On Essays and Letters

On General Wolfe’s Preference Spring 2013

Father Schall looks at Will Cuppy, the question of relations between things and self-evident facts.

On Avoiding ‘Prosperous Wickedness’ Spring 2013

Father Schall reflects on a Rambler essay from 1750.

On Quotations Winter 2013

Father Schall reflects on the art of the quotation: We usually do not quote just to be quoting.

The Real Charm of Oxford Fall 2012

Father Schall reflects on letters of the English Dominican Bede Jarrett.

Our Rascally World Summer 2012

Father Schall reflects on a letter from the great satirist Jonathan Swift to the poet Alexander Pope.

On the Depths of Villainy Spring 2012

On Being a Basel Professor Winter 2012

‘The Greatest Fool That Ever Lived’ Fall 2011

In this bonus column, Father Schall reflects on the nature of philosophy, Stoicism, and the Incarnational view of life.

On Instruction in Cheerful Forms Fall 2011

In this column, Father Schall reflects on a sermon that John Donne preached to London’s lawyers on a proper understanding of gratitude and suffering.

Old Roads and Montesquieu’s Library Summer 2011

Father Schall’s students send him postcards from their travels. Here he reflects on places that several of them have recently been.

Memories of Johnson Spring 2011

Father Schall reflects on a collection of the writings and sayings—and conversations of Samuel Johnson. He suggests that “truth ultimately exists in conversation, not in books.”

On What Knowledge Pertains To Winter 2011

Father Schall returns to Plato’s Republic for a discussion of the connection of knowledge, philosophy, and action—and a train of thought that points beyond ourselves. We did not cause the beauty and the very existence of what is. . . .

The Long Twilight Volume 47, Number 3–4 (Fall 2010)

2010 does not seem to bear the same enthusiasm about the future as existed even forty years ago.

Safer in Minnesota Volume 47, Number 1 (Winter 2010)

A Patron Saint of Teachers Volume 46, Number 4 (Winter 2008)

On the Fixing of Our Gaze Volume 46, Number 3 (Fall 2008)

What Everybody Can Enjoy Volume 46, Number 2 (Summer 2008)

The Infinite Anguish of Free Souls Volume 45, Number 3 (Fall 2007)

Returning to the Real Volume 45, Number 1 (Winter 2007)

Are Fish Good for the Brain? Volume 42, Number 4 (Winter 2003)

Many a Touching Story Volume 44, Number 2 (Winter 2006)

Old China Volume 44, Number 3 (Summer 2006)

Mr. Shakespeare’s Plays Volume 44, Number 4 (Fall 2006)

The Bach Moment Volume 44, Number 1 (Fall 2005)