Counting upon God’s grace, we must recognize and respect the organic nature of man, full of vivacity, spontaneity, and unpredictability. This is the essence of a truly organic—that is, living—society. An element of organic society involves the manner in which remedies are found. In searching for solutions, we must carefully observe the fact that organic [...]
Caryll Houselander's novel "The Dry Wood" succeeds in depicting holiness as a real possibility for flesh-and-blood people and divine love as binding them together without taking away individuality, free will, or all problems. It is ancient in its understanding of the mystical body of Christ, modern in its techniques, and eternal in its evocation of [...]
Christian theology should always be returning to Scripture, be immersing itself in Scripture, and seeking to understand God and His ways and His will through attention to God’s Word. Shapers of Christian Orthodoxy: Engaging with Early and Medieval Theologians, edited by Bradley G. Green (398 pages, IVP Academic, 2010) Whether you have studied academic theology or not, [...]
Economists can analyze trends in production and consumption, but they cannot plumb the depths of the human soul; they can only observe the consequences of certain human commercial acts and take limited conclusions. Unlike the laws of the natural sciences, economic laws involve free and rational human beings and are consequently free of determinism. Given [...]
Russell Kirk would agree that what is happening these days is civil liberty (gone astray) prioritized over public morality. Kirk urged the rising generation to take up the defense of the moral order and the social order, the order of the soul, and the permanent things. It’s a faith worth fighting for. In the opening [...]
In the wasteland of our contemporary culture, in both the church and the world, students and seminarians would do well to read Tom Howard. His essays will give them a fresh perspective, deeper insights, and a broader vision. Pondering the Permanent Things: Reflections on Faith, Art, and Culture, by Thomas Howard, edited by Keith Call [...]
Despite America’s flawed past, despite the fact that previous generations honored some questionable individuals, our history did not unfold solely within the grid of racism. New England pioneers possessed high ideals of justly ordered freedom, and they carried those ideals west, and in “The Pioneers,” David McCullough is on nothing less than a civilizational mission [...]
Every summer, I look forward to reading new books in the months between classes, but this year I'm determined to finish the ones I've started. The word "graduation" in most people's minds means something like "the end of an education," even though the word "commencement" (used for this ceremony at least since 1387, according to the Oxford [...]
It is only through re-infusing the political order with Christian truths and reconnecting it to its transcendent sources that the renewal for which we hope can be achieved. Resurrecting the Idea of a Christian Society, by R.R. Reno (256 pages, Salem Books, 2016) In 1939, as the storm clouds of World War II were gathering [...]
Brian Christopher More's "Beneath the Silent Heavens" is a book about a man who was “daring, willing to endure risk and ridicule for the sake of a hidden Good.” It is a story that teaches that even “the child who cherishes the love of an animal is already weaving a thread in the wedding garment. [...]
We do have moral obligations and duties, and we should perform them conscientiously. But they serve a larger purpose; they are to build us up and make us fit for heaven—to make us happy. Angelic Virtues and Demonic Vices: Aquinas’s Practical Principles for Reaching Heaven and Avoiding Hell, by Fr. Basil Cole, OP (275 pages, [...]
Modernity is best apprehended as being in a ruptured continuum with Greek antiquity—a continuum insofar as the terms persist, ruptured insofar as they take on new meanings and missions. That perspective makes those who hold it avid participants in the present. Jacob Klein was in the last year of his nine-year tenure as dean of [...]
Tom Bombadil is a father-figure in a story filled with them. He is indeed perhaps the most powerful father in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings." He’s there at the beginning to tell the hobbits the stories that they need to hear in order to know their place in the order of things, and to see [...]
Quite simply, William Baer's "Advocatus Diaboli" is contemporary Christian fiction at its finest. It is much more than a mere murder mystery. It is a voyage of discovery, a spiritual adventure, which takes us deeper into the mysteries of faith. Recreational reading is one of the joys of life. It’s such a pleasure, at the [...]