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Wit and Wisdom of Imaginative Conservatives (Feb 16-22)

February 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment

by Winston Elliott IIIImaginative Conservative

The Imaginative Conservative began the week with Jeffrey Hart’s essay Christopher Dawson and the History We Are Not Told. Greg Weiner discussed the problem of power in  Presidential Power and the War on Terror: Whence Congress? TIC then presented Christopher Dawson’s Religion and the Rise of Western Culture as the Book of the Day. With Love and Death in the Ashes, John Willson wrote about power, World War II, and the bombing of Dresden. Then C.R. Wiley explained that Saving Nature from the Hippies is still possible. Bradley Birzer showed us why Imaginative Conservatives should Read Christopher Dawson or Russell Kirk, Not Hoffman. We turned next to the work of C.S. Lewis and Daniel McInerny’s thought provoking essay Children’s Literature and the Spirited Element. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Week in Review February 24, 2013

Sacred Architecture: The Wisdom of Duncan Stroik

February 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment
400px-Guadalupe_Shrine

Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe

by Phillip Nielsen

Duncan G. Stroik, The Church Building as a Sacred Place: Beauty, Transcendence and the Eternal. Chicago: Hillenbrand Books, 2012. 182 pages, 170 photographs and drawings.

Notre Dame’s Duncan Stroik has led the field of Catholic architecture for the last twenty years with unrivaled unity of purpose. He has designed and built churches as an architect and has edited and published the Sacred Architecture Journal as an academic. Within the field his name has been everywhere as one of the great conservative champions of traditional architecture as a rational and achievable alternative to ultramodern steel cathedrals and the tawdry McWorship centers of suburbia. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Architecture, Art, Books, Christianity, Duncan Stroik, Philip Nielsen February 24, 2013

Calvin Coolidge: A Silver Lining

February 24, 2013 By 2 Comments

by Brittany BaldwinCalvin Coolidge

Several authors have dusted off the all-but-forgotten name of Calvin Coolidge. Both Amity Shlaes and Charles Johnson have recently defended Mr. Coolidge’s presidency and politics, especially in light of our current financial mess, in their respective books Coolidge and Why Coolidge Matters. Both these books examine the life of the revived president and praise him for his fierce defense of fiscally conservative government.

But, if it wasn’t for Thomas Silver’s 1982 historical debut of Preident Coolidge, any trace of his accomplishments might still lie on some neglected shelf. The name Thomas Silver may not ring a bell, but President Reagan knew him and considered his book among his favorites. After serving in Vietnam, Dr. Silver received his doctorate from Claremont Graduate School and served as co-founder and president of the Claremont Institute. He died prematurely of an aggressive brain tumor, but his scholarship has rightly established Coolidge’s place in history. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Brittany Baldwin, Calvin Coolidge February 24, 2013