Liberal education ought to be less a matter of becoming well-read than a matter of learning to read well, of acquiring arts of awareness, the interpretative or “trivial” arts. Some works, written by men who are productive masters of these arts, are exemplary for their interpretative application. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is such a text. Liberal [...]
Donald Trump was elected to shake things up, to undo the damage that the left has been doing to our society, our culture, and our government. But when you staff a government with entertaining names, how does that affect the cause of effectively changing policy in a more positive, liberty-oriented direction? Pete Hegseth [...]
Ever since I began priestly formation, the month of November has carried with it a certain solemnity and gravity. In this way, I have found the month to be both celebratory and weighty in nature. Celebratory because I am keenly reminded of life’s goal—heaven. Yet, weighty because of death’s reality and the shortness of my [...]
Take a good look at the icon below. What do you see? Icons can be strange to our modern tastes. They are beautiful yet arrestingly otherworldly, with disorienting proportions and perspectives. Icons do not conform themselves to our own standards of judgment. To enter into the divine mysteries, we must relinquish our claim to be [...]
A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below. The man's hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck. It was attached to a stout cross-timber above his head and the slack fell to the level [...]
Let the Church do for Literature in one way what she does for Science in another; each has its imperfection, and she has her remedy for each. She fears no knowledge, but she purifies all; she represses no element of our nature, but cultivates the whole. The Idea of a University, by John Henry Newman [...]
Much as there might be to say today about things falling apart, my point has less to do with the disintegration of civilization and more to do with the way that a poem committed to memory holds things together. Back in the early days of COVID 19, when churches were shutting out their parishioners and [...]
Like it or not, Grace exists despite Oren Cass’s inability to sense it. Now is the time to appeal to God to send His Grace to this age of little faith. Such a move is the only one that makes sense in the face of the postmodern decadence that now prevails. A disturbing new trend [...]
One line in the second verse of “Amazing Grace” has always stood out to me: ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear And grace, my fears relieved God’s grace is God’s love. So, by God’s love we learn to fear him, and by that same love our fear is cast out. What a beautiful [...]
What did William F. Buckley’s "Firing Line" teach me about our modern democracy? Simply this: It is not too late to reclaim intelligent and competent, moral and visionary political conversation. Nor is it too late to right the direction of our flagging democracy. The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous [...]
Reading "The Screwtape Letters" can be a creepy and unsettling experience because C.S. Lewis does not merely take us into the head of the human who is experiencing temptation, but into the malevolent mind of the devil himself. This same psycho-dramatic technique is employed by the directors of the recently released horror film, "Nefarious," in [...]
Celebrated truly, Sunday is the means for harmonizing our mundane economies with the economy of salvation God is always working in the world. Authentic celebration of the Lord’s Day restores man to an awareness of his true dignity and of the proper orientation of his daily labor. Money, the Lord’s Day, and the Spirit Who [...]
Augustine’s “Confessions” is first and foremost a prayer to God. Indeed, unless we read it as a prayer, we will not understand it; we will only study it. I Burned for Your Peace: Augustine’s Confessions Unpacked, by Peter Kreeft (240 pages, Ignatius Press, 2016) Back in 1990, I had the rare privilege of teaching in [...]
The recent publication of a private letter written by King Charles III in 1998, when he was Prince of Wales, is causing quite a stir. Written to a friend, Dudley Poplak, it expresses King Charles’ disdain for the imposition of scientism on agriculture, which is itself of interest, but also expresses his scorn for the [...]