First Words of an Infant Bird
Rise, my little wings, so others can sing How they saw me flying out of this tree. Right now, as I look up at the sky I…
Augustine and the Power of Memory
Saint Augustine is remembered as the “Doctor of Grace,” but a strong case can be made that he should be remembered as the Doctor of Memory. In…
The Problem of Power and the Hope of Transformative Love
What do Saint Augustine and Shakespeare’s King Lear have in common? Not much at first glance. One is a historic North African saint, the other a fictional…
God in the Secular World
The long march to secularity has been one of the most widely discussed and debated topics in both the popular imagination and academic discourse. While a major…
A Darkly Beautiful, Almost Epic Masterpiece of The Odyssey
“Cleverness will get you in trouble.” When teaching Homer’s Odyssey, students will often ask questions about the unexpected character of Odysseus, the hero of the epic. They…
Soul Politics: Eric Voegelin and VoegelinView
“The German Revolution, finally, in an environment without strong institutional traditions, brought for the first time into play full economic materialism, racist biology, corrupt psychology, scientism, and…
Chekhov and the Literature of Possibility
Jacques Rancière needs little introduction to those in the world of philosophy, art, and aesthetics. Neither does Anton Chekhov, the great Russian writer famous for his short…
Confronting the Gnostic Cosmos: Understanding Eric Voegelin
On March 12, 1938, German soldiers began crossing the border between Germany and Austria. It was an invasion. The Austrian government was in total disarray. Pro-Nazi sympathizers…
Eric Voegelin Week
This week, we will be revisiting Eric Voegelin with classic publications dealing with our namesake and an important and valuable name in conversations over the nature of…
The Haunting Wages of Sin in Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher”
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a classic of Gothic literature, dark romanticism, and an enduring reminder of the reality of sin…
Iran After the War
The war has come. The war will eventually end. But what kind of place will Iran be after the war ends is the question with which we…
Machiavelli, Tocqueville, and the Imperial Presidency
Machiavelli noted that the goal of political power and order is centralized authority. In The Prince, the hallmark of a good ruler is their ability to centralize…
Vanished in Appalachia
The morning sky is still black and dark As my eyes awake and look on high. A chorus of birds begin to sing for me As the…
A Heavenly Flight
In today’s world, many would say poetry is a useless activity. Across the world, especially in our technologically driven environment, the madness of mocking reading, writing, and…
The Future of The Social Contract
Social contract theory is now a foundational pillar of modern political theory. Any student of politics, political philosophy, and political theory will know the origins of modern…