Is hell empty? Pope Francis hopes so. Among the thinkers of the past century who speculated it could be so was Hans Urs von Balthasar, a favorite of the past two popes and a prominent theologian of his time.

John W. Donohue, S.J., an associate editor of America from 1972 to 2007, was described by one Jesuit on staff as "a living rule. Were the Society of Jesus ever to lose its Constitutions, we would need only look to him to see how our life should be lived.”

This week, the New England Patriots parted ways with their legendary head coach, Bill Belichick. Did he get too much credit for the team’s success?

Men's college basketball's finest squad did not come from one of the N.C.A.A. powerhouses of the past three decades, but from the University of San Francisco, where Bill Russell led the team to consecutive national championships in 1955 and 1956.

A Reflection for Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time, by James T. Keane

George Dunne, S.J., never backed down from a fight or a perceived injustice in a long career as a priest, academic and activist.

C. S. Lewis was gifted with an expansive imagination—but much of his spiritual writing doesn't flinch from the hard realities of life.

Was there ever a scholar of more varied interests and fields of expertise than C. J. McNaspy, S.J.?

Though Mary Karr might not consider herself a conventional writer of spiritual autobiography, her three memoirs have made this poet and professor a standard-bearer in the genre.

A Reflection for the Second Sunday of Advent, by James T. Keane