Author Archives | Carl Olson

Carl Olson - who has written 23 posts on Catholic Exchange.


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William P. Clark: The Quiet Catholic Who Changed the World

Posted on 24 December 2007

Paul Kengor is a professor at Grove City College and the executive director of the College's The Center for Vision and Values. He is also a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University.…

Seeing (Code) Red: Answering The Da Vinci Code Bullies

Posted on 07 May 2004

The Façade is Crumbling

That’s the impression given by some in the media as they react to a bevy of new books that seek to debunk Dan Brown’s hugely successful novel (seven million copies sold and 57 weeks on or near…

The Left Behind Books: Harmless Fiction or Anti-Catholic Propaganda?

Posted on 07 July 2003

The recent release of a

Prophets of Doom Profit from Gloom

Posted on 29 April 2003

Is Saddam Hussein and his violent regime predicted in the book of Revelation? Is the war in Iraq part of the “end times” events revealed, albeit in mysterious and puzzling ways, in the last book of the Bible? Does St.…

Why Vatican II? Ten Reasons for the Second Vatican Council

Posted on 26 February 2003

Over the past few months the Second Vatican Council has been the subject of several spirited debates at Envoy Encore, the weblog that I edit for Envoy magazine. Generally speaking, there are two strongly differing opinions about the Council.

The Holy Spirit and…

The Great Apologists, Pt. 6

Posted on 03 January 2003



Here are the previous five installments of Carl Olson's “The Great Apologists” series:

Part 5: C.S. Lewis

Part 4: Frank J. Sheed

Part 3: Ronald Knox

Part 2: G.K. Chesterton

Part 1: John Henry Cardinal Newman


Like her friends C.S. Lewis, T.S. Eliot, and Charles Williams,…

The Great Apologists, Pt. 5

Posted on 02 January 2003


Like G.K. Chesterton, whom Lewis admired greatly, he was a writer with tremendous range, authoring the best-selling children’s series Chronicles of Narnia, plus numerous books and essays about medieval literature, contemporary education, literary criticism and apologetics. Although Lewis never became…

The Great Apologists, Pt. 4

Posted on 01 January 2003


(This article was originally published in a different form in the November/December 1999 This Rock, a publication of Catholic Answers: www.catholic.com.)



Part 3: Ronald Knox

Part 2: G.K. Chesterton

Part 1: John Henry Cardinal Newman


Along with his wife Maisie Ward he founded the…

The Great Apologists, Pt. 3

Posted on 31 December 2002


(This article was originally published in a different form in the November/December 1999 This Rock, a publication of Catholic Answers: www.catholic.com.)


He was particularly drawn to ritual and ceremony, writing years later that “long before I had ever seen a ritualistic…

The Great Apologists, Pt. 2

Posted on 30 December 2002


Chesterton’s trademark — which his admirers marvel at and his detractors mock — is his use of paradox. He had uncanny ability to turn the opponent’s argument or premise upside down and inside out, often resulting in startling clarity. This…

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