I sometimes get asked what Second Spring is all about. The print journal and the web-site, plus our various activities in Oxford, represent quite a variety of interests. The intention is to communicate to others something of the beauty and truth we have found in the Catholic faith and tradition. In that sense we are trying to be part of the “new evangelization”. But the search for truth does not end, so we are not just interested in telling things we know – we want to learn and listen and understand more, through friendship and conversation with others. And I think there is a certain common ground that we share with a great many people, or at least I hope so.

Philosophically, the root of what we are about is the rediscovery and appreciation of being. The recovery of metaphysics, the sacramental imagination, understanding of symbolism, love of the natural world, and the dignity and destiny of the human person, are all interconnected. Being is a gift, and a Christian heart is one that receives and responds to it as such. The basis of human society is the ability to be with and to be for another person, which adds up to the common good of mankind as a whole. But the appreciation of the mystery of the person (and the mystery of gender bound up with that) cannot be separated from the appreciation of nature in all its richness – not simply as a set of resources for human use, but as full of intrinsic value and adding glory to the creation itself. In the things that are – the creatures with which we share our being – the wisdom and beauty of God is made present in the world.