Thomas Banks, Author at The Imaginative Conservative

About Thomas Banks

Thomas Banks teaches online at the House of Humane Letters. His writings and translations have appeared in First Things, the New English Review, the St. Austin Review, and Crisis Magazine.

John Colet, Catholic Humanist

By Thomas Banks|2020-08-25T14:26:21-05:00August 28th, 2020|Categories: Catholicism, Christian Humanism, Christianity, Education, History|

John Colet’s life and learning represent Catholic humanism at its finest. He advocated for such reforms in education as the soundest minds of his day also desired. He knew the value of learning and—unlike more than a few intellectuals—he knew also the limits of its advantages. To play about carelessly with the words “humanist” [...]

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An Oaf’s Magnificat: On Kingsley Amis and “Lucky Jim”

By Thomas Banks|2020-07-29T17:17:10-05:00July 30th, 2020|Categories: Books, Education, Fiction, Humor, Literature, Satire|

In 1954, “Lucky Jim” was a new planet: When Kingsley Amis wrote it, English satirical fiction had been for a third of a century a decidedly mandarin and highbrow business. Unlike his predecessors, Amis depicts representatives of the lower orders and the previously inaccessible university world that is not so much a garden of [...]

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