About John Horvat

John Horvat II is a scholar, researcher, educator, international speaker, and author of the book Return to Order, as well as the author of hundreds of published essays. He lives in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, where he is the vice president of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property.

Liberals and the Libel of “Christian Nationalism”

By |2024-03-07T18:56:33-06:00March 7th, 2024|Categories: American Republic, Christianity, Civil Society, Civilization, Liberalism|

Christ gave His disciples the Divine Commission to go and teach all nations, baptizing them. Christians are called to change society—all society, every society. They pursue this goal with charity and zeal, respecting the free will of individuals. Wherever Christianity has gone, its charity has transformed nations and peoples. Whenever the extreme left is in [...]

The Emergence of the Home Chapel

By |2024-02-25T15:18:33-06:00February 25th, 2024|Categories: Architecture, Christianity|

By building a chapel, the owner is inviting God into the home. By making it the most beautiful room in the house, the person recognizes God's primary place in one's life. The chapel builders represent one of those paradoxes where people feel the emptiness of the postmodern world that promises everything and wishes to fill [...]

Why National Divorce Is a Horrible Idea

By |2024-02-16T14:41:09-06:00February 15th, 2024|Categories: American Republic, John Horvat|

America must turn to that family-centered, community-based society that is anchored in God and a morality based on His law. Now is the time to gather the nation around unifying principles, not shatter it into millions of individualistic shards. Some traditional-minded Americans use a horrible metaphor to describe an outcome they desire for the nation. [...]

Can Godless Leaders Represent the Godly?

By |2023-12-14T17:49:38-06:00December 14th, 2023|Categories: Christianity, Government, John Horvat|

Recent elections in Holland, Sweden, Italy and Argentina have given victories to a new type of conservative leader based on a faulty premise. Some Christians hold that the only way to fight against godless and immoral times is with godless leaders who practice no established religion and follow no set rules. Only these outside mavericks [...]

Religion Without Consequences

By |2023-12-09T13:49:54-06:00December 9th, 2023|Categories: Christianity, John Horvat, Liberalism, Religion|

Consequential religion strikes fear in those who tragically have no faith. When they see that some believe firmly in a loving and Almighty God who takes an active role in worldly affairs, they sense the power of religion, and they suddenly become irrelevant. We live in times of inconsequential religion. That means most people do [...]

Overcoming Integralism With More Liberalism?

By |2023-11-15T05:48:44-06:00November 14th, 2023|Categories: Books, Catholicism, John Horvat, Liberalism|

It is time to abandon the liberal charade that society must function as if God does not exist. Instead, the world must again turn to God, to Saint Augustine’s “beauty so ancient and so new,” which will bring peace to today’s restless hearts. All the Kingdoms of the World: On Radical Religious Alternatives to Liberalism, [...]

Science, Suffering, & Sanctification

By |2023-10-10T18:11:58-05:00October 10th, 2023|Categories: Christianity, John Horvat, Science|

Scientists studying the effects of great trauma more closely now find that deep suffering can transform individuals and improve their lives. It is time to take a second look at the Cross. Everyone knows about those who have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This condition develops when a person witnesses or experiences a shocking, terrifying, [...]

Do We Need Regime Change or a Change of Hearts?

By |2023-09-24T14:36:41-05:00September 24th, 2023|Categories: Books, Catholicism, John Horvat, Politics|

Patrick Deneen's book “Regime Change” is curiously post-Christian. Indeed, “regime change” conjures up images of forced virtue, authoritarian actions, and rigid programs to address serious problems. But what is needed today is not a regime change but a spiritual conversion, a reorientation, a new vision of the world. What makes Patrick Deneen’s new book, Regime [...]

Return to Order: Organic Remedies and Upright Spontaneity

By |2023-07-20T17:19:04-05:00July 20th, 2023|Categories: Books, Christendom, Economics, John Horvat, Political Economy, Timeless Essays, Virtue|Tags: |

Counting upon God’s grace, we must recognize and respect the organic nature of man, full of vivacity, spontaneity, and unpredictability. This is the essence of a truly organic—that is, living—society. An element of organic society involves the manner in which remedies are found. In searching for solutions, we must carefully observe the fact that organic [...]

What David French Gets Wrong About the Culture War

By |2023-07-19T15:08:25-05:00July 19th, 2023|Categories: Christianity, Culture War, First Amendment, John Horvat|

According to David French, when Christians and drag queens agree to coexist peacefully, both are “protecting the First Amendment from the culture war.” God and the devil can peacefully waltz together. But God and Satan are eternal and unequal enemies. One rules over His creation—including heaven, earth, humanity, and the universe. The other—the eternal loser—reigns [...]

Return to Order: Reviving the Heart and Soul of an Economy

By |2023-07-20T12:33:01-05:00July 15th, 2023|Categories: Books, Economics, Featured, John Horvat, Timeless Essays|Tags: |

Economists can analyze trends in production and consumption, but they cannot plumb the depths of the human soul; they can only observe the consequences of certain human commercial acts and take limited conclusions. Unlike the laws of the natural sciences, economic laws involve free and rational human beings and are consequently free of determinism. Given [...]

On the Road to Mecosta

By |2023-06-29T16:20:07-05:00June 29th, 2023|Categories: Imagination, John Horvat, Moral Imagination, Russell Kirk|

There must be places like Mecosta, hidden away from the world, where people can repair to ponder and consider the permanent things that matter. The course of rivers is often marked by rapids, which reflect excitement, dynamism and raw power. While rapids can be exhilarating, there is also a place for river pools and backwaters, [...]

Sometimes It Takes a Baby to Bring Out the Humanity in Us

By |2023-06-15T12:36:25-05:00June 15th, 2023|Categories: John Horvat, Love|

Something extraordinary occasionally breaks our modern isolation, and people come out of their worlds and communicate with others. The particular incident related here involved a normal boarding process with its mad rush to secure seats and overhead bin space. A baby at the back of the plane could not stop crying at the top of [...]

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