What We’re Reading

Russell Kirk, The Politics of Prudence. Russell Kirk is one of the most recognized names in “conservative” intellectual circles. A new volume of his 1993 collection of essays, The Politics of Prudence, restores Kirk to the public—with a new introduction by Michael P. Federici. Readers learn the essence of what Kirk understood and promoted as conservatism: a disposition toward awe and wonder regarding life and the cosmos, opposition to ideology, and a concern for a transcendent moral order (the “Permanent Things” he often spoke and wrote of). Several of the chapters, originally lectures given by Kirk, will be of interest to readers today: T.S. Eliot, Libertarians vs. Libertarianism, and Neoconservatism. Federici’s introduction is equally worthwhile for its concise summary of Kirk and what he really believed: the first and primary interest of the conservative is “culture.” One, however, is left unsure what exactly “culture” is for Kirk. For those who are left unsure, I’d say you should read Roger Scruton, arguably the heir to Russell Kirk’s project of understanding conservatism through a cultural, rather than political, lens.

~ Paul Krause

Christopher Dawson, The Crisis of Western Education. Originally published in 1961, Christopher Dawson’s The Crisis of Western Education is a diagnosis of our contemporary educational crisis and a proposal for renewal. For Dawson, there is an inseparable connection between religion and culture. A culture cannot form or long survive if it does not have a common religious commitment at its foundation. Thus, if the Western world continues to cut itself off from its religious foundation, then it will continue to decay. Relatedly, Dawson believes that religion and culture are inseparable from education, since education in the broadest sense of the word is the process of “enculturation,” which he defines as “the process by which culture is handed on by society and acquired by the individual.” In this way, education is the passing down of a common culture from one generation to the next. Given that Western culture is inseparably tied to Christianity, it follows that there must be a renewal of the study of Christian culture in our universities.

It is important to clarify that Dawson is not advocating for a simple restoration of the Christian classics, nor is he advocating for a simple increase in theology courses. More broadly, he is advocating for the “whole tradition of Christian life and thought through the course of history.” Dawson’s program for the study of Christian culture therefore involves an interplay between theology, anthropology, and history, which together produce a “concrete historical reality” that we call Christian culture. In short, he wants us to remember the importance of passing down a tradition of culture, so that we may see the real connection between Christianity and life. Whatever we make of Dawson’s proposal, it deserves to be taken seriously. The Crisis of Western Education will make thought-provoking reading for those interested in cultural and educational renewal.

~ Darrell Falconburg

Johan Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages. The virtuous feats of storming a castle to fight a green knight, defending one’s faith on the battlefield during the Crusades, gifting a deceased nightingale as a sign of love, and retreating to Avalon with an imagined lover are reminders of chivalrous acts the Middle Ages epitomized as stereotypical and ideal forms of heroic fancies and romantic sentiments. Chivalry often receives the misconception of appearing as an ethical ideal, which “piety and virtue have to be the essence of a knight’s life.” Despite chivalry falling short of such characteristics, chivalry is truly “pride aspiring to beauty, and formalized pride gives rise to a conception of honor, which is the pole of noble life.” Honor, a combination of egotistical attitudes and conscience automations, is compatible with “vices and susceptible to extravagant delusion.” Medieval, chivalric thought is indeed not a fantasy, rather a picturesque notion of men fighting with courage and bravery, excited by dangerous thrills, overcome with sacrifice, and staunch steadfastness towards celibacy. As a result, the Medieval Ages heightened what men ought to do in romantical conversations, and as this period came to a close, the death and decay of chivalric civilization’s presence is considered to have waxed and waned when men no longer sought their lover.

~ Sarah Tillard

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