Introduction. Converting the culture: the evangelizing power of beauty -- Part one: Tradition and conversion. Tradition and conversion in modern English literature -- Twentieth-century England's Christian literary landscape -- Part two: The Chesterbelloc. The Chesterbelloc: examining the beauty of the beast -- Chesterton and Saint Francis -- Shades of gray in the shadow of Wilde -- Fighting the Euro from beyond the grave: the ghost of Chesterton haunts Lord Howe -- Catholicism and "democracy" -- Fascism and Chesterton -- G. K. Chesterton: champion of orthodoxy -- Hilaire Belloc in a nutshell -- Belloc's The path to Rome -- A chip off the old Belloc: Bob Copper in memoriam -- Maurice Baring: in the shadow of the Chesterbelloc -- R. H. Benson: unsung genius -- Maisie Ward: concealed with a kiss -- John Seymour: some novel common sense -- Part three: The Wasteland. Entrenched passion: the poetry of war -- War poets: cutting through the cant -- Siegfried Sassoon: poetic pilgrimage -- Emerging from the Wasteland: the cultural reaction to the desert of modernity -- Edith Sitwell: modernity and tradition -- Roy Campbell: bombast and fire -- Roy Campbell: religion and politics -- Campbell in Spain -- Evelyn Waugh: ultramodern to ultramontane -- Beyond the facts of life: Douglas Lane Patey's biography of Evelyn Waugh -- In pursuit of the Greene-eyed monster: the quest for Graham Greene -- Cross purposes: Greene, Undset and Bernanos -- Muggeridge resurrected -- Part four: J. R. R. Tolkien and the Inklings. Inklings of grace -- From the Prancing Pony to the bird and baby: Roy "Strider" Campbell and the Inklings -- J.R.R. Tolkien: truth and myth -- The individual and community in Tolkien's Middle Earth -- Religion and politics in The Lord of the Rings -- Quest and passion play: J.R.R. Tolkien's sanctifying myth -- True north -- The once and future king -- Tolkien and the Catholic literary revival -- True myth: the Catholicism of The Lord of the Rings -- Letting the Catholic out of the Baggins -- A hidden presence: the Catholic imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien -- From war to Mordor: J.R.R. Tolkien and World War I -- Divine mercy in The Lord of the Rings -- Resurrecting myth: a response to Dr. Murphy's "Response" -- The good, the bad and the ugly: the successes and failures of Tolkien on film -- Would Tolkien have given Peter Jackson's movie the thumbs-up? -- The forgotten Inkling: a personal memoir of Owen Barfield -- Part five: More things considered. The decadent path to Christ -- The quest for the real Oscar: a century after his death, is the real Oscar Wilde finally emerging from the shadows? -- Making Oscar wild: unmasking Oscar Wilde's opposition to "pathological" gay marriage -- Truth is stranger than science fiction -- Hollywood and the "holy war" -- Three cheers for Hollywood -- Purity and passion: examining the sacred heart of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ -- Paul McCartney: a grief observed -- Above all shadows rides the sun: the poetry of praise -- The magic of technology -- Russian revelations -- Dante: assent's ascent -- Shakespeare: good will for all men -- Modern art: friend or foe? -- Salvador Dali: from Freud to faith -- Mr. Davey versus the devil: a true story -- Totus Tuus: a tribute to a truly Holy Father -- Faith and the feminine -- Our life, our sweetness and our hope -- The presence that Christmas presents.