Ha—yes, especially Teilhard calling the Church “the only international organization that works.” It makes Catholicism sound almost like McDonald’s: a gigantic global system, locally staffed, centrally branded, remarkably durable, and capable of absorbing contradiction without changing its basic machinery.

And Dillard builds the essay almost like a Big Mac: geology, theology, romance—three thick layers held together by recurring details and quotations. Is that the resemblance you mean, or something else?