December 1969 (New Jersey)
“Christmas,” the old priest snarled, “is an outrage!” He looked about the classroom, hoping to have awakened at least a few students. “Christmas violates the laws of nature and of man.” Some...
I found Matthew Summers' critique of my essay "Capitalism and the Gospel of Love" illuminating in the sense that two serious thinkers can look at the same phenomenon from completely different viewpoints. He seeks to show that...
The twentieth century produced many giants and many heroes. Yet many of the giants were not heroes, and many of the heroes were not giants.
Hitler was a giant, as were Lenin, Stalin, and Mao. Each...
I imagine that on Parents’ Weekend there might be some parents attending this once weekly occasion when the college assembles to hear a lecture. By its very name, a lecture is read—but read out loud, delivered in the writer’s voice. Thus, the...
Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join Stratford Caldecott as he considers the divine nature of giving as explained by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. —W. Winston Elliott III, Publisher
My...
As Edmund Burke began to wind down his very long letter—that which would become 1790’s Reflections on the Revolution in France—he returned to the question of first principles and right reason, especially in regard to the nature of...
In the 1820s, Washington Irving was credited with inspiring the romantic revival of Christmas in America. His Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gentleman relayed sentimental tales of the British holiday with all its romance and traditions. The...
“Music seems to exist in and of itself, like a temple built around your soul.”
Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979)
The story of music in the twentieth century would have been very different without...
Vast topics are notoriously easy to avoid, and those who undertake to wrestle with them in public owe their audience some concrete reason for their choice. Let me begin with mine.
First, this summer I had...
Christmas gift recommendations are one thing, but what if I took you shopping for all things bookish? In the space of half-an-hour, we can visit five unique shops and spend as little or as much as we like without even buying a book.
1.
Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join Thomas Ascik as he considers three recent books that address the prospects for Christianity in modern American culture. —W. Winston Elliott III, Publisher
It is the encounter with beauty, all-consuming beauty, the infinite, which directs the human soul back to God. The sky calls us up; the earth drags us down... On December 2, 1805, the French Emperor...
Clint Eastwood made his name with a squint, a glare, a snarl, and a few well-chosen one-liners. His vigilante loner has served him well in films from the spaghetti Westerns, the Dirty Harry franchise, Unforgiven, Pale Rider, and more.
Standing with his father as they watched the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, eight-year-old John Quincy Adams must have wondered in amazement at the bloody and brutal nobility of it all. And, what must he have thought...
