On the Twelfth Day of Christmas two of my great loves sent to me a couple of great meditations on the mystery of the Nativity. The first and better-known meditation is by T.S. Eliot, whose “Journey of the Magi” places the poet in the entourage of the Three Wise Men as they journey to Bethlehem. [...]
Michael Kurek's English Symphony is his third symphony and perhaps his best, surpassing even the magic and majesty of his second and, as its name suggests, taking the primary world of England as its creative wellspring. When Britain had an Empire The sun would never set, But the sun set over England And Englishmen forget [...]
You see, the poet haunts, casting a spell on the reader or listener. The power of the word in poetic form is nearly incomprehensible. Especially when paired with melody, the effect is extraordinary. This means that a songwriter, a hundred years down the road, having read only small, peripheral portions of his poetry, and having [...]
What will delight lovers of J.R.R. Tolkien most is the portrait of the man that is drawn in the pages of Holly Ordway's biography. In the final chapters, she summarizes his life as the extraordinary fleshed out in ordinary. While Tolkien is completing his magnum opus, he is also maintaining the daily routine of husband, [...]
J.R.R. Tolkien connected me to a world beyond anything I had yet experienced in rather idyllic Kansas. I so desperately wanted to escape into his mountain scene, explore every nook and cranny of that invented world, and meet a God who sang the universe into existence. Though I have read The Hobbit, The Lord of [...]
If it sounds like an Indiana Jones movie recast with the Sage of Mecosta, you’re not so wrong. It’s a real mystery involving real medieval Crusaders; it’s full of action and adventure, it co-stars the Father of Modern American Conservatism, and it may help to explain the Bohemian Tory’s famous wanderlust, imagination and romance. Chuck [...]
I went to Grandma’s house to decorate Christmas cookies today. Decorating cookies with her is a tradition. She bakes cookies for Easter and Thanksgiving too, but she bakes the most for Christmas. She has lived in her house since 1968. That is 56 years. It was where her children were raised, and it was where [...]
Although there may be a hundred and one things that can be done in a Jubilee Year, there is one thing above all others, without which everything else is pointless. First and foremost, it is a time to turn back and embrace anew the only form of love that can unite us with God. In [...]
The faith of our students has a Spartan or Roman openness to it, something Magian, that deeply respects the full reality of things. They understand that our deepest analogy to God is submission to the truth, but they know from this education that seeing the truth of God’s will in crucial decisions might require patience [...]
It's almost the end of the year, and almost your last opportunity in 2024 to support The Imaginative Conservative. Our journal is now more than fourteen years old. Perhaps you have traveled with us since that day in 2010 when we embarked on our mission to preserve the transcendentals, the “permanent things” that constitute the glory [...]
For several years, I have made the New Year’s resolution to make my Sundays Internet-free. That means I cut off any connection with the Internet, be it email, websites or videos. It does not include phone calls or text messages. This Internet fast allows me to dedicate my Sunday to other things. It is not [...]
Both Pyotr Tchaikovsky (in 1840) and Johannes Brahms (in 1833) were born on May 7. That little coincidence didn’t help endear Brahms or his music to Tchaikovsky, however, as the Russian called the German “a conceited mediocrity” and “a giftless bastard.” But then one New Year’s Day, the two men met at a dinner and [...]
Ora et labora.... "Pray and work." This is the motto of the Rule of St. Benedict, written in 516 by the famous founder of Western monasticism, Benedict of Nursia. For fifteen centuries Benedictine monks have lived their lives according to this motto, performing manual labor and praying to God. Many laypeople have similarly taken this [...]
As the ancient Jewish sages tell, God created the heavens and earth on the first day of the Hebrew month Nisan. Seven other events in Scripture occur on this day through the ages, all pointing to a particular theme. Their connection is subtle, but see if you can follow the thread. On the first day [...]