In further reflection on the Free Enterprise Insitute’s recent program, “The Education of the Founding Fathers,” as well as in anticipation of the Center’s upcoming program on Dawson’s The Crisis of Western Education, I wanted to offer some thoughts and encourage discussion on the question of whether education in general and a liberal arts education, [...]
With today’s release of the film of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, its appropriate to consider some of the reasons Bentley Hart gives us in his article “The Trouble with Ayn Rand” (found in the 2011 May edition of First Things) as to why we should avoid seeing this film. It’s especially important to consider these reasons [...]
Last week, the US Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) issued a statement saying that military intervention in Libya “appears to meet” the just-cause criterion of Catholic teaching on just war, cautioning, however, that it has “refrained from making definitive judgments” in light of “many prudential decisions beyond our expertise.” Additionally, this past Sunday, Pope [...]
As I mentioned in my previous essay, although we still think incest is wrong, we appear to be reaching the point where we can’t explain why its wrong. We’re in this predicament because, at some point, we began to that think that extra-marital heterosexual sex is morally permissible, and, more recently, that homosexual sex is [...]
The short answer: none—that is, if all that’s required for a morally permissible sexual relationship is that it involve: (1) adult partners; (2) who are mentally competent; and (3) who fully consent to the relationship (for good measure, we could even add that the partners have a sufficient emotional bond and that their sexual [...]
In acknowledgement of MLK day, I wanted to raise the question, based on Martin Luther King Jr.’s, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” as to when, if ever, as well as to what extent, it is appropriate to defy the rule of law. On The Imaginative Conservative Winston Elliott raised the question “When is a Change [...]
A few days before Christmas, in anticipation of Christian’s celebration of God’s incarnation, the Wall Street Journal published an article by Ricky Gervais, a British writer, actor and comedian, entitled “Why I Do Not Believe in God”, which can be found here. Though not academic, Gervais’ article offers his sincere reflection on the question [...]
As indicated in my essay last week on Dr. George’s article addressing the “gay marriage” question, following is a summary of his responses to certain objections. My summary of the main thrust of his argument can be found here and the complete text of Dr. George’s article can be found here. Objection I: Some, [...]
Dr. Robert George, professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, recently weighed in on the “Gay Marriage” debate. In his article, “What is Marriage?,” published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Dr. George argues that the common good of our society requires that we legally enshrine the traditional view of marriage and [...]
Robert George This past Wednesday night, Dr. Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideas and Institutions at Princeton University, gave the keynote address at the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston’s annual Red Mass. The Red Mass marks the traditional beginning of the judicial year and [...]
Christopher Dawson Apropos of the title of this online journal, I think it appropriate to offer a few Russell Kirk-inspired refections as to what it means to be an “imaginative conservative.” In his essay, “The Cultural Conservative”, found in Politics of Prudence , Russell Kirk explains what it is to be an imaginative [...]
Hilaire Belloc I ended my last reflection on Hilaire Belloc’s An Essay on the Restoration of Property by asking whether the government redistribution of property is the only way to make the transition from a non-proprietary state to a proprietary one, and if so, whether this would be a permissible means to [...]
The recent esays on distributism and the many comments in response raised a number of interesting questions and also revealed that a number of readers, including myself, were to varying degrees perplexed as to both distributism’s aims and methods of implementation. While John Médaille’s five part series on distributism clarified a great deal, the [...]
Very insightful analysis, Gleaves (see The Founding Fathers—Our First Neocons?). You leave us with a number of good questions that need answering in order to develop a consistent, well-defined understanding of what it means to be conservative. Without venturing an answer to these questions, I do want to point out that your underlying assumption appears [...]