About James V. Schall

Rev. James V. Schall, S.J. (1928-2019) was a teacher, writer, and philosopher. He was Professor of Political Philosophy in the Department of Government at Georgetown University and the author of many books, including The Life of the Mind: On the Joys and Travails of Thinking, Catholicism and Intelligence, and A Line Through the Human Heart: On Sinning and Being Forgiven.

On the Measure and Conservation of Human Things

By |2023-11-16T18:06:19-06:00November 16th, 2023|Categories: C.S. Lewis, Christianity, Fr. James Schall, Politics, Timeless Essays, Walker Percy|Tags: , |

The man who sets out only to be human somehow becomes less than human. We ignore the highest things at our peril. Human things are finite, incomplete; nonetheless, they are real and worthy. They are worth keeping. For the truth of knowledge is measured by the knowable object. For it is because a thing is [...]

The Political Philosophy of Joseph Ratzinger

By |2023-01-09T13:13:35-06:00January 9th, 2023|Categories: Catholicism, Modernity, Philosophy, Politics, Pope Benedict XVI, Theology|

Joseph Ratzinger was aware of the central event of modernity, namely the transferal of basic Christian categories from the transcendent order to the political order of this world. Like many classically trained German scholars, Joseph Ratzinger was learned in many spheres of knowledge. He displayed a considerable familiarity with those areas in which he did [...]

On Hearing Dvorak’s “Stabat Mater”

By |2021-04-30T11:15:13-05:00April 30th, 2021|Categories: Antonin Dvorak, Audio/Video, Catholicism, Fr. James Schall, Music|

The music of Antonin Dvorak's "Stabat Mater" is itself redemptive. By the time we arrive at the last stanza, we comprehend that the words of the hymn through the very grandeur of the music have led us from a most somber and tragic experience with corresponding musical setting to a new hope—that death, though present, [...]

The State vs. the Normal Good of Normal People

By |2019-07-11T10:46:37-05:00December 22nd, 2018|Categories: Abortion, Books, Civil Society, Culture War, Ethics, Family, Fr. James Schall, Homosexual Unions, Marriage, Modernity, Morality, Social Institutions|

What happens when our nation’s fundamental principles or standards are rejected? Jennifer Roback Morse’s new book, The Sexual State, is a lively and forceful examination of where we came from, where we are now, and where we ought to be on matters of human life… Genesis tells us that man was created “male and female.” The [...]

Truth as a Democratic Project

By |2019-04-25T13:09:50-05:00September 18th, 2018|Categories: Democracy, Fr. James Schall, Freedom, Government, Liberty, Philosophy, Reason, Relativism, Truth|

To save democracy from subjectivism, truth must become a democratic project. The greatest of crimes can be enacted in the name of sincerity, authenticity, and “being at peace with oneself.” Each of these criteria looks to one’s own estimate of oneself… During the Presidential Campaign of 1996, in California, President Bill Clinton said that democracy [...]

How to Keep Your Virtue in College

By |2021-05-03T15:48:36-05:00August 28th, 2017|Categories: Aristotle, Character, Christian Humanism, Education, Fr. James Schall, Morality, Philosophy|

The college student needs the virtue that enables him to see the origins, the first principles. He will do this by reading and conversing—even by prayer and fasting. Even students in religious-founded institutions can lose their faith, while others find God at Ohio State University. Some students mold themselves to the prevailing campus ideology, while [...]

A Student’s Guide to Liberal Learning

By |2019-09-12T10:39:18-05:00July 31st, 2017|Categories: Character, Fr. James Schall, Great Books, Liberal Learning, Morality, Reason|

It is difficult to see ourselves as we are, even if this inner “seeing” is one of the most important things we must do for ourselves… In today’s world, when the topic of the defects of university teaching and curricula comes up, the most well-known alternative put forward is the “great books programs.” I take it [...]

Socrates Rises With Christ

By |2023-11-29T19:02:17-06:00July 29th, 2017|Categories: Christian Humanism, Christianity, Fr. James Schall, Justice, Plato, Reason|

The completion of Plato lies in the resurrection, in the reality that sees not just the immortality of the soul but the acting person as the source of all reason. Is there any way to bring political philosophy and revelation, Athens and Jerusalem, into a coherent, non-contradictory relation to each other without undermining the integrity [...]

On the Mystery of Teachers I Never Met

By |2021-04-28T14:37:02-05:00July 21st, 2017|Categories: Aristotle, Christian Humanism, Education, Fr. James Schall, Great Books, Hilaire Belloc, Literature, Philosophy, Plato, St. Augustine, Tradition, Truth|

The mystery is how one person whom I never met, through recountings down the ages of how many others whom I also have never met, could shed light on each other, eventually to enlighten me. In The Apology, Socrates brought up the question of whether he was paid for being a teacher, like the Sophists, who were paid [...]

Mysticism, Political Philosophy, & Play

By |2019-11-21T13:58:17-06:00July 10th, 2017|Categories: Christian Humanism, Faith, Fr. James Schall, Government, Mystery, Philosophy|

To link spiritualism, political philosophy, and play together is, at first sight, rash. What could they possibly have in common, since they clearly are not the same?… Spiritualism seems to me absolutely right on all its mystical side. The supernatural part of it seems to me quite natural. The incredible part of it seems to [...]

The Myth of Liberalism

By |2018-09-20T14:40:59-05:00June 3rd, 2017|Categories: Books, Featured, Fr. James Schall, Liberalism, Philosophy|

The Myth of Liberalism offers a concise argument of the adequacy of modern liberalism and a re-presention of how classical/medieval understanding of family and virtue really is a superior understanding of the human good… “Contemporary liberalism is less a political philosophy than a façade for undermining extant social and legal mores.” —John Safranek, The Myth [...]

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