In A Cry of Stone, the fifth novel in the series Children of the Last Days, Michael O'Brien has done his best work yet. This is a remarkable book.

What does it take to bring an undaunted religious perspective into the land of high literary culture? In Sigrid Undset (1882-1949) we have a Nobel laureate novelist who was mindful of all the main issues and whose medieval works have been making a comeback.

In the ongoing enterprise to reveal the mysterious person behind the prized poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616), some scholars are focusing on his religious upbringing and beliefs.

The list of serious writers and thinkers who have marvelled over Dante reads like a 'Who's Who' of the literary world and then there are the many others, who have studied Dante and found themselves drawn ever so gently to know Jesus Christ. Not for nothing has The Divine Comedy been called the fifth Gospel, and for those prepared to make the effort, it is both readable and easy to understand.

The December 1977 issue of Esquire Magazine carried an insightful self-interview with American novelist Walker Percy entitled "Questions They Never Asked Me" and it commenced with a rundown on his not inconsiderable list of personal aversions.

To call Jane Austen a public theologian is counterintuitive for two reasons: she does not seem much interested in things public, and she does not seem much interested in things theological.

The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is an extraordinary cinematic tribute to a great work of Catholic imagination. While not equalling the religious vision of the books, the films honor that vision in a way that Christian viewers can appreciate, and that for non-Christian postmoderns may represent a rare encounter with an unironic vision of good and evil.

Shakespeare reminds us of the line between good and evil running down the center of all human hearts. And in showing us that the line is always there, easily and disastrously crossed, Shakespeare destroys the utopian illusion that social arrangements can be made so perfect that men will no longer have to strive to be good.

In the end, Dan Brown has penned a poorly written, atrociously researched mess. So, why bother with such a close reading of a worthless novel? The answer is simple: The Da Vinci Code takes esoterica mainstream.

In his writings and in his life, J.R.R. Tolkien believed that true myth allows us to see things as they were meant to be, prior to the Fall.