Jonathan Wright, Author at Catholic Herald

Jonathan Wright

May 31, 2018

Five hundred years ago, a bizarre “dancing plague” descended on the Alsatian city of Strasbourg. People were to be seen leaping and convulsing “in the public markets, in alleys, and in the streets”. The first victim, a Frau Troffea, was spotted on July 16, 1518. Within a few days, three dozen more citizens had been

Finding the balance between frailty and glory

May 24, 2018

Ignatian Spirituality: A to Z by Jim Manney, Messenger, 204pp, £12.95 I am not entirely convinced that “if you want a metaphor for Ignatian spirituality, basketball is a good one”, and some of Jim Manney’s entries (“Jesuit Jokes” and such) seem a little tangential. But I was rather charmed by this punchy introduction to one

Erudite self-help beyond the gimmicks

March 29, 2018

Standpoints by Svend Brinkmann, Polity, 176pp, £12.99 I was a little wary of a book that, early on, announced itself as a “source of existential inspiration” and promised maxims “that you can learn off by heart and keep in mind as you go through life”. It all smacked of self-help gimmickry. Happily, Brinkmann’s guide to

How ghosts went out of fashion – and returned

March 22, 2018

The Ghost: A Cultural History by Susan Owens, Tate Publishing, 288pp, £20 Zombies and vampires may be the fantastical creatures du jour in popular culture, but ghosts are sure to stage a comeback sooner or later. As Susan Owens suggests, it is perhaps a “reflection of the phlegmatic British character that, by and large, we

Is Western secularism a cultural imposition?

February 15, 2018

Secularism by Andrew Copson, OUP, 153pp, £12.99 “The case for secularism,” writes Copson, “is fairly simple.” The goals usually include a separation of religious and state institutions, freedom of thought and conscience, and a distaste for discrimination on grounds of belief. Copson is even-handed in his analysis but he undoubtedly regards secularism as a good

The Apocalypse from St John to The Simpsons

January 04, 2018

Picturing the Apocalypse by Natasha and Anthony O’Hear, Oxford University Press, 333pp, £12.99 As Natasha and Anthony O’Hear argue, many of the images and symbols contained within the Book of Revelation possess the “vividness and potency of dreams”. As such, they can be terribly enigmatic, so representing them artistically, moving beyond the confines of language,

Mince pies amid persecution

December 21, 2017

The harried English Catholic community stuck to its Christmas traditions, from carols to wild merry-making

Mince pies amid persecution

December 21, 2017

Thomas Hodgson had trouble sleeping on Christmas Eve in 1599. He was a man of Catholic sympathies, well-connected in recusant circles and teaching children in the household of Elizabeth Vaux. For all that, he had continued to conform to the Protestant religious settlement of late Tudor England. “On the very night of Christmas,” as the

Witches, heretics and a treasured poet

December 14, 2017

A heady brew of personal reminiscences, geopolitical commentary and insightful cultural analysis was served up by Peter Millar in The Germans and Europe: A Personal Frontline History (Arcadia Books, 460pp, £20). The book meanders and, for once, that’s no bad thing. Millar makes everything interesting, from his driving lessons in a Lada in East Berlin

Was Elizabeth I really the Hitler of England?

November 16, 2017

Heroes of the Catholic Reformation by Joseph Pearce, Our Sunday Visitor, £12.99 For Joseph Pearce, the term Counter-Reformation is “an ugly label for such a beautiful thing”. The Catholic Church’s strides towards reform and renewal during the 16th century were about much more than rebutting the Protestant threat. This is a fair point, which is

Jonathan Wright: ‘Red popes’ who shaped the world

November 09, 2017

Timidity has never been admired in Vatican secretaries of state. Poor old Fabrizio Paolucci, who held the top job twice in the early 1700s, would be dismissed by one contemporary as “a thoroughly good-hearted man, but one of no great ability, and depending on the pope with a sort of terror”. Then again, when secretaries

The 18th century’s answer to Jerry Lee Lewis

November 02, 2017

Gainsborough: a Portrait by James Hamilton, Weidenfeld, £25 Thomas Gainsborough, it seems, could be a lot of fun. He enjoyed a drink, was loyal to his friends, unless they pressed their luck too far, and his banter with those who sat for his portraits usually went down well. Yes, as James Hamilton concedes in this

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