Louis A. Ruprecht

If art is the new religion, then museums are the new temples; temples uniquely suited to the vagaries of spirituality in the modern age. That is the suggestive idea explored in Marcia Brennan’s new book, Curating Consciousness. Brennan introduces us to James Johnson Sweeney…

This holiday elevates the divine feminine to a position, not just of importance, but of absolute prominence. It is this that makes the exclusive maleness of the priesthood hardest for many Protestants to understand. How to embrace and exclude femininity at the same time? As modern feminists have the patience to show, that paradox (or rather, deep cultural contradiction) is pervasive, not belonging to a single confession or creed.

This summer, the pope rested at Castel Gandalfo, his traditional summer retreat, urging attention to spiritual priorities, while the Vatican newspaper stayed focused firmly on earthly matters — the legal reforms recently approved in response to the current crisis in the church.