What We’re Reading
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. Tocqueville’s classic Democracy in America is a timely read and is as important now as when it was written. When asked…
The Weirdest Night Ever
This has to be the weirdest night ever, Can we tell our wives? They’ll think we were drunk, Angels don’t talk to shepherds, no, never, Just kings…
Blackberry Bushes
Blackberry blossoms, pink-white under bees— rabbits look up longingly. Blackberries ripe and sweet; my brother and I pick them— reaching through thorns. Thrushes flying south pluck at…
The Barbarism of Reflection
It is the nature of all developmental accounts that there will be fewer at the high end than at the base; in the case of morality, more…
Confronting Iran and Islamist Expansionism
“Islam is communism with God,” as Maxime Rodinson described it; and just as communism was during much of the twentieth century, Islam is currently expanding. What does…
For God, For Country, and For Yale: And Other Currently Unpopular Opinions
It is currently an unpopular opinion to be supportive of America’s institutions of higher education, especially the prestigious universities like Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and others—especially in…
Radically Personal? Challenges by Robert Bellah, Charles Taylor, and Linda Zagzebski
This paper was presented at the Eric Voegelin Society gathering at the APSA, September 2, 2023. My presentation is about the personal, not about the political,…
Eric Voegelin and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany at 75
Introduction[1] The constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany was adopted on May 23, 1949, about four years after the end of World War II.[2] Its official…
Hannah’s Promise
My womb a hollow desert, yawning wide Swallowing my dreams of motherhood whole Long yearning nights I lay down and cried Urging my body to fulfil its…
Two Grief Poems for Belinda
The hourglass moment: a triolet “Think of long weeks, short months. Enjoy each good half-hour”: that’s what the hospice doctor said. Think of long weeks, short months:…
The Moral Butterfly Effect
That the whole moral universe could be inverted by a single word seems a rather absurd contention. Nevertheless, it is true, and knowing this fact helps us…
On Science, Smallness, and Wonder
One of the aspects of my current teaching job that I have most dreaded – before the school year and during it – is teaching science. Though…
The Lords and Limits of Tolkienism
On December 19, 2001, The Fellowship of the Ring opened in US theaters. Like Episode IV: A New Hope, the first film of the original Star Wars…
The Fellowship and Me
Sometimes — if you are very, very lucky — you will be introduced to a story early on that changes the course of your life in important…