Roger and Me
Walking into the Reform Club in London’s ritzy Pall Mall, the aspirations of a 26-year-old American student had come true. Recently graduated from Yale but deciding against…
The Romance of Transcendence
Eric Voegelin’s introduction to The Ecumenic Age is a rich, evocative piece of writing. Regarding religious structures, Voegelin was concerned about the “doctrinization of symbols” that impede…
The Music of Poetry: Brad Leithauser’s “Rhyme’s Rooms: The Architecture of Poetry”
Brad Leithauser. Rhyme’s Rooms: The Architecture of Poetry. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2022. “If, generations hence, literary historians take any interest in what went on…
Leopardi’s Eternity: A Translation and Interpretation of The Infinite
Among the foremost minds that gave dignity to the Italian language, stands Count Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), whose poem “The Infinite” (L’infinito) invites awakening to the essence of…
Once More Into the Breach: A Review of Matt Walsh’s “Church of Cowards”
Matt Walsh. Church of Cowards. Washington, DC: Regnery, 2022; 2020. In May of 1994, a group of Christians signed an agreement titled “Evangelicals and Catholics Together.”…
The Priority of Culture: Russell Kirk’s “Concise Guide to Conservatism”
After Russell Kirk published his dissertation in 1953 under the title The Conservative Mind, it became a best-seller. Among the ranks of Robert Nisbet and Richard Weaver,…
Michel Houellebecq and the Ruins of Modernity
Submission, by Michel Houellebecq, is a book whose layers of meaning a counterpoint to so much of the shallowness of our culture. The fact that this contemporary…
The Revolution in Jena: How a Handful of German Romantics Changed Our Lives
Peter Neumann. Jena 1800: The Republic of Free Spirits. Trans. Shelley Frisch. New York: Farrer, Strauss and Giroux, 2022. “I saw the Emperor—this world-soul—riding out of…
I Do Not Sell Education: Reflections of a University Professor
Student Reviews matter a whole lot, one can say, that now more than ever. A student can complain to the highest authority in the University if he…
Culture and Therapy: Can Hegel Help Us Understand Our Cultural Malaise?
It’s hard to compare previous eras to this present one – which is always “the best of times and the worst of times.” That said, there are…
The Passion of Star Wars
Is Star Wars more than an entertaining space opera meant to relax us after the daily grind of post-industrialized life? To answer that question, we must consider the possibility…
Can Shakespeare Save Civilization?
Perhaps an apology might be necessary for the sheer audacity of beginning any essay with such a question and with such a seemingly absurd claim. Of course,…
Shakespeare on Tyranny: Reading the Roman Plays
William Shakespeare, that great bard of Stratford-upon-Avon, was not a political theorist. But he had much to say about politics. Or, at least, his plays are often…
The Sardonic Prophet: A Review of “Michel Houellebecq: The Cassandra of Freedom”
Michael S. Kochin and Alberto Spektorowski, eds. Michel Houellebecq, the Cassandra of Freedom Submission and Decline. Leiden: Brill, 2021. The day the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo…
What Constitutes “Genius”? Beyond IQ and the Importance of Creative Individualism
What constitutes genius? Who is a genius? The Genius Famine, by Bruce Charlton and Edward Dutton, answered many burning questions that have arisen for me over the…