Richard M. Gamble. In Search of the City on a Hill: The Making and Unmaking of an American Myth. The phrase “city on a hill” has become inextricably tied to Ronald Reagan. Some Americans may even think that Reagan, rather than Jesus, coined it. Reagan routinely spoke of America as that “shining” city (a descriptor Reagan [...]
As newly-reelected US President Barack Obama calls for bipartisanship to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff,” a more possible example seems to be emerging in Middle Earth, where parties warring for eons are uniting against a common foe. “In the last 48 hours thousands of orcs and various daemons have pledged loyalty to the Common Front [...]
I mentioned in an essay last week that it had been eleven years exactly since I’d read my first book by Christopher Dawson. That book, 1942’s Judgment of the Nations, remains my favorite of Dawson’s works. I spent the entire Thanksgiving break that year, 2001, reading Dawson. I had found the book at Hyde Brothers Books [...]
“Nobody can make a tradition,” Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote; “it takes a century to make it.” There are American traditions, because there have been three centuries of American history; yet this is a brief period of time, when one remembers that some of the traditions of Europe and Asia and Africa have their roots in a [...]
A lighthearted romp at first blush, “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” tells the story of how the example of simple goodness can be transformational… The category of “Thanksgiving movies” is a select one indeed, but it is not meant as faint praise to crown John Hughes’ 1987 film, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, the greatest Thanksgiving film [...]
Mister Franklin, humans call him; Turkeys call him Gentle Ben. Lovingly we keep his memory From our tree or field or fen, Once our day of thanks ensures That some of us outlasted yours. Wild and canny, lithe and limber, Peaceful as a bird can be, Perching high in Yankee timber, We, true Sons of [...]
Thanksgiving is the holiday that brings us all together, whether or not we’re Christians and whether or not we’re American citizens. It’s the first holiday of the Holiday Season that begins around now and lasts until New Year. We’re so sure that saying Merry Christmas is intolerant and dogmatic that we’re all about Happy Holidays—an [...]
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to recommend to the people of the United States [...]
To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour. —William Blake, “To See a World…” I’ve never had strong feelings about Thanksgiving. It’s not a religious feast day, so the rituals associated with it are [...]
The religious roots of Thanksgiving speak to the essence of America, and against the danger of over-consumption. The Pilgrims remind us that Thanksgiving is not all about turkey and touchdowns. The religious roots of Thanksgiving speak to the essence of America, and against the danger of over-consumption. The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony weren’t the first Europeans [...]
Over on the First Things blog, Robert George has blessed us, yet again, with the conventional and convenient wisdom of (Catholic) neoconservatism. The post, titled “No Mere Marriage of Convenience: The Unity of Economic and Social Conservatism,” is a sustained argument for just how convenient this marriage of utility and principle really is, and why [...]
Now that Barack Obama has been re-elected President, he’s going to have to deal with the mess he inherits. That was the chuckle James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal had at the expense of the results last week. As goes messes, there have been two of them in our times of trouble. The first [...]
There has been much commentary concerning a David Brooks editorial that in turn cites Rod Dreher’s article on what it means to be a conservative. Both Brooks and Dreher return to Russell Kirk and his ten principles of conservatism, to define what Brooks describes as the lost half of the “conservative mind.” That half is [...]
The part of the title of this talk which I asked to have announced is “The Roots of Modernity.” But there is a second part which I wanted to tell you myself. The full title is: “The Roots of Modernity in Perversions of Christianity.” The reason I wanted to tell you myself is that it [...]