by Winston Elliott, III

This week The Imaginative Conservative provided a thoughtful look at the world of economics and government, world and American history, politics, classic literature, culture, Christianity, and the moral imagination. Included were outstanding essays that considered soulcraft, artistic decadence, and the art of living conservatism. Pour a cup of coffee, light a pipe or warm a scone, and immerse yourself in the wit and wisdom of these essays.

• Featured Book: Robert Nisbet & The Quest for Community
• A Review: “Look Homeward, America”, by Jack Shifflett
• Let Us Publically Recognize the Yeoman Aristocracy: Reflections on Shop Class as Soulcraft and Householding, by C.R. Wiley [Read more...]

by Winston Elliott, III

This week The Imaginative Conservative provided a thoughtful look at the world of economics and government, world and American history, politics, classic literature, culture, Christianity, and the moral imagination. The week ended with special essays in celebration of the anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s 1983 “evil empire” speech. Pour a cup of coffee, light a pipe or warm a scone, and immerse yourself in the wit and wisdom of these essays.

• Complaining is a Multi-Billion-Dollar Industry, by Mike Church
• Mozart’s Favorite Composer: A Primer on Franz Josef Haydn, by Steve Klugewicz
• Subsidy or Subsidiarity, by Gerald Russello
• C’est Formidable! In Praise of Cultural Dragons, by Stephen Masty [Read more...]

by Winston Elliott, III

This week The Imaginative Conservative provided a thoughtful look at the world of economics and government, world and American history, politics, classic literature, culture, Christianity, and the moral imagination. Pour a cup of coffee, light a pipe, and immerse yourself in the wit and wisdom of these essays.

• Featured Book: Forgotten Conservatives in American History
• Sensible Economics: What Would Hayek Do? by Stephen Masty
• Conservatism Needs Less Ayn Rand, and More Flannery O’Connor, by Andrew Bacevich
• Featured Book The Case for Supply Side Economics: Wealth & Poverty
• Calvin Coolidge: A Silver Lining, by Brittany Baldwin [Read more...]

by Winston Elliott III

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...]

by Winston Elliott III

The Imaginative Conservative began the week with Brittany Baldwin’s consideration of poverty and The Conservative Call to Compassion: Poverty, Charity, and the Dignity of the Human Person. Next, Daniel McInerny sharpened his witty blades On Popular Fictions, Or How I Learned to Relax and Enjoy Downton Abbey. Then we heard from Russell Kirk on what T.S. Eliot called The Permanent Things. We went on a search with Robert Woods to find the divine in common spaces in A Christian Humanistic Devotional? Hallowed Be This House. [Read more...]

by Winston Elliott III

The Imaginative Conservative kicked off the week with John Alvis’s outstanding essay on education, A Proper Core Curriculum is Political & Ought Not Be “Politicized”. Next, Duncan Stroik eloquently expressed his thoughts on The Church Building as a Sacred Place: Beauty, Transcendence, and the Eternal. Robert Woods showed us the nearly 102 reasons Why Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles Is a Great Book.

Mark Malvasi examined Russell Kirk’s search for ways to make conservatism relevant to the modern world with his search for the “roots of American order” in Russell Kirk among the Historians: Myth and Meaning in the Writing of American History. Annamarie Adkins & Joseph Pearce teamed up to examine spiritual, cultural and political conditions in Solzhenitsyn’s Prophetic Voice: Biographer Joseph Pearce Discusses Critic of Communism. Next, Russell Kirk spread the broad wings of his moral imagination in the essay How Dead is Edmund Burke?

[Read more...]

by Winston Elliott, III

The Imaginative Conservative began the week with a commentary by Robert Woods on the moral imagination in A Guide to Reading Ghost Stories. Joseph Pearce described the pilgrimage of grace that composes the world of ‘The Hobbit’ and Virtue. Richard Jensen discussed the true function of education in The Right Schools: Ideological Debate on the History of Education. In Libertarianism and Anti-Libertarianism on Sunday Evening TV, Peter Lawler examined conservative values in Girls and Downton Abbey.

Next, Douglas Minson examined the idea that liberal democracy and Christianity are profoundly irreconcilable in the book review Ordered Liberty under God. We turned to Mark Malvasi for a discussion of the ideological source of racism in All’s Well That Ends Well?: Reflections on Liberalism and Race. Then, Winston Elliott asked if Ronald Reagan gave A Better Inauguration Speech? With Who’s in Charge, here? Gun Control, Health Care, and the Presumptions of Social Democracy, Bruce Frohnen took a look at the administration’s penalties for corporate crime and insurance coverage. 

In his eloquent essay, Beauty: A Necessity, Not a Luxury, Fr. Charles Klamut guided us in a greater appreication of the necessity of beauty to humane living. Then, Darrin Moore gave us President Obama’s Inaugural Address: Decoded and Heckled. We toured A Tale of Two Cités with Leo Linbeck III’s image of the two ideas of community and freedom as envisioned by Rousseau and Tocqueville. Next, Bradley Birzer asked if there really was a Mayflower Compact.

Lee Trepanier discussed the fundamental principles of teaching today in Teaching in an Age of Ideology: Ellis Sandoz. In The Essential Russell Kirk, George H. Nash examined what it takes to create a truly conservative mind. The mighty poetry of Stephen Masty inspired both smiles and self-reflection in the Reviewers of Books Out-of-Print. Stephen Presser’s essay presented the law and Antonin Scalia in A Candle in the Darkness. TIC‘s week concluded with an outside perspective of American political and spiritual life with Stephen Masty in An African Writes Home: America a Land of Unexpected Contradictions.

by Winston Elliott, III

The Imaginative Conservative began the week with a look at Plato’s commitment to rational discourse in Plato’s Apology and the Gorgias: Yearning for Political and Spiritual Regeneration, by Lee Cheek. We moved from the thought of Plato to the brilliance of J.R.R. Tolkien as Brad Birzer provided us with a Review of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. From there we followed Stratford Caldecott in the examination of reductionism in What is Reality? Ralph Ancil’s thoughtful essay Economy of the Tao: Wendell Berry’s View of Economic Health, provides an introduction to Berry’s economic vision.

TIC helped ring out the old year with Stephen Masty as he lifted a Toast the New Year as the Founders Did. In The Swords of Imagination: Russell Kirk’s Battle With Modernity, Gleaves Whitney discussed Russell Kirk’s vigorous fight on behalf of the Permanent Things. With our final post of 2012, we asked for your support as The Imaginative Conservative Wields the Sword of Imagination in Defense of the Permanent Things.

What better way for TIC to begin a new year than with the Rev. James Schall, S. J. and his philosophical study of The Universe We Know In. Russell Kirk challenges conservatives to engage the culture in May the Rising Generation Redeem the Time. Stephen Masty then took us on another wonderful flight of fanciful reason in America’s Gunless Revolution. Mordecai Roshwald presents an understanding of what we might learn from Socrates Today.

Next, C. R. Wiley was Stirred by Shakers: on the Elegant Errors of a Failed Sect as he hung his copy of the Tree of Life. Bruce Frohnen continued his look at the roles of family, church, local association in Local Politics: Small may not be Beautiful, but it’s what we’ve Got. Then Peter Lawler discussed Tocqueville’s view of American education and The State of American Liberal Education These Days. TIC concluded the week with Brad Birzer’s detailed look at liberalism, conservatism, and the moral imagination in More than ‘Irritable Mental Gestures’: Russell Kirk’s Challenge to Liberalism.

by Winston Elliott III
 

The Imaginative Conservative began the week leading up to our celebration of the birth of Christ with Lee Trepanier’s thoughts on Teaching in an Age of Ideology. Next, Stephen Masty provided us a handy shopping list of Christmas Gifts for Leftists. We turned then to Roger Scruton’s thought provoking essay on language in How to Be a Non-Liberal, Anti-Socialist Conservative. C. R. Wiley’s reflections on chaos and order Homesick in the Cosmos examined the order of God. Bradley Birzer agreed and showed us that there is truly A Better Reality.

As Christmas approached, we read Russell Kirk’s reminder of the meaning of The Twelve Days of Christmas. With his essay Natalie Wood and Purity at Midnight Mass, Andrew Seeley considered the importance of purity and our daughters. This beautifully evocative poem by Stephen Masty placed us square in the middle of Notre Dame: A Gargoyle’s Prayer at Christmas.

The day we celebrated the birth of our Lord began with the beauty of language in A Christmas Carol Poem, by G. K. Chesterton. Bruce Frohnen shared a little of what he learned about Why “Celebrate” Christmas—and the Epiphany? This lovely Christmas poem by John Betjeman gave us all a reflective moment to appreciate the sublime of words and God. We moved to the poetry of John Donne who masterfully shaped language to breathe life into the image of the Nativity a Christmas Poem.
 
Next, James Person, Jr. reflected on Godly joy and The Legacy of C. S. Lewis. In The Necessity of Stories, Brad Birzer examined the importance the True, the Beautiful, and of story tellers. Mark Malvasi’s thought provoking essay concluded that we must regain our moral center in Barbarism and History. Stephen Masty went on to explain what we can learn from Thai monks, experiments on London cabbies, and a beautiful Russian-émigré scholar in Unlocking Your Conservative Imagination.

Next, Ian Crowe discussed Edmund Burke on Manners and the moral underpinnings that are necessary for the continuation of civilization. We then enjoyed John Willson’s fascinating look at the EdBOX: Classrooms and the Republic. To conclude the week, TIC asked that you Help Share a Conservatism of Imagination: Offered in a Spirit of Hopefulness & Generosity.