Is the presumptuous mapping of all material reality a boon to humankind, or will it prove a curse? Might an acknowledgment of mystery as a steady and enduring feature of our condition be key to our mental and moral health, and our sense of our own freedom? This essay was co-authored with Donald A. Yerxa.* [...]
It would be possible to read Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" as a pro-life narrative that invites us to see the dignity of the human person beneath the ugly surface. But such a reading would violate the true spirit of the work which, as the author confesses, is animated by narcissistic self-pity and is an outpouring of [...]
Beauty is not found in power, military glory, or victory. As great as these things are, love is a surer guide. Considering this point, we would also do well to contemplate what causes us to love most, love best? When we do, isn’t it the love that someone has for us? 1. Aesthetics Leads Aesthetics [...]
Following the Way of Goodness and living in the Life that is true Beauty is absolutely essential. The deepest contemplation of great truths and even the Truth Himself is ultimately worth nothing if it does not issue in action and love. Congratulations, Trinity class of 2022! You are finishing something extraordinary. And when I say [...]
A true, life-giving education is an education that recognizes and embraces a world filled with goodness, truth, and beauty. It is also an education that requires virtue from those who undertake it. Editor's Note: The following is an abridged version of the commencement address that Joseph Pearce gave to the graduating class of 2018 at [...]
Sherrard Billings, one of the three founders of Groton School—and the American Mr. Chips—did his part to develop good and wise habits among the “Grotties.” Through his own life of suffering, he taught them to how to live, pursue the truth, love the good, and pass on wisdom. The Groton School The New [...]
Is Technocracy our God in the modern world? Today, the unthinkable becomes doable, and the doable is unquestioned. Apart from the decision to manufacture the atomic bombs, what about the decision to actually use them on Japan? The struggle to understand why anyone would want to use power to create nothing began for me with [...]
Why is it that those who like both G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis almost invariably prefer one to the other? This question is best answered with a sweeping generalization: There are two types of people in the world—hikers and walkers. Readers who are hikers prefer Lewis; readers who are walkers prefer Chesterton. There are two [...]
We see, in his poetry and prose, the humour and humility of G.K. Chesterton, but also the extraordinary genius who sees that the ordinary things of life are not merely a matter of life and death but a matter of eternal life and eternal death. The genius of G.K. Chesterton is hard to pin down [...]
Slogans gain resonance more quickly and widely than ever before, so that we are governed by bumper-sticker thinking, and entertainment becomes the supra-ideology of all discourse. In favor of a new inauthentic ‘reality’, we bid farewell to a culture, including its history, and devolve into a state of double vision that extends to cultural, social, [...]
If all men truly desire by nature to know, as Aristotle claims, then a human society in which evidence is ignored or quashed or in which truth is a commodity cannot but destroy men—and itself. Those ideologies that are plaguing us are fruits of the refusal to heed the natural desire to know. The basics [...]
The authentic definition of “ecumenical” has nothing to do with the modern understanding of “ecumenism,” which appears to be the willingness to dilute or delete doctrine in pursuit of a perceived unity among disparate groups of believers. Being ecumenical is being evangelical, whereas the new-fangled word ecumenism is the failure to evangelize. It is important [...]
Samuel Johnson unfolds his thoughts not on dry philosophical subjects but on practical themes: the common virtues needful in everyday living and learning and behaving. His words are both honorable and useful, and he is a valuable companion on the undergraduate journey. The following is an advising memorandum addressed to undergraduate students. Perplexed and undecided: the [...]
Historiography is not an exchange in the marketplace but a fight on the battlefield. It has a particular point of view on the past and punishes opponents; it is power politics masked as tolerant neutrality. The Left—like those behind the 1619 Project—understand the stakes and are fighting to maintain their legitimacy. It is time the Right [...]