Over a span of six decades, Fr. James Schall has been one of our foremost thinkers and cultural commentators. A distinguished professor, the author of more than thirty books, and writer of countless essays—his favorite literary form—Fr. Schall has made a life of pondering the most important questions of this world and beyond.

Now, in Run That By be Again, Fr. Schall himself has selected more than fifty of his essays on the most intriguing, urgent, and sometimes difficult topics. These are things we want to—need to—think about again and again, and Schall, with his concise, readable style and teacher’s heart, has a knack for explaining lofty ideas to all.

Here, Schall ruminates on:

• Language, Wodehouse, cooking, music, and putting Jesuit donkeys out to pasture (you’ll just have to read it);
• Abortion, marriage, Christian persecution, and other issues that continue to gnaw away at our Christian culture;
• Christ and His nature, what it means to be human, sin and its origins and consequences;
• And the Cosmos, the South, English departments, and other mysterious places.

The common threads are a love of God, a thirst for wisdom, and a desire for a life well-lived.

Whether this is your first time considering the questions posed and answered in these pages or if you are revisiting them with fresh eyes and a renewed spirit, it is well worth the time to sit with Fr. Schall—one of the greatest thinkers and teachers of the past century—and ponder the great mysteries and truths of life.