Agnosticism is the ultimate stupidity and wickedness because it doesn’t so much reject God as ignore him. If I were God, I’d be more angry at such cold indifference than anything else. “Either God is, or he is not. But to which view shall we be inclined? Reason cannot decide this question. [Remember that Pascal’s [...]
Richard Weaver claimed his homeland was the “last nonmaterialistic civilization in the western world.” Modernity to him meant at bottom institutionalizing most of the Seven Deadly Sins… Though his worth and stature were early established among them, while yet living Richard M. Weaver was something of a puzzle for his friends within the American “conservative [...]
Each generation believes that Father Christmas is dying, but he never dies. It is each generation that dies while Father Christmas lives on. Father Christmas will never die because Christ has risen from the dead... “There is no more dangerous or disgusting habit than that of celebrating Christmas before it comes, as I am doing in [...]
Jeff Broadwater’s biography of James Madison reminds readers of the necessity of a free people to keep their rulers inside the limits of their authority as determined by the people, who are the ultimate sovereigns. Letting leaders roam outside the borders of the consent given by the governed will only end in tyranny. James Madison: A Son [...]
"Beata Viscera Marie Virginis" ("Blessed Flesh of the Virgin Mary") is a piece intended for the Communion section of a Mass honoring the Blessed Mother of God. This setting is a monophonic (one-voice) "conductus," a musical form that gained in popularity during the lifetime of the medieval church composer Perotin, and which was intended to be sung [...]
Many modern observers view the university as little more than an instrument to achieve social and economic objectives, and to the extent that they are successful at corralling universities into these projects, they signal the end of liberal learning… Widely acknowledged as one of the leading British political philosophers of the twentieth century, Michael Oakeshott [...]
Literature is delightful. It’s wondrous, exciting, and often terrifying fun. It offers us escape without the cost of a plane ticket, adventure without deadlines or endpoints. It’s spontaneous and soul-searching, lengthy and pointed, poignant and hilarious... College is full of books: textbooks and biographies, encyclopedias and novels, history books and essays. You finish your Epic of [...]
Progressives lack imagination, and, in their desire to create a world made in their image, they can only mimic what they see with straight, sterile lines. When considering that Thomas Jefferson delivered his first inaugural address in 1801—perhaps the finest statement up to that point in history on the dignity of the Western and Socratic [...]
The seemingly insignificant suppression of ladies and gentlemen on New York’s trains represents a giant step backward. It affirms that we need no longer behave like ladies and gentlemen, but rather like whatever we want to be, or happen to be, at the moment... Passengers, customers, or whatever you want to call them are welcome [...]
When asked to submit an essay on Christmas gift ideas, it seemed that my list would be things I do not want. So, instead of a bumper crop of Christmas goodies, here’s a list of Christmas baddies: my twelve pet Christmas hates. 1. Shopping. Do we really need more junk? I’m fed up with all [...]
Human nature exists, and we cannot deal with life in a sensible way without accepting that. So the question we face is how to overcome an outlook that categorically rejects the very concept and is deeply rooted in the way the people who dominate our political life understand the world… Today’s offering in our Timeless [...]
If governments can directly instruct families about what to believe concerning homosexuality and about the correct frame of mind to have in conducting daily business, it is hard think that the policies and practices of religious schools and other institutions, like hospitals, will be left alone... In Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision of the [...]
Despite their differing political views, the conservative Edmund Burke and the radical Daniel O’Connell played major roles in combatting the suppression of Catholics in eighteenth-century Ireland… In the past couple of decades, the Catholic Church has fallen upon bad times in an Ireland whose overwhelmingly Catholic population had been among the most observant in the [...]
The fact is that theology—real theology, the study of God—which should be foundational in church liturgy and in far more sermons than it is today, has lost its popularity, replaced by an emphasis on evangelism... In the human quest for beauty, goodness, and truth, theology has taken a back seat. Our modern church buildings, both [...]