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.…

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…

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,…

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…

(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…

(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…

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…