The Inferno and Incarnational Art (LMM #1)

To kick off my series on “Literature for the Modern Mind,” I’ll start with the one who started it all—Dante Alighieri. Really, I should address his whole Commedia here, but since I’ve taught the Inferno for the past three years in my senior class, and (I’m ashamed to admit!) I haven’t yet read the Purgatorio and Paradiso (both this summer, I hope!) I’ll stick to the first of the three-part journey.

Giraldi Article in Dappled Things (and some links)

The "Candlemas 2016" edition of the Catholic literary journal Dappled Things features an article I wrote on the novelist William Giraldi and his relationship to the Catholic literary tradition. The article is a loose response to Giraldi's own essay on being called a "Catholic novelist," which ran in the New Republic last summer. Some relevant links are below.

Thanks to Dappled Things, and please check out their journal. They do great work in nourishing those of us who read, think, and write about the intersection of art and faith.

Further reading:
Giraldi's essay "Confessions of a Catholic Novelist"

D. G. Myers' essay at Books and Culture on the "Catholic novelists" Giraldi and Christopher Beha

My initial thoughts on Giraldi's Hold the Dark

Some of my thoughts on the relationship between narrative and the spiritual journey

I hope to have the first installment of my series of posts on "Literature for the Modern Mind" up soon. Stay tuned!