Two books by the contemporary author Tim Powers, who writes in the genre of what is sometimes called magical realism, will make excellent Christmas gifts for imaginative conservatives... I must confess that I am something of a snob; hopefully not in the prideful or supercilious sense (God forbid!), but in the aesthetic sense. I am, [...]
Transformation of a life or a culture begins with a wound, a sacred weakness—wonder, love, openness to grace… Being on the road for Wyoming Catholic College leads to a certain benign distortion in my view of contemporary American culture. Meeting donors, parents who want the best education for their children, or prospective students fascinated by [...]
In the second act of Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera, “Hänsel and Gretel,” there is a treasure that will live forever in the hearts of countless listeners: Fourteen angels take the stage and gather round and protect the children, a prayer come to life. Hansel and Gretel waited deep in the forest for their father. When noon came, each ate [...]
Reinhold Niebuhr finds that, ironically, we turn our virtues into vices when our virtue is “too complacently relied upon” or naively affirmed or trusted in—maybe even brazenly signaled to others—just as our power becomes problematic if we have an overweening confidence in our wisdom to employ this influence or force justly. The Irony of American [...]
Each of the nineteen essays in Present Concerns is packed with wisdom that can profitably be taken in little chunks over time and meditated upon over a steaming hot cup of tea or an even bigger pint of ale, perhaps even with a pipe pinched between one’s teeth, as Lewis surely would have it. Present [...]
Big government often hurts the very people it purports to help—the poor, the working class, and the middle class. Actually, the problem is worse than that: Big government frequently props up the rich, the powerful, and the politically connected… Since the New Deal, advocates for a stronger federal government have used poor, working-class, and middle-class Americans to [...]
In times of great social and political turbulence, when basic institutions are broken, discourse within them is futile. But it is precisely then that adherence to traditional morality is not only fitting but essential, for the virtues that establish a society are also necessary for its maintenance… In the present state of political and social [...]
If scientists were to look inward with the same seriousness with which they look outward, they would be forced to reflect upon the interior life, upon the creature who seeks truth, desires to know everything, delights in beauty, experiences joy when the truth is encountered, and wonders about why nature can be known at all. [...]
The papacy is ripe fruit for any filmmaker. As actors played the role of the pope, so each man who was elected pope stepped into a role that was bigger than himself… With the HBO series The Young Pope (reviewed by Tyler Blanski) the world has been taken once again into the irresistible intrigues of [...]
A renowned medievalist who did her post-doctoral work at Oxford under such luminaries as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, Sister Madeleva Wolff wrote poetry as beautifully as she handled expertly all the chores of a Wisconsin farmer. “Accidents are so often God’s way of being doubly good to us” She is one of the most [...]
The students of our college talk to each other without electronic distraction, they look adults in the eye, they laugh often and easily, they exercise wit without reflexive cynicism, they love dancing and singing and playing instruments; they love the classics and the outdoors… When Wyoming Catholic College admitted its first students ten years ago, [...]
We fail to do justice to the Christmas season if we fail to do justice to our neighbours. Like God Himself, we must also show good will toward men. As we approach the season of good will, we do so to celebrate and commemorate the good will of God towards Man. “For God so loved [...]
The main reason Western civilization, with an emphasis on “Great Books,” deserves a prominent—indeed, the prominent—place in the curriculum of the Christian university is stewardship: This study is how we lay claim to our rightful inheritance of wisdom, nobility, and gracefulness… For many Americans, the onset of fall means pumpkin-spice lattes and cozy sweaters. For [...]
For Jane Austen, happiness in general is the goal of human action done according to morality, a code of conduct according to which every person has value; and happiness in marriage is the result of each spouse valuing and pursuing the other’s happiness above all else… In our time, according to one of several divergent [...]