Culture

The Spiritual Connection of Violence

Robert Joustra

January 15, 2021

Robert Joustra writes that last week’s violence at the U.S. Capitol isn’t a phenomenon of lone nutters but the toxicity of radicalized communities persistent even among religious faithful.

In 2015 I spent my summer months hosted by St. Ignatius University in the central Belgian city of Antwerp. We were studying religious radicalization, and Antwerp was an auspicious setting.

At the time, the number of European Muslims leaving to join ...

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Great Reset? Or Grand Unravelling?

Peter Menzies

November 30, 2020

Prime Minister Trudeau has mused that COVID-19 will allow for Canadian society to “re-set” on a number of fronts. Peter Menzies says we’ll have to avoid coming apart at the seams first.

Last week’s unravelling of the so-called Atlantic bubble should erase any lingering romantic thoughts that Canadians are united in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since July 3, the nation’s four Atlantic provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, New Br...

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COVID's Contagion of Disbelief

Peter Menzies

November 18, 2020

Drug companies touting new pandemic vaccines should be causing huzzahs. But Peter Menzies warns septic skepticism in the body politic must also be addressed.

Today’s news that not one but two COVID-19 vaccines have tested 95 per cent effective casts a welcome burst of light into Canada’s gloomy COVID-19 narrative amid signs the pandemic is ripping into its social fabric.

Moderna announced Monday that its ...

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Hitting the (Ouch!) Bumpy (Owww!) Post-Pandemic (Ooof!) Road

Robert Joustra

October 20, 2020

CNN celebrity thinker Fareed Zakaria maps 10 potholes from here to post-pandemia. Reviewer Robert Joustra, as if channeling the Tao of Eeyore, isn’t sure the ride’s worth the ruts.

“There is no new normal,” “these unprecedented times,” “now we all have to work together” – whatever your favorite pandemic BINGO drinking phrase is, you’ve heard it enough since March that you probably had to either give up the game or check into rehab. ...

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Sharing Memory Matters

Peter Stockland

September 2, 2020

Energy wasted defending or toppling statues should instead power a national conversation about what, why and how we collectively commemorate our pluralistic pasts, Peter Stockland writes.

Pictured: a memorial mural found in Belfast for those who lost their lives in conflict. Photo by Peter Stockland.

For her book Talking Stones: The Politics of Memorialization in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland, Elisabetta Viggi...

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Panic’s Power to Distract

Peter Stockland

March 4, 2020

While fears of coronavirus rise to pandemic proportions, Peter Stockland suggests Canadians look to our own land, concerning ourselves instead with Indigenous reconciliation.

Four decades ago, The New Republic’s editor Michael Kingsley gained a place in the journalistic wit hall of fame by declaring “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative” to be the most boring headline in history.

The Bloomberg news service might have ...

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The Myths of Starting Over

Jacob Sims

March 4, 2020

When we travel and separate from our historical baggage and community, we reach a radical moment to start over, writes Jacob Sims. But we do not start from square one.

Sunlight fades to a glorious, breezy, dry-season evening. Rickshaws and motorbikes hurtle in mesmerizing rhythm amidst the unfamiliar bustle below.

I stand here at the railing for a moment, then walk over to the pool, kick my sandals off and sit down...

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A Christian Face on Climate Change

Rebecca Darwent

February 21, 2020

Rebecca Darwent hears from the leader of environmental group A Rocha Canada on how forthright hope can overcome eco-anxiety and anger.

A petition by young people vowing to remain childless in the name of climate change floated across online platforms and garnered Canadian media attention this past fall. But it isn’t just unmarried university students who have considered climate change a wo...

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Is Reconciliation Being Railroaded?

Raymond J. de Souza

February 20, 2020

Indigenous land claim protests might spell the death of reconciliation if they continue threatening the rule of law, Father Raymond de Souza argues.

“Reconciliation is dead and we will shut down Canada until Canada pays attention and listens to and meets our de...

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Paying Faith News Forward

Rebecca Darwent

February 5, 2020

An innovative approach by Winnipeg journalist John Longhurst engages religious communities in the media by asking them to fund multi-faith coverage, Convivium’s Rebecca Darwent reports.

Faith groups complaining about absent media attention must share the blame they direct at news organizations, contends Winnipeg Free Press religion writer John Longhurst.

Negative stories of abuse scandals or terrorism will always make the ...

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Speaking the Passion of Christian Schooling

Daniel Proussalidis

January 28, 2020

Adrienne Castellon talks to Cardus Director of Communications Daniel Proussalidis about a series of case studies she worked on mapping the stories of 11 Catholic and Protestant schools across Canada.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfd_m2lhBo0

Daniel Proussalidis: What motivated this particular research of 11 case studies, several provinces involved, several c...

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The Cultural Mousetrap of Cats

Peter Stockland

January 7, 2020

The less-than-purrfect Cats movie presents an underlying problem with the way in which our entertainment industry claws at art and replaces it with something in-fur-ior.

Cats the movie is worse than bad. It is offal.

Its director, Tom Hooper, utterly guts the gentle soul of T.S. Eliot’s classic Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, from which the film is drawn as if by a child’s hand in green and or...

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Just Do It or Just Let It Be?

Robin Mercurio

December 10, 2019

Citing the example of LeBron James, Robin Mercurio says there are ramifications when a celebrity athlete voices opinions on a specific social, political issue but falls silent on others.

When asked to comment on the ongoing violence and crisis in China between the communist government and its citizens, LeBron James finally listened to Fox News anchor, Laura Ingraham when she told him to shut up and dribble.

After playing 25 minutes ...

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The Point of Darkness Around the Light

Rebecca Darwent

December 5, 2019

In the second of her weekly reflections on Advent, Convivium’s Rebecca Darwent notes that even in biology certain flowers need a time of darkness before they flourish. So, spiritually, we need winter’s night in our souls to encounter the blazing light of Christ.

This is the second article of a weekly series of Advent reflections. To read the first piece, please click here: An Advent(ure) of the Heart.
...

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Why Turn Our Backs On Cherry?

David McKernan

December 4, 2019

In response to Peter Stockland's defense of Don Cherry's firing, David McKernan wonders if the decision overstepped Canada’s values of inclusivity and politeness.

In his recent article, “We’re All Canadians, Mr. Cherry,” Peter Stockland argues that Don Cherry’s use of “you people” in his controversial rant during Hockey Night in Canada, was ...

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Stitching an Abrahamic Tapestry

Rebecca Darwent

December 4, 2019

During the years he spent knitting together a vast artwork of ecumenism, Kirk Dunn thought he might be wasting his time. Convivium’s Rebecca Darwent writes that what he produced is just what our present time needs.

Photo credit: Jorjas Photography

Unveiling the artist’s work at the end of a show might seem back...

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Space For Forgiveness

Tyler Brooks

December 2, 2019

Former hockey coach Bill Peters was under fire after allegations of targeting player Akim Aliu with racial slurs 10 years ago. While the act itself cannot be excused, missing from the conversation is the key element of forgiveness, writes contributor Tyler Brooks.

There is a lot of news recently coming from the NHL and it is not about who will win the Stanley Cup. What began as a story about former Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock embarrassing then rookie Mitch Marner, has now arguably changed to how we se...

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Questioning the Outrage-Apology Cycle

Peter Stockland

November 29, 2019

The routine offense-apology-criticism as a response to issues of political correctness does not answer the deeper problems that could be addressed simply by slowing down and asking key questions, Peter Stockland writes.

In its very particularity, the flap over St. Francis Xavier University’s apology to a former student for a plaque honouring Brian Mulroney has general application to what seems a deep error of our day.

Earlier this ...

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The Aftermath of Falling Walls

Raymond J. de Souza

November 21, 2019

Father Raymond de Souza reminds us that bloodshed rarely ends the instant freedom rings out. When the Berlin Wall fell, tyrants still murdered the innocent.

Thirty years after the breaching of the Berlin Wall, there has been much attention to the victory of freedom in the Cold War. The Cold War would not formally end for another two years, when the evil empire itself, the Soviet Union, would be erased from the ...

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Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

Rebecca Darwent

November 20, 2019

Matthew Kaemingk, recently named Hamilton-based Redeemer University College’s 2019 Emerging Intellectual, challenges Christians to defend the religious freedom of all faiths as they do their own.

Christians are really good at defending their own religious freedoms. When it comes to other faith traditions, however, Christians often seem quite ill-prepared to defend the religious freedoms of non-Christians.

This discrepancy was one of two key ...

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Cherry Sincerity and Insincerity

Raymond J. de Souza

November 13, 2019

Father Raymond de Souza says to count him out of those piling on Don Cherry for being fired from Coach’s Corner.

Recall that a few years back, the loathsome Rob Ford was elected mayor of Toronto. He was loathsome, that is, to all the people who counted, not the voters. At his swearing-in as mayor, he invited Don Cherry to be on hand. Doubly loathsome, except to the vo...

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Kanye Dig It? He’s Really Christian

Aaron Neil

November 7, 2019

While listeners puzzle over what to make of Kanye West’s new Gospel album, Jesus is King, Aaron Neil argues that Ye’s Christianity has been part of his music all along.

Kanye West is not a typical celebrity. The producer, rapper, fashion designer, and entrepreneur repeatedly dizzies fans with eruptive interviews, award show antics, and innovative albums. His recent conversion to Christianity broadcast on his latest album, ...

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Changing the Meaning of Climate Change

Peter Stockland

October 31, 2019

With the 2019 federal vote being dubbed Canada’s climate change election, Convivium’s Peter Stockland says all sides must change rhetorical theatrics into serious reasonable solutions.

Announce boldly in any bar where two or more are gathered that modern humans owe our existence to climate change. You’ll be ridden out of town on a rail – or carried about in a sedan chair like an old-style pope.

Yet that’s precisely what serious aca...

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Beyond The Way Things Are

Alida Thomas

October 29, 2019

In Jeremy Courtney's Love Anyway, Alida Thomas finds stories of loving with resilience in the midst of war, disaster and betrayal, as well as important lessons of peace for a polarized world.

Author update: In January 2022, Jeremy and Jessica Courtney were removed from their leadership in Preemptive Love Coalition following a formal investigation into serious concerns about the organization’s leadership and culture,...

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