Moral Courage
Which one of us would fail to respond enthusiastically to the courage of heroes, who in moments of grave danger, risk their lives to...
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Pagans or Apostates?
He who aims at changing society—-for good or for evil—knows that he should gain control over three things: education, news media, and...
Platonism: An Atrium to Christianity
One of the marks of a truly great philosopher is his or her concern with crucial questions. Many a thinker is tempted to devote his or her..
Holy Discrimination
Up to some forty years ago, the word "discrimination" had a positive ring. A discriminating person was someone who was subtle, capable of...
Should we be Indifferent to Everything but God?
One of the difficulties we all face in spiritual life is that attitudes which seem to be identical can, in fact, be quite different and...
We Will Be Judged by our Ability to Accept Defeat
I wonder whether former President Bill Clinton has ever given a speech without mentioning “the American Dream.” The dream to which...
Truth or Charity?
One of the most burning topics today is the relationship existing between "truth" and "charity." I shall defend the thesis that they are...
Two Dimensions of Married Love
One of the important contributions of the late Dietrich von Hildebrand (d. 1977) is in shedding brighter light on the two dimensions of...
The Secular War on the Supernatural
In 1965 my husband Dietrich von Hildebrand and I had a private audience with Pope Paul VI, in which my husband "shot from the hip" as...
An Audience with John Paul II
In 1980, I was granted the extraordinary privilege of a private audience with His Holiness Pope John Paul II. Knowing that John Paul had a..
Ingratitude: The Forgotten Sin
I recall vividly that in my early teens I read the memoirs of a priest who, aged 70, bitterly lamented his ingratitude toward his mother...
The Joy of Being Indebted
The word “bankruptcy” is a nightmare to finance people. Literature is eloquent on this topic. Consider Charles Dickens’s Little Dorrit...
Truth: Our Daily Bread
If Socrates were alive today, it is likely that he would sit close to a newspaper per stand and address the people rushing to grab a...
Silence of Riches versus Silence of Poverty
My Dear Friend:
I am sure you have sometimes found yourself sitting next to an unknown person at a dinner party; you try to engage in a...
Murder of Culture
Wherever we turn, we are faced with the words "in our culture." "Our culture tells us." We are implicitly told that we have a social duty...
The Blessings of Old Age
We know neither the day nor the hour. In our sick and violent society, in spite of the laws of statistics, no young person has any...
Two Types of Blindness
Plato’s name has been mentioned more than once in these pages. He deserves to be mentioned once again...
Culpable & Laudable Disobedience
Once again I am going to question your knowledge of ancient Greece. I assume that you have read Antigone — this great work of Sophocles ...
Habit: Friend or Enemy?
Habit plays a cardinal role in human life. In order to gauge its value, however, some distinctions are called for...
The Canons of Friendship
Friendship is the remnant of paradise. Aristotle sees it as a virtue, and one's behavior toward one's friends tells us a great deal about...
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