The Dalai, the Dinosaur, and the Tao

By |2021-08-28T09:26:55-05:00May 23rd, 2013|Categories: C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Eastern Thought, Moral Imagination, Morality|Tags: , |

In his inaugural lecture at Cambridge University, C. S. Lewis referred to himself as a type of dinosaur; a species of “Old Western man” that was about to go extinct in the mid-20th century. Today I had the extraordinary opportunity to spend some time watching a man who I fear might also be one of the [...]

Damsels in Distress: A Cultural Anti-Depressant

By |2021-12-22T09:29:42-06:00May 22nd, 2013|Categories: Barbara J. Elliott, Culture, Film, Modernity, Moral Imagination, Whit Stillman|

If you’re feeling depressed about the culture around you, Dr. Elliott has a prescription for you: one full dose of Whit Stillman’s most recent film, Damsels in Distress, followed by tap dancing. I am perfectly serious. This charming story unfolds with a group of quirky college girls on the campus of Seven Oaks, a fictitious Ivy [...]

Russell Kirk: An Integrated Man

By |2016-02-12T15:28:24-06:00May 14th, 2013|Categories: Christianity, Community, Conservatism, Culture, G.K. Chesterton, Moral Imagination, Russell Kirk|Tags: |

The most obvious and important thing that must be said about Russell Kirk concerns the harmony that existed between his public and his private life. He was an integrated man who lived what he wrote. There were no disappointing disjunctions between the private and the public self. On the contrary, the happy domestic life at [...]

Sister Coulsey’s Furnace

By |2014-01-17T12:04:25-06:00May 11th, 2013|Categories: C. R. Wiley, Fiction, Literature, Moral Imagination|

Pastor Ricky had placed all his hopes on the Hawaiian shirt. He wanted to connect with people and he had seen one of those television preachers wearing one. The people at the TV preacher’s church were all tanned and good-looking. Some were even drinking coffee during the service. I need what that guy has, Ricky [...]

Awakening the Moral Imagination

By |2019-10-30T11:48:44-05:00May 7th, 2013|Categories: Featured, Literature, Moral Imagination|Tags: , |

The notion that fairy tales and fantasy stories stimulate and instruct the moral imagination of the young is, of course, not new. The Victorians certainly held to that notion when they brought the fairy tale into the nursery. In our day, we have seen a resurgence of interest in the fairy tale. The renowned psychiatrist [...]

Gulliver’s Final Voyages

By |2019-02-07T11:14:54-06:00May 4th, 2013|Categories: Books, Literature, Moral Imagination|Tags: , , |

Samuel Johnson famously said of Gulliver’s Travels: “When once you have thought of big men and little men, it is very easy to do the rest.” It is a flippant verdict, yet it’s true that most people lose interest in Swift’s tale after the first and second voyages (to Lilliput, land of small people, and [...]

English Letters in the Age of Boredom

By |2019-10-30T13:35:41-05:00April 27th, 2013|Categories: Books, Literature, Moral Imagination, RAK, Russell Kirk, T.S. Eliot|Tags: |

Some day I shall write a book with the title The Age of Eliot (ed., published as Eliot and His Age). The span of Mr. T. S. Eliot’s life, extending from the ascendancy of President Cleveland and Lord Salisbury to our present troubled hour, has been characterized by as much material change as any age in the whole [...]

Russell Kirk: An Old House Dies With Love and Honor

By |2024-02-14T05:38:29-06:00April 21st, 2013|Categories: Ash Wednesday, Bradley J. Birzer, Moral Imagination, Russell Kirk|Tags: |

For those of us blessed enough to have visited Russell Kirk’s Piety Hill, we already know what charms have settled over the place, become one with the surrounding woods, the architecture, and the very home itself. Annette Kirk, that uncontainable force of nature, is, of course, the perfect hostess. And, who would not be enthralled [...]

Tempi Cambi: Tradition and Modernity in The Godfather

By |2017-09-05T23:06:29-05:00April 7th, 2013|Categories: Books, Film, Mark Malvasi, Modernity, Moral Imagination, Tradition|

America, that bright, shining land of freedom, opportunity, and progress, is irredeemably corrupt. It is in the hands of debased and hypocritical politicians, judges, businessmen, and their servants, such as the debauched Hollywood film maker Jack Woltz, the belligerent New York police captain Mark McCluskey, the rapacious Las Vegas gambler Moe Greene, and the contemptible [...]

Science, Literature & Virtue: Madsen Pirie’s ‘Tree Boy’

By |2013-12-16T23:07:45-06:00April 6th, 2013|Categories: Art, Books, Culture, Film, Moral Imagination, Stephen Masty, Virtue|

Madsen Pirie’s science-fiction novel Tree Boy begins like Robinson Crusoe, morphs into a murder mystery and ends as an action thriller; and if that sounds confused, well, it is anything but. It targets teenagers; a venerable form with distinct protocols, that appeals to grown-ups lifelong in books such as “Treasure Island.” Amid gripping action come [...]

Lost and Found in the Cosmos: Lovecraft, Lewis & Alien Worlds

By |2019-05-30T12:21:58-05:00March 29th, 2013|Categories: C. R. Wiley, C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Featured, Literature, Moral Imagination|

Recently some astronomers discovered two earth-sized planets orbiting Kepler-20, a star roughly 1,000 light years away. Congratulations to them; their detective work was nearly as awe-inspiring as the news. A flurry of articles followed the find, speculating on the nature of these worlds, along with a little speculation on whether or not we will ever [...]

The Chronicle of an Undeception: Freedom and Order

By |2019-10-10T14:56:53-05:00February 27th, 2013|Categories: Christianity, Conservatism, Faith, Moral Imagination, Ordered Liberty|Tags: |

  The central myth of the sixties was that [its] wretched excess was really a serious quest for new values.–George Will I. The Tragic Vision of Life I confess to believing at one time or another nearly all the pervasive and persistent fantasies of the sixties. In the words of Joni Mitchell's anthem for the Woodstock [...]

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