Culture

  • The vacuum where leaders should be

    Politics and institutions are increasingly governed by risk management, not leadership. But real leadership requires imagination, courage and the willingness to challenge false stories. Of course, there are Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, Xi, Kim, and the Ayatollahs, who run their worlds according to their own storyline. But none in any meaningful way serve democracies. But are…

    The vacuum where leaders should be
  • The miracle we keep missing

    Tired parents, difficult coworkers doubt and gossip can become places where holiness fits comfortably inside ordinary, unglamorous human circumstances rather than grand spectacle.

    The miracle we keep missing
  • The whole stadium feels it first

    A room that listens this way learns things about itself that a closed room never could have learned.

    The whole stadium feels it first
  • Knowledge without borders belongs to everyone

    True progress isn’t measured by innovation alone, but by whether AI serves people with no leverage, voice, or seat at the table.

    Knowledge without borders belongs to everyone
  • The rainbow’s real meaning

    Beyond a sign of beauty, the rainbow is read here as a retired weapon, a divine vow to set violence aside.

    The rainbow’s real meaning
  • The courage to be unremarkable

    In a culture that prizes visibility, true worth comes not from standing out — the real challenge isn’t accepting ordinariness.

    The courage to be unremarkable
  • Buddhists, Jesuits and the truth about taxi drivers

    Buddhist philosophy calls it conceptual proliferation. Catholic theology calls it a failure of reverence for the imago Dei. Fr. John Kerr Locke, a Jesuit who spent fifty years in Nepal, called it something simpler: a mistake. Reducing an entire culture to one bad afternoon with a taxi driver is, he insisted, just factually wrong.

    Buddhists, Jesuits and the truth about taxi drivers
  • Banksy captures our moment

    A Banksy statue appeared overnight on a London street — a man in a suit, stepping into thin air. Banal at first glance, the figure crystallises something all the year’s op-eds have failed to: the breathtaking gap between political confidence and political vision in our time.

    Banksy captures our moment
  • Doctrine embedded in code

    Church doctrine is not a monolith delivered whole from a divine height. It is the product of human minds, shaped by culture, era, and a narrowly drawn group of ordained men. Understanding this is the first step toward doctrine that is life-giving rather than life-destructive.

    Doctrine embedded in code

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