Freedom, Western Tradition, & “The Unbroken Thread”

By |2023-08-18T17:55:59-05:00August 18th, 2023|Categories: Books, Culture, Freedom, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization, Western Tradition|

Sohrab Ahmari’s book, "The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos," makes the sustained case that too much freedom—or rather, too much of the wrong sort of freedom—can be a kind of slavery. The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos by Sohrab Ahmari (320 [...]

“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 [...]

Literature & the Foundations of the West

By |2023-06-21T12:49:41-05:00June 20th, 2023|Categories: Classical Education, Featured, Literature, Timeless Essays, Tradition, Western Civilization, Western Tradition|

The questions for the West have now become: What it is that we should remember and teach? What are the elements of Western civilization that might sustain what is left and reconstruct what has been damaged or destroyed? In the early twenty-first century, the liberal arts curriculum at our universities is in a peculiar condition [...]

Whittaker Chambers’ “Witness”: A Story for the Ages

By |2023-06-02T11:56:58-05:00June 1st, 2023|Categories: Books, Cold War, Western Civilization|

"Witness" is a brief against the “dying civilization” that was the United States of the Jazz Age. The America of F. Scott Fitzgerald, flappers, and general frivolity was dying? The young Whittaker Chambers vaguely thought so at the time. The mature Chambers of "Witness" was convinced of that. Whittaker Chambers “Man without mysticism [...]

A Quick & Dirty Guide to the Middle Ages

By |2023-04-23T17:38:55-05:00April 23rd, 2023|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Christopher Dawson, Culture, Featured, History, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization|

The Medieval Church culturally unified Christendom through a common language, Latin, and a common liturgy, tying men together with other men of their own time, but also with the whole communion of saints. Petrarch, ca. 1350, first employed the term “Medieval” to argue that his time (ca. 1350) had advanced beyond the so-called “dark ages.” [...]

George Orwell: Forgotten Prophet

By |2023-03-26T20:38:56-05:00March 26th, 2023|Categories: Culture, Dystopia, George Orwell, Joseph Pearce, Literature, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization|

George Orwell’s "1984" was so successful and so influential that he was seen as something of a prophet. This dystopian novel was considered a cautionary prophecy of what would come to pass if future generations ceased to be vigilant in the guarding of their freedom. Someone to claim us, someone to follow Someone to shame [...]

Who Put the West in Western Civilization?

By |2023-02-14T18:25:00-06:00February 14th, 2023|Categories: Christendom, Christianity, Essential, History, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization|

No better champion of jus­tice, fairness, liberty, truth, and human flourishing exists than the complex and poorly known entity we call Western Civi­lization. The West’s weakening or demise would pose a threat to many human virtues. Recovering and extending Western principles remain our best hope for a more humane world. Where did “Western” Civilization come [...]

Did Fulton Sheen Prophesy About These Times?

By |2023-02-12T10:32:33-06:00February 12th, 2023|Categories: Catholicism, Christendom, Truth, Western Civilization|

“Why is it that so few realize the seriousness of our present crisis?” Fulton Sheen asked in 1947. “Partly because men do not want to believe their own times are wicked, partly because it involves too much self-accusation, and principally because they have no standards outside of themselves by which to measure their times. Only [...]

Lost Temples, Giant Spiders, & the Death of Western Civilization

By |2023-02-01T12:10:37-06:00January 31st, 2023|Categories: Christopher Dawson, Modernity, Morality, Russell Kirk, Stephen Masty, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization|

All civilizations wither and die. But maybe the inevitable death of civilizations is partly a lesson in the Vanity of Human Wishes and partly God’s jest, rescued from cruelty because He also designed a Heavenly Reward to be seen in the next movie. You will need to wear your Indiana Jones fedora and stick with [...]

Husbands and Wives in Homer

By |2023-01-15T11:42:22-06:00January 15th, 2023|Categories: Great Books, Homer, Iliad, Literature, Louis Markos, Marriage, Odyssey, Western Civilization|

How do I know that there were dead white males who loved and respected their wives? Because the twin literary fountainheads of Western literature each highlights a mature and faithful couple who share mutual affection and regard for one another: Hector and Andromache in the "Iliad"; Odysseus and Penelope in the "Odyssey." As a Texan [...]

Reason, Faith, & the Struggle for Western Civilization

By |2023-01-12T17:25:19-06:00January 12th, 2023|Categories: Christianity, Faith, History, Philosophy, Pope Benedict XVI, Reason, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization, Western Tradition|

It is a bright note of hope, set against the present daunting darkness, that shines throughout Samuel Gregg’s “Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization,” both illuminating the past and shedding much-needed light on the present situation. Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization, by Samuel Gregg (256 pages, Gateway Editions, 2019) “The [...]

Benedict’s Lesson

By |2023-01-08T20:28:11-06:00January 8th, 2023|Categories: Catholicism, Pope Benedict XVI, Western Civilization|

Benedict XVI left us with countless theological insights. But he also left us with an important lesson about the very foundations of democratic society and culture that we often take for granted. The recent death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reminds us of an essential and historic connection between religion and Western civilization. Religious belief and [...]

Creation, Incarnation, and Imagination

By |2023-07-09T09:47:03-05:00December 17th, 2022|Categories: Catholicism, Christianity, Imagination, Michael De Sapio, Senior Contributors, Western Civilization, Western Tradition|

The ideas of Creation (God making all things through an act of his will) and Incarnation (God being present to his creation) are the reason for the West’s creativity in the arts and sciences, a creativity instigated by Christian minds building upon the classical past. If you happen to read any part of Daniel J. [...]

George Washington: American Aurelius

By |2022-12-13T14:31:05-06:00December 13th, 2022|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, George Washington, Government, History, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization|

In his own day, George Washington served as a pillar of Atlantis, recognized not only for his willingness to sacrifice his life for the great Republic, but also as the founder of the first serious Republic a weary world had witnessed in centuries. He deserves the title “the American Marcus Aurelius.” In his own day [...]

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