St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Neil Dhingra January 4, 2021 Commentary, Ecclesiology, Liturgy, Roman Catholic Church By Neil Dhingra Famously, Dorothy Day once said, “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed that easily.” The writer Robert Ellsberg, who had recorded that line, noted that Day did not want to be r... Read More...
The Dangerous Pleasures of an Intellectual Life Neil Dhingra September 29, 2020 Books, Commentary, Roman Catholic Church By Neil Dhingra In her Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life, the St. John’s College tutor Zena Hitz presents an engagingly diverse (and often imprisoned) set of thinkers: Dorothy Day... Read More...
The Eighth Commandment: Theft for a Good Cause? Neil Dhingra September 14, 2020 Bible, Catechesis, Commentary, Roman Catholic Church, Ten Commandments Part of a series on the Ten Commandments. By Neil Dhingra In Alex Gibney’s The Inventor, a documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, the turtlenecked and deep-voiced founder and erstwhile CEO of Theranos, now i... Read More...
The Plague and the Pandemic Neil Dhingra July 9, 2020 Books, Commentary, Roman Catholic Church By Neil Dhingra Unsurprisingly, amidst this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Albert Camus’ The Plague has again become popular. According to the writer Samuel Earle, in Japan more copies sold in March than during ... Read More...
Papal Preaching and the Pandemic Neil Dhingra May 13, 2020 Commentary, Lay Voices on Preaching, Ministry, Roman Catholic Church This post continues a series of essays on preaching from the perspective of lay people. Previous entries may be found here. By Neil Dhingra Perhaps the most haunting photographs from this “Time of the Vir... Read More...
“A Terrible Light” Neil Dhingra February 2, 2020 Bible, Commentary, Good Book Club, Roman Catholic Church Being reborn is not easy. It is Lazarus being called to life by a “terrible light.”
Memento Mori: On Death and Evil Neil Dhingra October 31, 2019 Commentary, Contributors, Roman Catholic Church Faith strangely exists amidst explicit doubts when we contemplate our death.
Springsteen, Belonging, and Religion in Blinded by the Light Neil Dhingra September 11, 2019 Commentary, Movies, Music, Reviews & Culture, Roman Catholic Church To be sure, Springsteenism is an ambiguous religiosity. Springsteen, as Roops pronounces, “knows everything you’ve ever felt … and he can describe it better for you.” His music allows one to see the depth and profundity in ordinary life — to see even father-son conflict as “something as old as time,” as Manzoor says, and to respond with empathy. Springsteen himself is a role model of uncommon decency.