Plato and Aristotle often connect justice with wholeness. And it is wholeness—the whole of virtue and the whole of a political community—that is very much at issue, and at risk, in Plato’s “Statesman.” I want to begin by saying how my theme is related to justice. Plato and Aristotle often connect justice with wholeness. And [...]
American culture has an opportunity now for renewal through its people of faith. We are being called to care for one another with love. We are being called to live out our virtue in service. The American soul has withered, and awaits an infusion of the lifeblood of love. Whether or not we respond may [...]
Because it is based on natural laws and timeless truths, the republic can be ignored, it can be mocked, and it can be forgotten, but it can never be fully undone. All it takes is an anamnesis, something to rouse us from our slumbers and reassert its many truths and goodnesses and beauties. Long live [...]
Christian schools must not follow their secular counterparts in their educational approach. They must surround their students with the noble, the beautiful, and the true in all areas of the curriculum and the academic environment, encouraging them to become like what they see. In the cultural wasteland of the ’70s, where peace and love had [...]
In his courage and perseverance throughout the Revolution, George Washington revealed his reliance on patience—and feelingly used the word when referring to his men at Valley Forge. In contemporary American society, the relationship between patience and power is often wary and distant: If people have power, then they won’t have to wait. Recently, however, these two [...]
As I looked around that room in Washington, filled with so many powerful people, I realized that one day in Mother Teresa’s life brought more good to the face of the earth than all our efforts combined for a lifetime. It was utterly ludicrous, stepping out of a chauffeured White House limousine to go hear [...]
On grace depends our salvation, but we have neither a right to grace nor the power to compel it. Grace must reveal itself to us, and only then will we recognize it. Through your creation, O Lord, goes a voice that reminds us of something that is above everything created. The things and their ordering, [...]
In this materialistic age, time has become a commodity that can be bought and sold. This is evidenced by the place that the monetization of time holds in common parlance: “spend your time well,” “I have some free time,” “time is money,” etc. It is tragic to see time itself be corroded by the greed [...]
Many academics have forgotten the true and the good and have largely cut themselves loose from all philosophical moorings. Students under the tutelage of such professors are certain to confuse right with wrong, virtue with vice, good with evil, and authority with force, and to have no fixed axioms by which to orient themselves in [...]
Here I share a project that my daughter undertook and fulfilled weekly, over 20 weeks, when she was 12 years old. To: Rebecca Stern From: Daniel Klein RE: VIRTUES PROJECT Each Wednesday, by 20:00, email me your written thoughts on the virtue of the week. Your written thoughts should include answers to the following questions. [...]
The purity of a soul adorned with virtues—this, then, is the deepest motivation behind the discipline, asceticism, and mortifications practiced by the saints of all ages. This purity, which signifies the imitation of the thrice-holy God, represents the very core of Saint Charles’s moral life. I am convinced that no one who is aware of [...]
The leftist man fears the Christian ideal of manhood. He trembles in the face of its purity. He is terrified by its chivalry. He is afraid of its manly prayer. He even fears its compassion. Far from the meek caricature of the Nietzsche world, with the help of supernatural grace, the virtuous Christian man can [...]
What exactly is culture but an embodied religion, a faith that is given flesh and blood and bone in a visible and public way? Might it be possible, therefore, to build a culture where it is easier for men to be virtuous? I am looking at a couple of random lines lifted from a bleak little [...]
No task can substitute for love itself. The purpose of life is a person, and eventually that’s all that’ll be left. We will rest, truly rest, not in inactivity but with a person to love. When was the last time you reached “Inbox Zero?” As the name suggests, it’s the state of bliss that comes [...]