Sadly, the Church basically lost the struggle against usury. This failure helped make the terrible cruelties of the conquistadors possible. And it also helped make possible the capitalist economic system which we have today, financed largely by interest bearing loans. Capitalism’s ability to make Christian religion “seem frivolous in comparison” to the imperative of economic…

Masterpieces of the past are good for the past: they are not good for us. We have the right to say what has been said and even what has not been said in a way that belongs to us, a way that is immediate and direct, corresponding to present modes of feeling, and understandable to…

Here’s a basic rule: if you’re reading or watching a Shakespeare play, and you’re not imagining the actors standing in front of a mosh pit of jeering Londoners waiting to throw vegetables at the stage, you’re doing it wrong. Shakespeare might have written the best works in the English language, or given us profound insight…