Have Conservatives Misunderstood Allan Bloom?
The Closing of the American Mind is not conservative, especially not in the sense of preserving the foundational values and beliefs of Western Civilization. Nonetheless, it is…
Rescuing Origen of Alexandria
“To say that Origen of Alexandria has been a critical figure in the history of the Christian tradition would be an understatement.” Who was Origen of Alexandria?…
Realism is Needed for Moral Intuitions
Iain McGilchrist in The Matter With Things refers to a study where subjects were asked to evaluate two scenarios. One described a woman giving a friend a…
Beethoven’s Fourth: The Underrated Symphony
In the canon of Ludwig van Beethoven’s works, the Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Opus 60, stands as a singularly neglected and underrated masterpiece. Many would…
Where Can Roots Be Sown?
A strip of paper through the grass is blown, I sense it grapples and it yearns to stay; On a windy street, where can roots be sown?…
Prayer: A Poem
Lord of anxiety and small troubles, Lord of desolate mornings, I have insulted the wind and sun; forgive me. Lord of defensive motionlessness, I have slighted the…
The Wisdom of the Ancients
“The west does not die when nations do.” In his classic 1991 tome Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Marxist philosopher Frederic Jameson presents…
I Can’t Eat With Jesus
Jesus is in this northern mining town he walks the street at night beneath the streetlight’s muted glow missing a few teeth. He’s always alone, and when…
Through the Eyes of Jared Kushner
“So you want us to accomplish something you couldn’t by doing it the same way you did it?” – Jared Kushner “I never planned to write…
The Scientific Reconstruction of Dante
Scholarship is at times not unlike the stock market. - Teodolinda Barolini Teodolinda Barolini’s Dante’s Multitudes is a must-read for any student of literary criticism who…
Soul Wonder: The Art of the Metaxu
No one, we would hope, is wonder-proof, at least not initially. Aristotle tells us that philosophy begins with wonder. We wonder at the world and at ourselves…
The Cult of Woke
Sometimes I imagine the following scene: I am seated at a sidewalk café in D.C., having dinner with a friend. Suddenly a troop of Wokesters show up. …
Cinematic Bliss: The Korngold Violin Concerto
I was driving when I heard Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto the first time. It was a library CD I’d just borrowed, back in the days when…
Darkest Site: A Poem
Darkest Site, in whom zero light appears, Swallowing all quanta into yourself, Even the hard devotion of peering Eyes that record and measure and weigh all Of…
Dante’s Global Vision: Seeing and Being Seen in the “Divine Comedy”
“The things of friends are common.” —Greek proverb (quoted by Socrates in the Phaedrus) It is a pleasure to be with you today, to visit Belmont University…