Confronted with choices between evil and good, man frequently chooses evil with its accompanying anguish. Would not wisdom and prudence dictate that man ought to be modest, restrained, and humble—in a word, pious? Born in Weaverville, North Carolina in 1910, Richard Malcolm Weaver was raised in Lexington, Kentucky. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Weaver graduated [...]
Jesus Christ teaches that we totally rely on his grace to possess friendship with him, to resist temptation, and to perform good works. Our Lord taught this to his Apostles the evening before he courageously suffered his Passion and purchased that grace for us: As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides [...]
The fame of the saints is not only good but should be proclaimed from the hilltops. The fortunes of the rich, if used charitably, are goods that can do a lot of good in alleviating suffering and edifying souls. It is not fame or fortune that is the problem but the prideful pursuit of fame [...]
American culture has an opportunity now for renewal through its people of faith. We are being called to care for one another with love. We are being called to live out our virtue in service. The American soul has withered, and awaits an infusion of the lifeblood of love. Whether or not we respond may [...]
“The book that explains Trump’s dominance may well have been published in 1962.” Or so contend the editors of the Atlantic Monthly. Amazon apparently agrees, since its blurb to promote current sales of Daniel Boorstin’s The Image borrows directly from the editors of the Atlantic and their leap into an increasingly distant past. But is [...]
Friendship is a receptive disposition of the soul which is ready to act for the good of the other when called upon, but which does not demand to be called upon. A man has to respect the freedom of his friend, or else a man will end up seeking out his own will to the [...]
One longstanding Church practice oriented to the worship of God has been the chanting of psalms and hymns. From the earliest times, monks engaged in liturgical chanting that complemented their often grueling lives. These monks managed to accommodate hours spent in choir while providing for their material needs. In his French-language book, Pourquoi Mozart, author [...]
Ronald Reagan did not read his way to conservatism, as some people do. He experienced his way. The concerns and travails of middle Americans taught him that unaccountable government could be a grave obstacle to the pursuit of happiness, and the experience of dealing with Communists and bureaucrats strengthened his lifelong distrust of overbearing elites. [...]
Classical music comes to us from a very long and very human tradition. The concert hall thus should be the embodiment of classical music’s character: It should above all feel human, feel familiar, feel knowable, and feel intimate as often as it feels exalted. Hot on the heels of what was surely disappointing news for Maris [...]
“Your faith has saved you.” Jesus repeatedly shares these comforting words throughout the Gospels. Among many examples, Jesus says this to the sinful woman at the house of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:50), to the hemorrhaging woman who touched the fringe of his garment (Matt 9:22), and to a blind beggar near Jericho (Luke 18:42). [...]
Roger Scruton argued that the bureaucratisation of politics is replacing deliberative debate with a rigid tick-boxing exercise, substituting social justice for natural justice, imposing laws and regulations without our consent, and developing a group of activist politicians who prioritise the short-term over the long. A key component of the late Sir Roger Scruton's political thinking [...]
As happened with Henry Adams, a robust study of history is enough to prove the indispensable role that Christianity has played in true human progress, and it might just be enough to spark an interest in seeking an alternate, unified, form of meaning in our modern age, moving us back to God. Studies in the [...]
Josef Pieper stresses that the “end of times” religiously understood is not an annihilation. God does not revoke his creation. Rather, the “catastrophe” of the end times is to be understood as a final apotheosis of evil, leading to the end of time and earthly existence and opening out into redemption and new creation. “It [...]
While there is a good deal of cant about how paying higher taxes is “patriotic,” most people instinctively recoil from taxes and don’t hesitate to avoid paying any more than they have to. So, is taxation moral? Income tax season is mostly over. For our family it just ended a week ago when the IRS [...]