The Lamp (magazine)

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The Lamp
ISSN
2690-5736

The Lamp is an American bimonthly magazine devoted to literature, culture, and politics from a Catholic perspective.[1][2] It was founded in 2019 by Matthew Walther and William Borman.[3]

The magazine regularly features reporting, personal essays, and book reviews on a broad range of topics. It seeks "with reporting, incisive commentary, and coverage of books and the arts to bring the mind of the Church and a generous, urbane spirit to bear on the questions of modern life."[4] The Lamp has been described by The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, as "a Catholic version of The New Yorker."[5]

The magazine derives its logo from a previous English Catholic periodical of the same name, published by Thomas Earnshaw Bradley during the Victorian era.[6]

History

Matthew Walther, then a columnist at The Week, founded the magazine along with William Borman after noticing that in an otherwise relatively wide and diverse landscape of Catholic media in the English-speaking world, there was nothing "that is actually a magazine, as opposed to a website or a newswire or what-have-you, that is orthodox."[7] The Lamp seeks to fill that gap, "operating under the assumption that anything that is good, true and beautiful falls within the purview of what should be in a good Catholic magazine."[8]

The magazine's first issue included an essay by Hillbilly Elegy author J. D. Vance about his conversion to Catholicism.[9] The Lamp regularly features work from prominent writers and public intellectuals, including Giorgio Agamben, Peter Hitchens, Sam Kriss, and David Bentley Hart.

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat praised the magazine in April 2021 as "Christian journalism that isn't just part of the culture war."[10] In another assessment, Stephanie Slade, managing editor at the libertarian monthly magazine Reason said that her "sense of the world [was] richer" after reading the magazine.[11]

References

  1. ^ "Home". The Lamp Magazine. Retrieved 2021-11-08.
  2. ^ Waldstein, Pater Edmund; O.Cist. (2019-07-09). "The Lamp". Sancrucensis. Retrieved 2021-11-08.
  3. ^ ""Word from the Cloisters" The Tablet:The International Catholic Weekly". The Tablet.
  4. ^ "The Lamp". The Catholic University of America. 2020.
  5. ^ ""Meditation on a magazine cover" The Catholic Spirit". The Catholic Spirit.
  6. ^ Farrow, M (2020). "The Lamp: Why these Catholics are creating a print magazine in a digital age". Catholic News Agency. Retrieved 2021-11-08.
  7. ^ Farrow, M (2020). "The Lamp: Why these Catholics are creating a print magazine in a digital age". Catholic News Agency. Retrieved 2021-11-08.
  8. ^ Farrow, M (2020). "The Lamp: Why these Catholics are creating a print magazine in a digital age". Catholic News Agency. Retrieved 2021-11-08.
  9. ^ ""The Radicalization of J. D. Vance" The Washington Post". The Washington Post.
  10. ^ Douthat, Ross (2021-04-01). "The Cul-De-Sacs of the Christian Intellectual". Reactions. Retrieved 2021-11-08.
  11. ^ Slade, S (2021-07-23). ""Magazines: The Lamp"". Reason: Free Minds and Free Markets. Retrieved 2021-11-08.

External links