The Mysterious Albert Jay Nock

By |2023-10-12T17:57:04-05:00October 12th, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Conservatism, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

Now, a full century after the middle of his life, Albert Jay Nock remains an enigma, but he also remains one of the most politically-incorrect and least fashionable man of any era, and, of course, an inspiration to those who proclaim the name of Imaginative Conservative. Recently, to prepare for a lecture I’m giving, I [...]

Still Thinking About Columbus: A Frontier of Possibilities

By |2023-10-08T16:01:31-05:00October 8th, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, History, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

If for nothing else, Christopher Columbus should be remembered for his desire to explore and expand the realm of Western civilization. We might very well agree or disagree with his motives, but we would be fools to ignore Columbus' importance as a figure in history. Amazingly enough, thanks to my very few essays at The [...]

Autumnal Coolness: Gentle Whispers of Saint Francis

By |2023-10-03T17:46:03-05:00October 3rd, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Catholicism, Christianity, Religion, St. Francis, Timeless Essays|

Understood properly, October purges us of our follies and reminds us that death hovers just in front of us. It reminds us that we always stand in time, but at the very edge of eternity. The autumnal coolness—just on the edge of the dying summer—is in the air, and it feels good. Very cool, very [...]

The Twilight Country of October

By |2023-09-30T16:15:29-05:00September 30th, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Death, Ray Bradbury, Russell Kirk, Sainthood, Timeless Essays|

However we choose to look at it, October thrills and titillates each of our senses and reaches into the very depths of our suspect souls, whether we actually encounter the dead or merely imagine their various states of being. Oh, the blessings of October, my favorite month. As far back as I can remember, in [...]

Leviathan, Inc.: Robert Nisbet & the Modern Nation-State

By |2023-09-29T17:48:04-05:00September 29th, 2023|Categories: Alexis de Tocqueville, American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Robert Nisbet, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization|

Robert Nisbet feared that modern totalitarians had succeeded in undermining the very foundations of goodness, truth, and morality. They had not only redefined liberty as power, but they had transformed the modern political state into a secular church, exchanging real religion for civic religion, creating a “New Leviathan.” Like most Americans during the Great Depression, [...]

The Last of the Romans: Charles Carroll of Carrollton

By |2023-09-19T17:14:46-05:00September 18th, 2023|Categories: American Founding, Bradley J. Birzer, Charles Carroll, Declaration of Independence, Featured, Timeless Essays|

The last living signer of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll assumed the role of republican and conservative revolutionary, representing in his old age the end of a period in history. The last of the American signers of the Declaration of Independence to pass from this world, Charles Carroll of Carroll was also one of [...]

Tolkien’s “The Children of Húrin”

By |2023-09-10T12:53:29-05:00September 10th, 2023|Categories: Books, Bradley J. Birzer, Fiction, Imagination, J.R.R. Tolkien, Literature, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays, Tolkien Series|

How does one account for J.R.R. Tolkien’s seeming ability to live inside of mythology? He read it, he translated it, and he absorbed it. After all these grand things, he rewrote it. Yet, no matter how deeply he delved into the profound and pervasive paganisms of pre-Christian cultures, he never lost his ability to baptize [...]

The Sociological Roots of Robert Nisbet’s Conservatism

By |2023-09-05T17:33:11-05:00September 5th, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Conservatism, Robert Nisbet, Senior Contributors, The Imaginative Conservative, Timeless Essays|

Robert A. Nisbet rooted his eleven ideas of conservatism in contributions from sociology as an academic discipline. Sociology, in contrast to liberalism and radicalism, had merely focused on the aspect of being social and had thus best reflected the more obscure aspects of nineteenth-century conservatism. That conservatism, though, reflected some of the most important concerns [...]

“Besieged”: The Saints—the Aristocrats of the Soul

By |2023-09-02T15:34:04-05:00September 2nd, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Catholicism, Christianity, Christopher Dawson, History, Senior Contributors, Western Civilization|

The saints have served as the heroes in Western culture, and have been the impetus for renewal in the Western Tradition. God has called them, and they, by responding to His call, have become the aristocrats of the soul. Christopher Dawson, the brilliant Anglo-Welsh Roman Catholic historian of the twentieth century, argued that understanding the [...]

Tolkien and Theology

By |2023-09-02T10:44:12-05:00September 2nd, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Christianity, J.R.R. Tolkien, Senior Contributors|

While Tolkien never approached theology in a systematic or even quasi-systematic way, his statements on the subject—littered throughout his collected letters—read as a Catholic version of Heraclitus’ "Fragments" or a mythic version of St. Josemaria’s "The Way." They shed great light not only on Tolkien, but on us. Though C.S. Lewis will always and understandably [...]

“Besieged”: Sanctifying the Pagan

By |2023-09-02T15:27:19-05:00August 28th, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Catholicism, History, Senior Contributors, Western Civilization, Western Tradition|

The baptism or sanctification of the pagan reflects the baptism and sanctification of the self. Like the former pagan sites, the Christian person too goes through a process of being lost, baptized, and sanctified. St. Paul, at Mars’ Hill, had helped break the Heraclitian, Platonic, and Stoic cycles of the classical world, by sanctifying the [...]

“Besieged”: Incarnational History

By |2023-09-02T15:31:53-05:00August 22nd, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Catholicism, Christianity, History, Senior Contributors, Western Civilization, Western Tradition|

From the Roman Catholic perspective, the Logos is the beginning, the middle, and the end of time and history, and history itself is a reflection of the Logos. Each person—from Adam to the last person—is a finite reflection of the Infinite, a bearer of the Image of God, an incarnate soul. In the stunningly poetic [...]

Surprised by Faith: My Moroccan Odyssey

By |2023-08-20T13:29:41-05:00August 20th, 2023|Categories: Atheism, Bradley J. Birzer, Catholicism, Christianity, Essential, Featured, Religion, Timeless Essays|

There I, a convinced atheist, stood alone in a sandy and windy world, devoid of water, trees, or anything that seemed to be alive. And I couldn’t help but wonder what madness had overcome me. The most fateful university holiday I ever experienced was way back in February 1988. Yes, during that magical and mystical [...]

“Besieged”: The Unwavering Church

By |2023-09-02T15:30:45-05:00August 16th, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Catholicism, History, Senior Contributors, Western Civilization, Western Tradition|

Despite the immense, hydra-headed problems that have arisen over the last 500 years of the West and of the World, the Church’s mission has never wavered, whatever its obstacles, internal and external. As since the beginning of its existence, it must leaven the good, promote the true, and, through subcreation, engage the beautiful. Through the [...]

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