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Education nourishes the soul

April 26, 2013  •  The Baylor Lariat

"The true college," writes the African-American author W.E.B. DuBois (in words etched in stone in the walkway at Brooks Residential College), "will ever have one goal – not to earn meat, but to know the end and aim of that life which meat nourishes."

In "The Souls of Black Folk," which contains the most eloquent defenses of liberal education ever written by an American, DuBois opposed the exclusion of African-Americans from the right to vote and from civic equality. But he objected equally to the exclusion of African-Americans from the pursuit of a truly liberal education, to their being limited to a merely instrumental education, and education in a trade.

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review of To the Wonder

April 18, 2013  •  National Review Online

In a wedding scene in Terrence Malick's new film, To the Wonder, an elderly woman tells the priest (Javier Bardem) that she offers a specific prayer on his behalf, namely, that he might experience the gift of joy. I felt myself offering a similar prayer as I watched Malick's film, a film about love and wonder that is almost entirely void of joy or even real passion. Echoing many of the themes of Malick's last film, The Tree of Life, Wonder is a disappointing follow-up.

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Pope Francis and the Jesuits

March 14, 2013  •  The Wall Street Journal

Amid the many firsts represented in the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Catholic pontiff—the first pope from South America and the first to take the name Francis—he is also the first Jesuit.

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A Heartening Oscar Crop

February 22, 2013  •  National Review Online

"People need dramatic examples. . . . As a man I'm flesh and blood. I can be ignored. I can be destroyed. But as a symbol, I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting." That's a line spoken by Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, the first film in the trilogy that concluded last year with the release of The Dark Knight Rises. In the past year, symbolic presentations of good and evil ruled at the box office. The list of 2012's top-grossing films leads off with The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Hunger Games; and The Hobbit, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Brave are all in the top ten. That is not surprising; fantasy films of various sorts have dominated the box office for the last decade. What is surprising is that there is less of a gap than in many years between these highest-grossing films and the group of films nominated for Best Picture in the Oscars. Six of the nine nominees have grossed at least $100 million in domestic box office. And, strikingly and perhaps not merely coincidentally, they feature credible stories of heroic struggles against daunting odds and in the face of formidable malevolent threats.

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review of The Hobbit

December 14, 2012  •  National Review Online

For viewers who were enthralled by Peter Jackson's majestic films of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, watching the first installment (of three) of Jackson's version of The Hobbit is likely to be equal parts pleasure and frustration. It is a pleasure to have Middle Earth brought to life on the screen, to see so many familiar faces, and to hear once again Tolkien's eloquent words. It is frustrating that Jackson has attempted to stretch a modest story into three films, a decision that results in the first film, at least, being filled with a tedious series of chase and escape scenes. The visual distractions caused by the new supercharged format, which delivers 3D images at 48 frames per second in place of the usual 24, also irritate. There are many things to like about the film, and some of the enduring themes of Tolkien's vision emerge, but the way Jackson delivers the experience to the viewer turns inside out Tolkien's understanding of fantasy.

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Books by Thomas Hibbs