Can art be a "bridge to religious experience," as John Paul II argued in his Letter to the Artists (1999)? In the twenty-first century, there is no more prolific, positive response to this question than the art of Michael D. O'Brien. O'Brien's sixteen novels have been translated into fourteen languages, and his paintings grace many Catholic churches in North America. In Living Logos, the first full overview of O'Brien's extraordinary career, Greg Maillet explores nine O'Brien novels and ex...

Although Tolkien's letters call Samwise Gamgee the "chief hero" of The Lord of the Rings, Sam is easily underestimated by both readers and critics. Recovering Consolation focuses attention on Sam's point of view throughout the long journey that is the novel. This book responds to Frodo's famous words at the Stairs of Cirith Ungol, imagining a child speaking to a parent: "I want to hear more about Sam, dad; why didn't they put in more of his talk, dad? That's what I like, it makes me laugh....

If Is the Only Peacemaker explores the drama of Shakespeare through a cultural lens that can be shown to be central to the formation of this theatrical art: fourteenth- to sixteenth-century Catholic Humanism. Part I of this book traces this tradition through key figures in Medieval and Renaissance Humanism, including Dante, Chaucer, Erasmus, and Thomas More. The latter two, especially, convey Catholic Humanism to Shakespeare's England, and help to establish a rhetorical ideal: the union of...