Give us grace to endeavor after a truly Christian spirit to seek to attain that temper of forbearance and patience of which our blessed savior has set us the highest example; and which, while it prepares us for the spiritual happiness of the life to come, will secure to us the best enjoyment of what this world can give. —from Jane Austen’s Prayers Describing them as “the last great representative of the classical tradition of virtues,” Alasdair MacIntyre identifies in the works of Jane Austen a marriage of Christian and classical themes. Many elements of a systematic virtue ethic shine through the entire body of Austen’s work, as the search for happiness undergirds the actions of each character that appears in the novels. Whether it entails discussing Shakespeare’s sonnets with a charming young man or accepting the proposals of a very silly…

Both of my sons are wordsmiths, and the elder one has a particular facility for delivering groan-inducing puns with such lightning speed that even as you roll your eyes, you can’t help but be a little impressed—or terrified—by how dexterously his brain can associate many things with many other things. A few years ago, during a chat about Traditional Chinese Medicine, I explained that practitioners will advise their patients to nourish and build up the yin energies through autumn and winter and the yang energies in the springtime and summer. I had barely finished my sentence when he said, “Well, obviously! What’s yanger than springtime?” A gift for wordplay is the sign of an active, engaged mind, and I always appreciate seeing evidence of Jesus’ vigorous intellect in the bits of affectionate, word-based, and rather Semitic humor on display in Scripture; I marvel at Jesus’ deft tongue. In Matthew 14,…

My favorite moment of an otherwise underwhelming Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday night was when Shia LaBeouf came on stage with Zack Gottsagen, a thirty-four-year-old actor with Down Syndrome. Together they presented the award for best live-action short film, making Gottsagen the first person with Down Syndrome ever to give an award at the Oscars. LaBeouf and Gottsagen starred together in the touching 2019 film The Peanut Butter Falcon. They are genuine friends and have marvelous chemistry on screen. It was a shock, therefore, when LaBeouf was accused on Twitter of making fun of Gottsagen on stage when, to my eyes, LaBeouf and Gottsagen both appeared nervous, and LaBeouf seemed to have been helping Gottsagen relax and say his lines. In any case, it was a joy to see a person with Down syndrome in such a popular forum. In a room full of influencers who promote myriad…