Just posted another essay at Catholic365, this one about why Catholics should read H.P. Lovecraft:

There is no question in my mind that Mr. H.P. Lovecraft is one of the great American writers. Certainly he is one of the most influential; there has hardly been a horror or science-fiction tale since that has not owed something to his influence (though it’s true most of his progeny are better at copying the surface features than the substance of his work). He was also a master stylist with gorgeously erudite prose conveying the grisly horrors of his fertile and warped imagination. What is equally or more important, he knew when not to describe his subjects and to let suggestion work its magic on the reader’s mind.

Mr. Lovecraft was, of course, an atheist whose fertile mind had marinated in the atmosphere of Puritan New England, yet in my opinion his work is richly rewarding to a Catholic reader. Far moreso, I would think, than to that of an atheist or practical atheist (as most people today are).

Because, you see, unlike many atheists, particularly those with artistic or scientific minds, Mr. Lovecraft had no illusions of what a godless universe actually meant.

Read the rest here.