The crisis of responsibility, which is obvious to anyone today, first took root in our homes. We should then address it in our home life. For, of course, home is the ‘home’ of responsibility. There is no context that so clearly demands taking responsibility for others than marriage and family. And a person learns to […]| LifeCraft
With classic insight into what it is to be human, St. Thomas Aquinas notes that in a sense there will be anguish in heaven. It is there as something remembered. “The saints in glory will remember the afflictions they endured,” yet “they will not experience them with anguish.” I find this deeply moving and consoling. […]| LifeCraft
Start living a more human, happier life. Simple, down-to-earth insights from the sages of the ancient world for those who feel lost, and hungry for truth.| LifeCraft
“My body is not my own, but my wife’s.” So John Chrysostom admonishes a husband to tell any woman who would try to seduce him. In an age when many, surely including us, are tempted to see our body as ‘our own,’ this raises an issue of the first importance: what really is mine or […]| LifeCraft
I teach philosophy, and it’s not easy–especially for the students. This is no surprise given our lofty goal to make some progress toward wisdom. Often students can have a sense that they are just not cut out for this. This can cause real grief, since surely we are all made to become to wise. It […]| LifeCraft
People bemoan the loss of craftsmanship, and rightly so. We wonder what has happened to pride and care about every little detail, just because. Indeed, too many have only read about such craftsmen. But there is something much deeper going on that often escapes our notice. There is a greater craft—and it is truly a […]| LifeCraft
What Aquinas writes about dreams is something we have all observed, and it calls for closer consideration: “those things which have occupied a man’s thoughts and affections while awake recur to his imagination while asleep.” This implies that our nighttime dreams are not wholly beyond our sway. Indeed, it grounds a very practical approach to […]| LifeCraft
Socrates’s worldview never ceases to amaze me. As a Christian, I find the depth of his insight surprising, but more to the point, inspiring. If without divine revelation he discovered and lived out such convictions, how much more should I. There are several notable examples, and here I will consider one of his convictions about […]| LifeCraft
It’s a stunning moment in one of the great books: Jim Hawkins doesn’t jump the stockade. The other day when reading Treasure Island aloud with the family, I fairly wanted to jump out of my skin when we came to it. For the fortunate hearer, a moment like this can change everything—or reaffirm everything—about what […]| LifeCraft
There is more at stake in hospitality than meets the eye. The realm of hosting is a privileged context for discovering and enacting our human identity, which means also our divine calling. And home will always be the central place of hospitality. Guests are sent from the gods: such is a recurring theme in Homer. […]| LifeCraft
My father-in-law once explained why he wanted to ‘homeschool’ when almost no one else in the state was doing so. “I wanted my children to be like their mother rather than like the teachers in the schools.” Whether this was or is the best practical conclusion, it in any case indicates a key starting point: […]| LifeCraft
We know that how we earn and spend wealth are significant issues. But often due to the press of life we do not give these the reflection we should. ‘Practical’ demands tend to override deeper human considerations. Our philosophical and theological traditions have much to offer here. In the Republic, while with some very problematic […]| LifeCraft
