About Jonathan Witt

Jonathan Witt, Ph.D. is a former English professor and co-author of the Ignatius Press book The Hobbit Party: The Vision of Freedom that Tolkien Got, and the West Forgot. He is a Senior Fellow of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. He has written many popular and academic articles, scripted three documentaries that have appeared on PBS, and is the co-author of A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature. He also served as the lead writer for the PovertyCure Series and the award-winning film Poverty, Inc.

The “God of the Gaps” is Growing

By |2018-09-24T14:25:39-05:00July 14th, 2017|Categories: Christianity, Science|

The story of the god of the gaps ends like a bad dream. The scientist has scaled the mountains of ignorance, he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries... Atheists have a [...]

Tolkien, Ordered Liberty, and Catholic Social Teaching

By |2017-07-16T15:46:23-05:00November 26th, 2014|Categories: Christianity, Hilaire Belloc, J.R.R. Tolkien, Joseph Pearce|

In Joseph Pearce’s second critique of our work on Tolkien’s political thought, he begins by saying he hardly knows where to start. We would like to suggest, respectfully, that Mr. Pearce start by reading our book, where we develop our arguments at some length. In his second post, as with the first, he refers to [...]

Tolkien vs. Belloc on Distributism: A Response to Joseph Pearce

By |2021-06-28T21:18:12-05:00November 10th, 2014|Categories: Christianity, Distributism, Hilaire Belloc, J.R.R. Tolkien, Joseph Pearce|

Joseph Pearce, whose work we appreciate, has issued a critical response in The Imaginative Conservative to our new book from Ignatius Press about J.R.R. Tolkien’s political and economic vision. Or rather, he has issued a critical response to a short answer one of us gave in an interview about the book. Mr. Pearce begins: “In [...]

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Vision of Just War

By |2018-10-09T13:45:11-05:00November 1st, 2014|Categories: Books, Christendom, Christianity, Featured, J.R.R. Tolkien, Just War, War, World War I|

Too many pundits, politicians, and priests nowadays treat war as a relic of a barbaric past. President Obama speaks for many when he denounces ISIS and other terrorist groups by invoking the date on the calendar. Nevertheless, he has found himself re-entering a war in the Middle East that he first opposed and then claimed [...]

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