Christ-Hauntedness: Between Pagan Sacrifice and Christian Grace

Flannery O’Connor, the American Catholic writer, once described the modern South as “Christ-haunted.” She used this expression to describe a society that had become increasingly distant from Christianity but could not escape its presence. Christ is no longer at the center of people’s lives in the way He once was, yet His shadow remains everywhere. […]

Yukio Mishima and the Tragedy of Fatherlessness

Yukio Mishima remains one of the most fascinating figures of twentieth-century postwar literature. The Japanese novelist, playwright, poet, bodybuilder, nationalist, and eventual author of his own ritual suicide lived a life marked by an intense preoccupation with masculinity. His novels repeatedly return to young men who are searching for something greater than themselves and who, […]