With the publication of "Homo Americanus," author Zbigniew Janowski has tentatively entered the dissidents' camp, and does so by following in the footsteps of Southern agrarian professor Mel Bradford, who warned us several decades ago about “the heresy of Equality." Homo Americanus: The Rise of Totalitarian Democracy in America, by Zbigniew Janowski (255 pages, St [...]
The eye is not merely passive. "Watch this," somebody says, and the eye focuses. But on a deeper level, what can reveal the inner governance of our attention, which determines what we truly see? Last week, our daughter Julia had a seriously inflamed eye. It had none of the usual symptoms of conjunctivitis. The doctor [...]
Dear Santa, This year I’m not going to ask for any new books for myself because I’ve been blessed to receive so many new books throughout the year that the bookshelves and bookcases around our home are filled to the point of bursting. My bibliophilic cup runneth over! Instead, I’d like to send you a [...]
Could anything as tender and touching as "L’Enfance du Christ" have been written by a man who did not believe? One hopes that professed atheist Hector Berlioz was able to find the Christmas that he portrayed so beautifully. The poet Wallace Stevens once wrote that “The major poetic idea in the world is and always [...]
"St. Benedict found the world, physical and social, in ruins, and his mission was to restore it in the way not of science, but of nature, not as if setting about to do it, not professing to do it by any set time, or by any rare specific, or by any series of strokes, but [...]
Let our gifts be enduring and endearing. Let them help us embrace the suffering of uncertain times. They should be imaginative gifts that strengthen our resolve to fight the good fight for our culture. If you are hesitant about gifts for loved ones this Christmas, you are in good company. Not only are many people [...]
Who completed Mozart's unfinished Requiem? The masterpiece that we know today was the work of many hands. But who wrote which parts? And how much did Mozart actually write? "The last movement of his lips was an endeavor to indicate where the kettledrums should be used in his Requiem. I think I still hear the [...]
As a believer I would therefore like to offer the atheist a modest analogy. It is music. Think of God as Music with a capital “M” and religion as music with a lower-case “m.” Religion is not too difficult to understand, but like music, it is difficult to do well. I sympathize with contemporary atheists. [...]
The question of human origins surely ranks high on the list of theological topics, touching on the deepest questions of who we are, where we came from, and where we are destined. In his new book, William Lane Craig has made an important contribution in the effort to combine faith and reason to shed some [...]
Part of the philosophy of "Dune" is that after a long and dark digital age, man must learn again to become self-reliant: to think and act as self-determined and self-reliant individuals; to be active participants in nature, not mere passive receivers of pleasure and pain. For that is the place of beasts, not men. Dune [...]
In his new book, Michael Warren Davis rescues the reactionaries. With a jaunty air and the panache of all the ridiculous warriors from Cyrano de Bergerac to Don Quixote, he stands up for all that is alternative, counter-cultural, strange, spare, and delightfully luddite. I thought I was a fogey, but Michael Warren Davis, in his [...]
At The Imaginative Conservative, we seek to preserve the American Republic and the Western Tradition on a daily basis, through the publication of essays that reflect the best of conservative thought, past and present. Our journal now features 8,900 essays (by 1,500 authors) that have been read more than 30 million times. We could not have [...]
One of the administrators at my school recently asked faculty to contribute a “solidarity statement.” The email specified what was being sought: For your statement, we’re asking you to share how you personally will engage in the work of creating an inclusive and equitable campus community that truly values all. What, specifically, will you do [...]
Government programs cannot restore broken families and shattered communities. Only a moral regeneration of non-economic values can do this. The ravages of loneliness, despair, and suicide must be addressed by filling the spiritual voids that haunt people’s lives—and not by issuing government checks. The fight over the latest spending package is raging. Democrats are intent [...]