About Paul Krause

Paul Krause is Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative. He is a teacher, classicist, and essayist. He is the author The Odyssey of Love: A Christian Guide to the Great Books, The Politics of Plato, and contributed to the book The College Lecture Today. He is also the Editor of VoegelinView.

Heroes of Love

By |2020-01-15T15:10:03-06:00January 15th, 2020|Categories: Great Books, Greek Epic Poetry, Heroism, Homer, Iliad, Imagination, Literature, Love, Odyssey, Paul Krause, Senior Contributors|

One of the most defining aspects of our humanity is love. We are creatures of affectivity made in love for love. It is the recognition of this fact that makes Homer so eternal: his heroes are heroes of love. In a cosmos governed by lust, strife, and war, the loving deeds of our Homeric heroes stand out. [...]

The Travels of Jonathan Swift

By |2020-01-08T10:45:46-06:00January 6th, 2020|Categories: Books, Great Books, History, Jonathan Swift, Paul Krause, Senior Contributors|

John Stubbs should be commended for his biography of the great Anglo-Irish satirist and clergyman. The work is not merely a biography; it is also an account that details the turbulence of the times in which Jonathan Swift lived, painting lively portraits of the many figures and personalities with whom he interacted. Jonathan Swift: The [...]

The Face of Love: Beatrice as Type of Christ

By |2019-12-12T12:22:40-06:00December 18th, 2019|Categories: Christianity, Dante, Great Books, Heaven, Imagination, Literature, Love, Paul Krause, Senior Contributors|

Throughout “Paradiso,” Beatrice is Dante’s companion, his light in the darkness, his first fruit guide to Divine Love itself. Dante is transfigured and transformed in Beatrice’s presence and through Beatrice’s wisdom. In this way, she mirrors the typological and sacramental reality of the messiah. Dante sees Beatrice, but hears Love itself in her voice and [...]

Ascending the Mountain of Love

By |2019-12-12T01:49:38-06:00December 11th, 2019|Categories: Christianity, Dante, Great Books, Imagination, Literature, Love, Paul Krause, Senior Contributors|

“Here let death’s poetry arise to life, / O Muses sacrosanct whose liege I am! / And let Calliope rise up and play / her sweet accompaniment in the same strain / that pierced the wretched magpies with the truth / of unforgivable presumptuousness.” Thus was Dante’s opening prayer as he entered Purgatory and prepared [...]

Learning to Love Again: Dante’s Descent in the “Inferno”

By |2019-11-27T20:57:22-06:00December 4th, 2019|Categories: Dante, Great Books, Imagination, Literature, Love, Paul Krause, Senior Contributors|

That there is much depth to Dante’s “Inferno” is an understatement, and the poet’s descent into the abyss is perplexing at first glance. However, by invoking the muses of poetry and in being guided by Virgil, Dante tips his hand and reveals to the astute reader that the journey into—and through—hell will require the flowering of [...]

HAL Unplugged: Fear, Terror, and Salvation in Science Fiction

By |2019-11-21T15:21:51-06:00November 28th, 2019|Categories: Culture, Film, Modernity, Paul Krause, Science, Senior Contributors, Technology|

Deep in the wellspring of science fiction is the ongoing struggle between mechanical monsters and holistic heroes. From bleak and dour tales of extermination and human destruction, to optimistic but nevertheless struggling and pathological battles to save life, science fiction has been battling with our modern monsters from the id boiling up inside of us [...]

The Death of Eros & the Tragedy of Love in “Antony and Cleopatra”

By |2019-10-11T12:59:16-05:00October 10th, 2019|Categories: Imagination, Literature, Love, Paul Krause, Politics, Senior Contributors, William Shakespeare|

Antony and Cleopatra is one of the most mature of William Shakespeare’s tragedies. As such, it is arguably one of his finest and deepest works. Pride, love, and the Fall all factor into the play as much as does the contest between temporal politics and eternal love. Antony and Cleopatra are passionate and energetic and [...]

The Shield of Aeneas: Memory and History in Virgil’s “Aeneid”

By |2020-10-14T12:28:30-05:00October 1st, 2019|Categories: Aeneas, Aeneid, Civilization, Conservatism, Great Books, History, Paul Krause, Senior Contributors, Virgil, Western Civilization|

The “Aeneid” was only possible because the Roman people had the memory and consciousness to make it possible. It is up to us to ensure that its living well of memory doesn’t dry up. Without it, the “Aeneid” will pass into the dustbin of history like the corpses of Priam and Pompey. The grandest image [...]

The Coups Against the Constitution

By |2019-09-16T22:10:49-05:00September 16th, 2019|Categories: American Republic, Constitution, Constitution Day, Paul Krause|

September 17 is Constitutional Day. The conservative establishment will undoubtedly write platitudes to the Constitution, thus creating the illusion that our government still abides by it. It is true that Alexis de Tocqueville observed that the Constitution was the best-crafted document in the world. But that document crafted by the Founding Fathers and eulogized by [...]

An Invitation to Augustine’s “City of God”

By |2019-08-25T00:05:09-05:00August 24th, 2019|Categories: Books, Christendom, Civilization, Education, Great Books, Paul Krause, Senior Contributors, St. Augustine|

No work of Christian theology has left such an impact on the world and biblical interpretation and understanding as St. Augustine’s “City of God.” We who read the Bible do so, often unknowingly, through the eyes of the bishop of Hippo. In 410 A.D., the city of Rome was sacked by the Visigoths. Rome was [...]

Homer’s “Iliad” and the Shield of Love and Strife

By |2019-08-08T09:43:26-05:00August 8th, 2019|Categories: Great Books, Greek Epic Poetry, Homer, Iliad, Literature, Love, Odyssey, Paul Krause, Senior Contributors, War|

The human characters of Homer’s grand epic, the “Iliad,” embody what Homer is driving home at with his poem: the tension between strife and love. Achilles transforms from a rage-filled and strife-filled killer to a forgiving lover touched by the very power of love. Homer’s Iliad is the defining epic of Western literature. Its heroes [...]

From Hector to Christ

By |2020-04-07T03:58:09-05:00August 3rd, 2019|Categories: Death, Great Books, Homer, Iliad, Paul Krause|

Hector, in many ways, is the closest to Christ in the ancient pagan world of heroes, literature, and lore. Yet, he falls short of Christ as all men do—and as all pagans did. But there is something remarkably sacramental about Hector to the Christian reader; there is something about Hector that shows glimpses of the [...]

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