Though J.R.R. Tolkien said that the Roman Catholicism only entered "The Lord of the Rings" consciously in its revision, one finds prayer, notions of hierarchy, and Catholic sacramental elements in the earliest conceptions of the legendarium. In 1900, much to the dismay of her family, Mabel Tolkien was confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church. Her [...]
As we ponder the meaning of history and ethics, we must ask: How do we reach unity without conformity? What should be conserved? And exactly what is freedom for? Our beginnings are quite noble and quite heroic. When the Persian god kings looked at the decentralized, myriad Greek City States, they were filled with pride [...]
Our rights as Americans can never be separated from our duties. But we must also ask, what is our liberty for? We live in an age of determinism, especially when it comes to academics and academia. There’s little choice, it seems, and everything is driven by some autonomous and often abstract forces, progressively (often) and [...]
We Americans must ask: Is the republic alive? Should we despair? Are things any better in A.D. 2022 than they were for Rome in 43 B.C.? It’s been a rambunctious (or insert the descriptive of your choice) year and a half. We’ve endured—sometimes nobly and sometimes sordidly—COVID; lock downs; race riots; the tearing down of [...]
The once-radical belief that Christopher Columbus was evil has sadly become mainstream. But Columbus was a brave and tenacious explorer—flawed, of course, like every man—who expanded the knowledge of the Old World, changing it and the New World forever. Christopher Columbus changed the world. It’s as simple as this. We might argue that these changes [...]
One doesn’t have to agree with everything Michael Novak argued to recognize the genius of the man. Like all true conservatisms, his democratic capitalism was as much an anti-system as anything recognizable as a system. He was a giant of an intellect, and his best book deserves to be remembered, even if in friendly opposition. [...]
Michael Jahosky argues in his new book that J.R.R. Tolkien engaged in the telling of a parable, and that the great author wanted to create Christian art and mythology, not Christian propaganda. The Good News of the Return of the King by Michael T. Jahosky (230 pages, Wipf and Stock, 2020) Scholar Michael T. Jahosky [...]
Propaganda has both short-term and long-term consequences. In the short term, propaganda can influence people to support particular policies, even if those policies cut against their best interests. In the long run, propaganda erodes democratic foundations. The Imaginative Conservative's Brad Birzer interviews Abigail R. Hall, co-author of "Manufacturing Militarism," which Dr. Birzer reviewed in these [...]
Expertly researched and well written, "Manufacturing Militarism" considers the history of propaganda over the last 100 years of American history, focusing especially on the Iraq War and the continuing War on Terrorism. Manufacturing Militarism: U.S. Government Propaganda in the War on Terror by Christopher J. Coyne and Abigail R. Hall (Stanford University Press, 2021) Given [...]
For all intents and purposes, Russell Kirk became Russell Kirk the day he realized that there was no need to fear death. Every once in a while, someone online—being either sincere or sincerely mischievous—loves to ask about the status of unrecognized saints. Who is the person most likely to be saint that the church has [...]
The Battle of Fort Sumter lasted 34 hours, killed no one, and wasted 4,000 Confederate rounds and 1,000 Federal rounds. At that point, it was one of the largest artillery battles ever fought on North American soil. The Confederates loved the glory and honor, as they understood it, when Abner Doubleday fired back, paid to [...]
In early March of 1861, without Abraham Lincoln’s authorization, Secretary of State William Seward told Southern commissioners as well as the Northern press that Lincoln would not fight for Fort Sumter. When the Commissioners demanded to meet with a Lincoln official on March 14, 1861, Seward properly declined, but agreed, in a rather complicated fashion, [...]
The hardest decision of Abraham Lincoln's presidency revolved around the Confederate garrison stationed at Fort Sumter. On March 5, 1861, Abraham Lincoln, only president for a day, had to make a decision on what to do. Lincoln had a divided cabinet, a divided party, and a divided country. Half of his cabinet wanted war with [...]
Just as no person can last forever, no republic can last forever. The trick, however, to prolonging its life is to promote that which gives it energy and vigor in its youth—virtue—and that which also staves off the inevitable tepidness that accompanies mid-life: audacity. No true republican believes that a republic lasts forever. Far from [...]