In the final analysis, freedom is not possible without freedom of speech, and tolerance is not possible without the tolerance of texts with which we disapprove. The lack of such tolerance leads to the banning of books and the banning of people. Ultimately, so history proves, it leads to the burning of books and the [...]
What to do with the provocative and apparently silly question concerning Churchill’s sympathies with the Nazis? Surely it is simply absurd to associate the heroic wartime Prime Minister of the United Kingdom with the Nazi regime which he did so much to defeat. There are two ways of seeing reality. We can see it with [...]
In many respects, Hilaire Belloc can be seen as Chesterton’s other brother, with whom he neither argued nor quarreled. Such fraternal friendships are forged in faith and find their fulfilment in heaven. We can be sure, therefore, that, irrespective of their sins and weaknesses, they are now not merely brothers in arms but brothers in [...]
The difference between an argument and a quarrel is the difference between heaven and hell. An argument for something is the expression of a line of reasoning in support of a proposition. It is in this spirit that I dare to pick an argument with G.K. Chesterton himself, confident that it could never become a [...]
When Gandalf proclaims that Bilbo is no longer the hobbit that he was, we know that he is changed for the better. He no longer places his heart at the service of his worldly possessions but seeks instead those treasures of the heart to be found in wisdom and virtue. In a hole in the [...]
Contempt of neighbour takes many forms. One such form is chronological snobbery, in which we turn up our supercilious “progressive” noses at our ancestors. The past is deemed as inferior to the present and the people of the past are ipso facto inferior to those who happen to be alive today. Contempt of neighbour takes [...]
The tragedy is that the South’s tragic flaw—its defense of slavery—led to the defeat of its just demand for states’ rights and the consequent rise of the Federal Government, so that the original concept of the nation has been entirely lost. Recently, whilst staying with friends in Dickson, Tennessee, I came across an article in [...]
Poetry is the still, small voice of calm in a world gone mad with distraction. It finds us space to breathe. It allows us time to think. It takes us out of time and space into the realm of metaphysics. It takes us from the transient things to the permanent things, from the things of [...]
The gifts that the Wise Men gave to Christ are also gifts that Christ gives to us through the wisdom that the Wise Men bring with them to Bethlehem. All of us should give glory to God in the highest for this epiphanous blessing of faith and reason that he bestows on us. Who were [...]
The joy of Bethlehem points through purgatorial sorrow to the glory of paradise. This is why the Comedy of Christmas brings laughter, even in this vale of tears and its veil of fears. This past semester at Aquinas College in Nashville, I have had the joy of teaching a whole course on the works of [...]
This year, I asked my students to select a favourite piece of Christmas writing, which they would read to the class. I was quite frankly astonished by the quality of the selections, which, taken together, constitute a veritable cornucopia of festive blessings. For the current academic year I am honoured to have been awarded the [...]
Here are the books I consider to be the seven pillars of wisdom on which Western civilization is built. This past week I gave a lecture on “Why Shakespeare Matters” at Colorado Christian University. In the dinner prior to the talk, the president of the university asked me to name what I considered to be [...]
The world of literature is awash with villains and villainy, but the presence of saints and sanctity is more subtle and understated. It is much easier to be a sinner than to become a saint. The former would seem to be the default setting of the human psyche, at least in its fallen broken state. [...]
Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides… —Cordelia (King Lear, I.1.282) The quest for the real William Shakespeare is akin to a detective story in which the Shakespearian biographer is cast in the role of a literary sleuth, pursuing his quarry like a latter-day Sherlock Holmes. One of the problems is the presence of red [...]