This morning I had one of those startling moments when time folds back on itself, as I remembered a convergence of events that all took place in this sunny week of June, albeit in different years. Think of it as snapshots next to each other, D-Day, juxtaposed with the wedding of a French count at [...]
J.R.R. Tolkien wrote that he "ever loved that noble northern spirit," rooted in the myths and culture of Scandinavia, Germany and England, "and tried to present in its true light.” Indeed, he raised the noble north to the level of Athens and Rome, creating, in "The Lord of the Rings," an epic that stands alongside [...]
Is there hope for the American Republic? Of course, there is always hope, because America is built on timeless truths. Those truths can be mocked, ignored, distorted, or forgotten, but they remain true nonetheless. Every spring semester, I have the excellent privilege of teaching “American Heritage” to college sophomores. In that course, we go from [...]
Any counsel to the stand out class of 2026 is rather simple: In the face of the wickedness of the times, stop, reflect and question. Have recourse to God and the Blessed Mother. One cannot be outstanding without grace, which makes up for shortcomings and leads to Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth [...]
Honor the vision of your founders. Don’t be the generation that cuts itself off from its parents and that disinherits its children. Never be afraid to speak to and for the soul of this nation of which, by good fortune and God’s grace, you are privileged to be part of. In 2012, I had the [...]
The Church owes a profound debt to Eusebius of Caesarea, for without him much of early Christian history and lore would have passed into oblivion, and we would be ignorant of a good deal of our early past. Most believers are probably unaware that the question of Jesus Christ’s divinity was once put up for [...]
The essential error of the modernist theologians is that they have fallen for the myth of the noble savage. But both the noble savage and the urban savage are simplistic generalities: They express a truth and a lie at the same time. The Amazonian synod of 2019 in Rome revealed what might be called “The [...]
Insofar as we understand Plato and Aristotle, we understand where the great thinkers of Christendom, the great writers of Christendom, are coming from. If we don't understand those philosophers, we will be groping and grappling in the dark, or at least in the twilight, trying to make sense of something three or four parts removed [...]
Modernity and modernism, and all their fruits, are deeply opposed to the conservative vision. Conservatism seeks harmony, unity, justice, and dignity. Far from fragmenting life, it seeks to draw all together. As we wrestle with our present twenty-first century day—its successes and its foibles—we conservatives will throw around terms such as modernity, modernism, post-modernism, and [...]
If you are allergic to emotion, this may not be the film for you. But if your heart yearns for good to triumph over evil, for beauty to emerge from squalor, and for the vindication of strong heroes who can fight, shoot, and pray, Les Misérables will be an exhilarating experience. Putting this story before [...]
Howard Pyle’s historical tale illustrates G.K. Chesterton’s claim that fairy tales tell us that “dragons can be killed.” Young Otto is not himself a dragonslayer, but he is an image of the child who can withstand the assault of hatred and brutality without taking on those characteristics himself. Sometimes known as the “Father of American [...]
Lovers of great children’s literature have probably read and enjoyed “The Selfish Giant” by Oscar Wilde, which Wilde had originally written for his own children, reading it to them with tears in his eyes. In the story, the Giant is healed of his selfishness by the love of a child. Angered by his discovery that [...]
The rich soil of faith, family, and friends is where community is formed, where relationships flourish, where roots go down that nourish us. This is where those of us who are rooted in Christ seek to walk out our faith in tangible deeds of sacrifice, loyalty and love, in relationship with people whose names we [...]
At the moment, the Left seems to pose an existential threat to the republic. As a movement, it is composed of totalitarian ideologues who care only about power, not morality or love. They will implement the most inhumane policies imaginable. We must all be on highest alert. During my sixteen years writing for The Imaginative [...]