Timeless Essays

“Caritas” ~ The Imaginative Conservative

Love must not be, but take a body tooAir and Angels —John Donne The primal metaphor has been transposedas sleep an affiance with death eludesfor death defective is but sleep. Alludesto resurrection now: a dawning rosedin bloody-red genesis, predisposedto whited hues dazzling out in amplitudes.Thus pagan beauties to beatitudesand logos to Logos metamorphosed.The body too […]

Resurrection in Narnia ~ The Imaginative Conservative

Let’s look at themes of resurrection in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” one of the greatest and most popular children’s stories ever written. Almost exactly a year ago, during last year’s Easter Octave, I wrote an essay focusing on themes of resurrection to be found in classic literature. Beginning with Tolkien’s invention of […]

“Hail Caesar!” and “Risen” ~ The Imaginative Conservative

The mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection lends itself to, perhaps even demands, pictorial realization like no other story. To prove that the Easter spirit hasn’t left the silver screen, here are two more recent entries you may have missed. Movie-watching may not be as common a pastime at Easter as on other holidays, but […]

Easter Wings ~ The Imaginative Conservative

George Herbert’s “Easter Wings” is a witty, surprising, and smart poem, which teaches a profound theological truth: Created with perfect blessings, it is man’s foolishness and fall that is to blame for his ending up poor and thin. I was college student afflicted with a serious case of Anglophilia when I discovered George Herbert and […]

A Hymn to Easter ~ The Imaginative Conservative

Hymns are a major source of our imaginative conception of the Christian faith. A good hymn focuses our mind on a memorable cluster of images that illuminate doctrine, preparing us to celebrate the liturgy or providing a respite during it. While the great hymn writers have often taken scripture as their starting point, they have not […]

A Sonnet for Easter Dawn ~ The Imaginative Conservative

The Lord is Risen! He is risen indeed Alleluia! Heres is an extra ‘fifteenth’ sonnet for Easter Morning, which I dedicate to my friend Mary who asked me to write it, and to the memory of her husband Gavin. May he rest in peace and rise in glory. Later today I will publish another Easter […]

The Harrowing of Hell ~ The Imaginative Conservative

Christ descended into hell to deliver His loved ones from their exile. He came to reward those who, from our first father, Adam, to His own foster-father, St. Joseph, had fought the good fight and had finished the race. The second reading from the Office of Readings for Holy Saturday is taken from an ancient homily on Christ’s […]