Myth equals a truth that cannot be explained by mere fact. A fact is utilitarian: It demands verification and replication. A myth can emphasize the beauty of God’s creation as well as the sacramental nature of life. Myth holds an estranged place in the modern world. But this is the modern world’s fault, not myth’s. [...]
Arguably the first twentieth-century dystopian, Robert Hugh Benson authored “Lord of the World,” a prophetic vision of a ravaged world run by an unholy alliance of Free Masons and Communists. The first great dystopian writers of the twentieth century came from upstanding British families. Arguably the first twentieth-century dystopian, Robert Hugh Benson was the third [...]
A culture cannot survive without a religion, at least not for long. A culture derives from the cultus, the group of people, usually based on kinship ties, who banded together to worship the same deity or deities. Once a common worship and understanding of theology develop, a culture developed from it. From the culture, then [...]
One of Russell Kirk’s many strengths came from his uncanny ability to criticize the culture but to do so as one in and among the very culture he criticized. And, when he did criticize, he did so as one who lived and breathed what he believed. When he wrote, he did so with immense conviction. [...]
Preface For almost as long as I have had the privilege of reading, I have read dystopian literature. I started with Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, but I soon rather quickly devoured Brave New World, Animal Farm, and Nineteen Eighty-Four as well as many of the works of Robert Heinlein, Ursula Le Guin, Arthur [...]
The young man in the statue at Concord Bridge sports a tri-cornered hat. In one hand rests the musket. In the other, the plough. Every good American would rather farm than fight. But, every good American also knows there is a time to fight, a time to defend, a time to make good what has [...]
When Thomas Jefferson expressed the common sense of the subject of independence in 1776 in the Declaration, he and Congress relied on the intellectual and philosophical convictions first expressed by John Dickinson nearly a decade earlier in “Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer.” Viscounted Foolishness When the Rockingham ministry fell in 1766, one of the most [...]
Clyde Kilby, an English professor from Wheaton College, worked with Tolkien in the summer of 1966. “Tolkien was an Old Western Man who was staggered at the present direction of civilization,” Kilby recorded after a summer of conversations with Tolkien. “Even our much vaunted talk of equality he felt debased by our attempts to ‘mechanize [...]
When I found out I was being granted the immense privilege of spending the year at the University of Colorado-Boulder, I knew immediately that one of the most important goals for my year was to meet the husband-wife, science-fiction team of Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta. Not that I wanted to be a stalker or [...]
The twentieth century witnessed the shattering of the traditional social and moral order among nations as the infection of the ideologues and their murderous ideological regimes spread throughout the civilized world. It began in earnest with the assassination of a central European archduke and the consequent destruction of the Old World in 1914. But in truth, the [...]
Can you imagine a Roman republican, reborn, walking the streets of Philadelphia in 1776? Or how about Lexington in 1775? Or perhaps Boston in 1765? What would he think of the American fondness for Rome and her republicanism? What would the Americans think of him? I am guessing that an American republican would be much [...]
During England’s darkest days of World War II, hope emerged from an unlikely source. An Oxford don–a professor of English literature, who would later be best known for a seven-part children’s fantasy series–gave frequent public addresses to the English people. Their purpose was to bolster English spirits. In late February, 1943, he devoted three of [...]
While many across the political spectrum would like to discover the secret of Ronald Reagan’s success, some conservatives, believing the fortieth president a high priest of the American civil religion, have dismissed him as a barely closeted progressive who blithely saw the good in all. After all, it is always morning in America… While one might [...]
Joseph Michael Straczynski (b. 1954), better known to his fans, affectionately, as “Joe” or “JMS,” is one of the most important storytellers of our modern era, though far too few know who he is. Those who know him, know him well. Sadly though, there is no middle ground when it comes to awareness of one [...]