Why, one wonders, would readers of The Imaginative Conservative be interested in hearing of my enjoyment of music videos designed for very young children? The answer is that the Wiggles offer children (of all ages) entertainment that is both imaginative and conservative. I have a confession to make. For almost twenty years I’ve been a [...]
Considering my enthusiasm for Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol," it should come as no surprise that film adaptations of the novella are on the list of movies that the Pearce family like to watch during the Advent and Christmas seasons. Here are our favorites. George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge I confess to [...]
The scholarship of Lee Congdon’s “Solzhenitsyn: The Historical-Spiritual Destinies of Russia and the West” is sound, demonstrating a breadth of knowledge and a depth of understanding of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s worldview. Solzhenitsyn: The Historical-Spiritual Destinies of Russia and the West by Lee Congdon (164 pages, Northern Illinois University Press, 2017) This December will mark the centenary of [...]
For whom or what do we vote when we put our hands in our pocket and take out our cash or our debit and credit cards? Are we making the world a better or worse place? Are we part of the problem or part of the solution to the problem? Oscar Wilde defined a cynic [...]
Macbeth loses his head and soul in the unknowing clouds of his own sin-deceived ego. So does Nietzsche. Far from seeing life as a quest for truth, they are left with nothing but their own bitter inquest on life, “signifying nothing”. This is the “deepest consequence” of their rejection of faith and reason. I’ve recently [...]
Is there a century in human history which can claim to be better than all the others? Many, especially Catholics, might argue that the thirteenth century deserves such an accolade. According to Church historian, Alan Schreck, this was “the greatest century of spiritual, cultural, and intellectual advancement in the history of Western civilization”. It was [...]
Although Christians cannot be above the fray because we are part of it—called and commanded to love our neighbours, and even our enemies—we are nonetheless beyond the fray in the sense that we are called to something beyond it. “My own view is that Christianity is all about progress,” wrote ‘Eric’ in a comment on [...]
Apart from the breathtaking beauty of his musical compositions, it is the ethos of Butterworth that attracts me. He was rooted in the soil and soul of England and enamoured of its shires. He was a true localist before the word was invented, the very antithesis of the modern and modish cosmopolitan. If I should [...]
The inspiration for the writing of essays can come from the most surprising and unusual of places. Recently, I received an email from a woman whose homeschooled daughter had asked her whether Hamlet and Ophelia had slept together. This prompted her to ask me for my thoughts on the matter. My initial thought was that [...]
If we are seeking an end to war, we need to begin seeking the true peace that passeth all understanding. This is the peace of Christ. Those “progressives” who put their faith in the perfectibility of Man are invariably made to look stupid by the very future that they idealize and idolize. Take, for instance, [...]
There are good and bad ways of celebrating Halloween as there are good and bad ways of celebrating anything else. One of the best ways is with the reading of some haunting literature. Ghost stories come to mind. So does poetry which reminds us of death and the dead. Here is a handful of haunting [...]
Who's the hero of The Iliad? Is it Achilles or Hector? Or should they both be considered heroes? If we are to answer these questions, we need to know what is meant by heroism. We also need to know what Homer meant by heroism. Was the pagan Greek understanding of heroism different from ours? If [...]
Those of us who love literature are puzzled by those who are indifferent to its goodness, truth and beauty. We are perplexed by those who won't read fiction because they want the facts and nothing but the facts. We are bemused by those who won't read poetry, preferring prose, because they want to remain grounded [...]
Is it possible to summarize the meaning of life in a thousand words or so? Can the key questions that have preoccupied great philosophers for millennia be encapsulated in the idiomatic nutshell? The answer is yes. And the reason is that the key questions have been answered with authority by the Author of Life Himself. [...]