church.
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From Murderer to Monk
June 2013Clayton requested a "formal tie to the monastery" while in jail. He said he was already leading a monastic life and was eager for it to be embraced by the Church.
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The Forgotten Martyr
December 2012Joseph Chihwatenha was a convert of the Huron tribe who helped the Jesuits and became the cornerstone of the emerging Huron Church.
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Off the Beaten Path
May 2012Kerouac said, “I am not ashamed to wear the crucifix of my Lord. It is because I am Beat, that is, I believe in beatitude and that God so loved the world that he gave his own begotten son to it.”
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From the Thames to the Tiber
September 2011This large collection on notable British and Irish converts offers nearly a thousand entries, often with excerpts of writings by or about them, stating the motives for conversion.
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The Extraordinary Ordinariate
January-February 2011In England, with the establishment of the ordinariate, the effects of Pope Benedict's 2010 visit could be felt in concrete ways for years to come.
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Chesterton's Journey to Orthodoxy
November 2010Review of Chesterton and the Romance of Orthodoxy: The Making of GKC 1874-1908 by William Oddie
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Lifeboats on the Tiber
December 2009Anglican prelates are already dropping hints that they are seriously considering taking up Pope Benedict's offer to help them across the Tiber.
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From Protestantism to Catholicism, From the Novus Ordo Mass to the Tridentine Latin Mass
May 2007 VIEW ARTICLE

Goodbye, Proud World, I’m Going Home
June 2005Review of The Catholic Mystique edited by Jennifer Ferrara and Patricia Sodano Ireland
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The Lure of Beauty
February 2004Review of An American Conversion: One Man's Discovery of Beauty and Truth in Times of Crisis by Deal W. Hudson
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Not-So-Blessed Martin
April 2003Review of There We Stood, Here We Stand: 11 Lutherans Discover Their Catholic Roots edited by Timothy Drake...
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Unspinning Newman
May 2002Newman expressed negative views about a corporate reunion between Anglicans and Catholics; he valued real conversions more than such far-fetched schemes.
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St. Monica: Mother, Wife & Homemaker as Saint
February 2002Her character and life epitomize an ideal of sainthood essential for a modern world suffering a crisis of the family and the deconstruction of the home.
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Adventure Stories
February 2001A history of British “literary converts” is a story of spiritual inspiration over the course of the “age of unbelief” that constitutes the full run of the 20th century.
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My Journey From Catholicism to Eastern Orthodoxy & Back
November 2000Many presume that Orthodoxy is merely Catholicism without a pope. This is not so.
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A Spiritual Journey from Jerusalem to Rome
September 2000My spiritual adventure, taken over the past dozen years, made stops in Shrewsbury to meet Darwin and in Wittenberg to see Luther.
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The Catholic Sensibility of Allen Tate
March 2000Tate was a critic, poet, novelist, and intellectual of the first rank. Neglect of his work today is due in large part to his conversion to Catholicism.
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Conversion & the Psychology of Change
November 1999An encounter with Jesus turns out to be often paradoxical and surprising, uncomfortable in the moment yet ultimately curative.
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Converting the Pagans
February 1999What happened during the thousand years from Constantine to Jogaila that made Europe Christian? And how did it work?
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From Evangelical Anglican to Catholic
January 1999Since all that was valid about the “Reformation protest” has been accepted by the Church, it is time for Protestants to “come home.”
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The Long Conversion of Oscar Wilde
September 1998The wittiest man of his time, who considered himself a "violent Papist," believed that, of all religions, Catholicism is the one worth dying in.
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Why Attila the Hun Would Have Sacked a Protestant Rome
June 1998Structural unity is the only type of oneness that is complete, visible, and credible to a nonbelieving world.
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Confessions of a Cowardly Catholic
April 1998The question of a theology teacher’s basic attitude toward the Church is a deep one, and crucial.
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Reflections of a Seven-Year-Old Catholic
February 1998Despite the best efforts of certain liberal Catholics to convince me otherwise, I sensed that Catholicism requires some form of submission.
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Does It Take an Immigrant to Explain It to the Natives?
July-August 1994A review of Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism
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The Drama of the Oxford Movement
April 1994Review of The Parting of Friends: The Wilberforces and Henry Manning
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Orestes Explains It All for You
March 1992Review of Orestes A. Brownson: Selected Writings edited by Patrick W. Carey
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Not Love in the Shallows
December 1991Review of Newman on Being a Christian by Ian Ker
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Evelyn Waugh & ‘The Bright Young Things’
May 1988Review of Evelyn Waugh: The Early Years by Martin Stannard
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Heading Home to Love, Suffering, and Mercy
April 1988Review of Mustard Seeds by L. Brent Bozell
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In the Footsteps of John Henry Newman
May 1987Review of One Step Enough by Peter Cornwell
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Gracious Sensibility, Ruthless Self-Examination
January-February 1987Review of Fleeing the Whore of Babylon by James J. Thompson Jr.
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Modern Martyrs
September 1986The drama of martyrdom, for both Edith Stein — philosopher, convert, Carmelite — and Jerzy Popieluszko — priest and patriot — commands our attention.
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The Pilgrimage of a Former “Yuppie”
June 1986“Catholic” means “including everybody.” Catholicism is both a sanctuary for adoration and contemplation, and an animator of political and social reconstruction.
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A Wink of Heaven
June 1985Before answering the question, “Why Rome?” I must respond to another: “Why not Takoma Park?” (Takoma Park, Maryland, is the world headquarters of Seventh-Day Adventism.)
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Beyond Fundamentalism & Cultural Captivity
May 1985The blossoming of Christian Rightist organizations in the mid- and late 1960s made me increasingly nervous about the injurious effect of political conservatism on evangelicalism.
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The Gift of Thomas Merton
April 1985Merton was a constantly changing person, and years in the monastery did nothing to stop that process, for all the enclosing, demanding steadiness of the monastic routine.
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Fleeing from the Whore of Babylon
September 1984Flesh-and-blood Catholics I met proved to be generous and kind people who had no desire to gobble up little Protestant boys.
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Speaking Heart To Heart
April 1984We aspire to no exclusivist, triumphalist, inquisitorial, or truculent “Catholicism.” We will continue to be ecumenical in spirit and aspiration, a meeting ground for Christians.
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My Pilgrimage
November 1983When the Mass was translated into English, I noticed right away how often it says “Peace”: it’s repeated over and over again, like a heartbeat, clear through.
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Agreed Statement on the Separation of the NEW OXFORD REVIEW from the American Church Union
EDITORIAL
September 1983 VIEW ARTICLE
Edith Stein’s Cross
September 1983The proud and talented scholar threw herself gladly, ecstatically at His feet, He of the Cross, He whose Cross had become her cross.
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