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From the NOR Dossiers

Shakespeare

The Third Last Word

REVERT'S ROSTRUM

Casey Chalk

September 2023

Jesus chose for His mother’s guardian the disciple “whom He loved.” There were few, if any, who were better fit for such an important task than St. John.

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Did William Shakespeare Predict Donald Trump?

Kenneth Colston

April 2020

Contemporary scholars are so anti-religious, or a-religious, that they block out the huge role religion played in the past.

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Snapshots from a Religious & Literary Pilgrimage

A ROUND OF VISITS ACROSS DECAYING CHRISTENDOM

Kenneth Colston

April 2019

We travel under the pretense of being receptive, really looking for what we think we already know. Yet we are occasionally genuinely surprised.

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On Pilgrimage with Shakespeare in Protestant England

AMASSING CREDIT IN THE TREASURE HOUSE OF MERIT

Kenneth Colston

May 2017

Shakes­peare bravely used suspect words like 'pilgrimage' and 'pilgrim,' or variants of these words, at least thirty-one times throughout his corpus.

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When No Man Was His Own

VITAL WORKS RECONSIDERED, #45

Ian Hunter

July-August 2016

The plot of 'The Tempest' is threadbare and fantastical. Shakespeare is less concerned with unfolding a story than with unfolding characters.

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The Crypto-Catholic & the Jansenist

SHAKESPEARE, RACINE & CATHOLIC DRAMA

Keith Hopkins

July-August 2015

Is there such a thing as "Catholic drama"? William Shakespeare and Jean Racine, compared and contrasted, provide two fascinating case studies.

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The Catholic Dramatist in a Protestant Land

ALL THE CHURCH'S A STAGE

Kenneth Colston

December 2014

Macbeth, Lear, Othello, Hamlet, Falstaff, Henry IV — are these immortal portraits of sinful humanity not the very crucible of Shakespeare’s art?

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The Virtue of Anger & the Sin of Wrath

LESSONS FROM LITERATURE

Mitchell Kalpakgian

June 2014

Righteous anger is a fire that inflames the heart to take action, enkindles the conscience to call evil by its true name, and purifies the mind to speak the truth.

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Manipulation, Murder & Madness

VITAL WORKS RECONSIDERED, #36

Mitchell Kalpakgian

September 2013

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On Shakespeare's Supposed Catholicity

WHAT HAS HISTORY REVEALED?

Keith Hopkins

July-August 2013

What can we say, if anything, about the Bard's religious and political views and how, if at all, are they woven into the plays themselves?

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An Academic Undoes the Renaissance

Kenneth Colston

May 2013

For the secularist to come to terms with the traditional (Catholic-leaning) Christian dramatist whom he loves, he must first confront the Bard as he is.

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Shelter From the Storm

VITAL WORKS RECONSIDERED, #29

Elaine Hallett

June 2012

Lear is able to pull back from his obsession to pledge that "I will be the pattern of all patience"; patience, he knows, is the remedy he needs if he is to retain his sanity.

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The Catholic Connection

DISPATCH FROM THE FRONT

Frederick W. Marks

May 2012

If interreligious connectedness is not recognized and cherished at a time when religion itself is imperiled, we are in a bad way.

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Briefly: April 2012
April 2012

An Ocean Full of Angels... The Artistic Links Between William Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More: Radically Different Rich­ards

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Briefly: March 2011
March 2011

Review of Through Shakespeare's Eyes

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Briefly: March 2009
March 2009

Review of Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana... Awe-Filled Wonder: The Interface of Science and Spirituality... Ransomed from Darkness: The New Age, Christian Faith, and the Battle for Souls... The Quest for Shakespeare

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The Wages of Roe v. Wade

GUEST COLUMN

Geoffrey Henderson

January 2004

Shakespeare showed what murder does to murderers. We, too, can examine what abortion has done to abortionists and the mothers and fathers of those killed.

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The Empty Self vs. the Rich Soul

MEN WITHOUT CHESTS

Mitchell Kalpakgian

January 2004

The inner life of man is a world copiously rich and full, capable of loving and knowing, and designed to grasp the transcendentals of truth, goodness, and beauty.

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The Wisdom of Silliness

A HINT OF HEAVEN

Mitchell Kalpakgian

May 2003

Children, and all the things that delight children (nursery rhymes, fairy tales, imaginative stories), are the antidote to seriousness and all its harmful effects.

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The Tribunal of Great Writers

Cicero Bruce

June 2002

A classic attains permanent reputability not because it proves useful to one regnant ideology or another, but because it presents us with a unifying vision of nature and man’s place in it.

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How Scientific Pride & Idolatry Blot Out the Perception of God

SCIENCE'S SIN OF THE EYES

Jonathan David Carson

November 2001

Scientists dazzle with technological marvels: they ease your pain, replace your parts, unlock the secrets of the universe, and fly you to the moon.

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"You Have Ten Minutes to Prove The Existence of God to My Husband"

ON THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION IN SCIENCE

Benjamin D. Wiker

September 2000

So spoke the woman during a break in my third lecture on St. Thomas Aquinas...

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The Seven Sad Ages of Modern Man

DISCIPLES OF JAQUES, NOT JESUS

Mitchell Kalpakgian

May 2000

Our rewriting of the great drama of life, which should proceed like a mysterious tale full of wonder and engagement, is a sad soliloquy.

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A Movie Masterpiece

A CINEMATIC VIEW

Robert E. Lauder

October 1986

Kurosawa dramatizes the truth that the sins of the parents are visited on their children. The harm Ran has done has returned to haunt his old age.

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