Carol Zaleski

Critics view genealogy as a kind of ersatz historiography, an individualistic reconstruction of the past. But there is more to family tree building.

All I remember from The Magic Stones is the image of a young man, some stones and blocks, and an experiment revealing the most perfect shape.

When the Ascension coincides with Lailat al-Mi‘rāj, perhaps Christians and Muslims can spare a sidelong glance.

The appeal of Abandonment to Divine Providence is its simple, lyrical repetition of a single idea: whatever happens is the will of God.

I've never knowingly visited purgatory or fairy land, but I have set foot in a few small places that, once entered, prove to be larger.

It’s been 100 years since your birth and almost 75 since you entered the abbey. You died with your story unfinished.

Social microhistories can capture big ideas. I’d like to write one on pickles, which are as fundamental to civilization as anything in Chesterton’s pockets.

Psychologists describe a "middle knowledge" of the reality of death. How much of this knowledge is good for us?

At a historical art exhibit, I read that the images on display were intended for private devotion. Would it have been subversive of me to pray?

Dante’s Divine Comedy, if we are willing to read it whole, has a deep unity. The tradition of its interpretation does not.

As we unpack the same ornaments, read the same stories and entertain the same deep thoughts our ancestors did, we have every reason to be gloriously unoriginal.

Sometimes it feels like a thick mist has descended on us, distorting communication. But then a face shines through the mist and dispels it.

We don’t know which experiences specify our humanity. But the Abrahamic faiths agree that we are made of dust and ashes, a bit of clay or a mere clot.

This fall, C. S. Lewis's memorial stone will be unveiled in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. Poets' Corner couldn't ask for a better tour guide.

The meeting of Benedict and Francis, characterized in the media as "potentially problematic," was in fact dramatically unproblematic.

If we take the Christian story seriously, the pope's burdens are not his alone to bear. They are shared by everyone united with him in prayer.

The early history of Alcoholics Anonymous has always fascinated me, so I was eager to see the much heralded new documentary Bill W.

In some circles, the hope for immortality is criticized as unbiblical and sub-Christian. In others it is affirmed as empirical fact.

Neuroscientist Kenneth Hayworth is opposed to death, and he thinks he has a solution.

Rites that include prostration make a striking impression. It's not often that one sees a fellow human in an act of total self-surrender.