Cathleen Falsani

Cathleen Falsani is a veteran religion journalist and author, specializing in the intersection of spirituality and culture. She lives in Southern California.

All Stories by Cathleen Falsani

A thoroughly modern mystic makes his way to the big screen

By Cathleen Falsani — August 8, 2013
(RNS) The screenplay for "The Divine Comedy of Thomas Merton" is an epic tale of spiritual, emotional, and cultural transformation in the 1960s. And, yes, it is a love story.

There’s something in the air: Grace

By Cathleen Falsani — August 1, 2013
(RNS) Rather than a Third Great Awakening I believe we are standing in the threshold of a Great Grace Awakening.

Love is greater than faith

By Cathleen Falsani — June 27, 2013
(RNS) It would be a stretch to make a case that the Bible endorses homosexuality. But it’s even more difficult to find biblical support for the way in which Christians have maligned, ostracized and otherwise mistreated the gay community.

Mumford & Sons: Hootenanny for the soul

By Cathleen Falsani — June 19, 2013
(RNS) Since their debut in 2009, Mumford & Sons has achieved monumental success, both critically and commercially, particularly among a subset of diehard fans I'd describe as the spiritual-but-not-religious.

Finding hope and wholeness in my son’s return to Africa

By Cathleen Falsani — May 29, 2013
BLANTYRE, Malawi (RNS) There was a time when my son was too sick to run and roughhouse with his brother and the other boys in this village where was born. But as we watched him play soccer with his cousins, we all knew it without having to say a word: They were, each and every one of them, an answer to a mother's prayer.

One pope, two books, countless opinions

By Cathleen Falsani — May 23, 2013
(RNS) In his two months as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, Pope Francis has captured the imagination not only of his own flock, but that of the world at large. Two new books offer further insights into the heart and mind of the new pope through his own words.

Changing the world, one story and one life at a time

By Cathleen Falsani — May 9, 2013
(RNS) Through the vivid accounts of nine girls from the developing world and their valiant struggles for the right to be educated, the new documentary "Girl Rising'' articulates a universal truth: Educating girls ensures a safer, healthier and more prosperous world for all of us.

God won’t mind if we laugh at ourselves

By Cathleen Falsani — May 7, 2013
IRVINE, Calif. (RNS) For eccentric Hollywood director Tom Shadyac, love is the gospel. "I just encourage you to love. And let God take it from there.''

Yoga prodigy seeks joy and finds it

By Cathleen Falsani — May 3, 2013
LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. (RNS) There is a maxim often attributed to the Buddha that says, ``When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.'' The same could be said for yoga instructors.

What would Jesus do with an extra $52 billion?

By Cathleen Falsani — April 24, 2013
LOS ANGELES (RNS) Guilting or cajoling Christians to give the full 10 percent of a biblical tithe is likely a quixotic endeavor. But what if American Christians gave away just an additional 1 percent of their income?

Marcus Mumford and the trouble with labels

By Cathleen Falsani — April 5, 2013
(RNS) Labels can be helpful when, for instance, applied to cans of soup or barrels of toxic waste. But they are less so when affixed to human beings – particularly when labels are meant to summarize, indelibly, one’s spiritual identity. In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Marcus Mumford, the 26-year-old lead singer of the wildly […]

Marcus Mumford & the trouble with labels

By Cathleen Falsani — April 3, 2013
(RNS) Labels can be helpful when, for instance, applied to cans of soup or barrels of toxic waste. But they are less so when affixed to human beings -- particularly when labels are meant to summarize one's spiritual identity.

COMMENTARY: Faith, family and failure

By Cathleen Falsani — January 19, 2011
(RNS) As HBO’s “Big Love” heads into its fifth and final season, series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer are turning their attention back to the bread-and-butter themes that have made their show so compelling: faith and family. Gone are the non sequitur plot turns of last year’s frenetic season (that included, improbably, black […]

COMMENTARY: The coming Gay Awakening

By Cathleen Falsani — January 12, 2011
(RNS) Some of my dearest friends are gay. Most of my dearest friends are Christians. And more than a few of my dearest friends are gay Christians. As an evangelical, that last part is not something that, traditionally and culturally, I’m supposed to say out loud. For most of my life, I’ve been taught that […]

COMMENTARY: True meaning in `True Grit’

By Cathleen Falsani — January 5, 2011
(RNS) Nearly 30 years before brother-filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen released their new film “True Grit,” the younger sibling, Ethan, wrote his senior thesis at Princeton on the works of the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. One of Wittgenstein’s major areas of philosophical concern was religion and religious ideas, including how people believe and express those […]
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