The Triumph of Rome: Act 5 of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”
We shall try fortune in a second fight. - Brutus Act 4 of the Julius Caesar has shown us that in a world devoid of divine providence,…
The Inverted Order of Things: Act 4 of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”
The word “merry” occurs twice in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The first time in Act 2.4, where Portia asks her servant to tell Brutus that she is “merry”…
Is Our Life Meaningless?
What does it mean to live a meaningful life? In what sense is life ever meaningful? Is meaning inherent in life, or is meaning something “we” give…
On the Nature of Context: Beyond Technocracy
Modern secularism has long promised to provide us with a sustainable and profitable context for political-theological conflicts (conflicts concerning “what is right” and its ground, its “why”). …
Redemption: The Third Act of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”
“Without being compatriots, they were all Romans. When everyone became a Roman citizen, Rome ceased having any citizens; and when being a Roman citizen became equivalent to…
Politics and Women in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” Act 2
Act 2 of the Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar[1] opens with a reference to Act. 1.2.140. According to Brutus, Cassius is wrong about blaming men for fateful events (2.1.2-4).[2]…
Dangerous Thoughts: The First Act of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”
“[I]f Caesar had stabbed their mothers, they would have done no less.” As a dramatic account of the origins and limits of political authority, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar…
Poetic Transcendence and the Way of Woman
A single, overtly innocuous question has recently become one of the loudest signs of our times: “What is a Woman?” Nationwide clamor was triggered by the question…
The Modern Deceit: Emancipation from Social Society
Familiar scenario: on one side of the fence, merchants (“corporations”) tend to control government, while on the other side of the fence government tends to control all…
Liberal Education and Understanding War and Peace
“The best part of our philosophers having come to despair of our power to ever cure the defects of mankind—which are, as we believe, greater and in…
The Poetic Interiority of Sensuality
Quali fioretti dal notturno gelo chinati e chiusi, poi che ’l sol li ’mbianca si drizzan tutti aperti in loro stelo As gentle flowers, by the frost…
Leaving the Technological Cave
In a society that recognizes no moral end beyond the survival of the society itself, “social cohesion is our only hope”.[1] The rules and regulations that the…
Introductory Notes on Aquinas’s The Will of God
l’uomo nello stato bestiale ama solamente la sua salvezza (in his beastly state, man loves solely his salvation/safety)[1] In the “Of God’s Will” (De voluntate Dei) section…
Leo Strauss as Poet (A True Story)
Why would the story have been left untold? Because it was absurd? Or…because it did not fit the deep-seated expectations, the lingering prejudices of our times? The…
Law and Natural Right: On John 9’s Parable of the Blind Man
John 9 offers us the memorable “parable” of the blind saved by Jesus.[1] The savior teaches us that the saved man was blind from birth “so that…