About Josh Herring

Josh Herring is a Humanities Instructor at Thales Academy, a graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Hillsdale College, and a doctoral student in Faulkner University's Great Books program. He has written for Moral Apologetics, Think Christian, The Federalist, and The Everyman; he loves studying the intersection of history, literature, theology, and ideas expressed in the complexities of human life.

Choosing a Patron Philosopher of Debate: A Fable

By |2019-12-03T13:59:51-06:00December 3rd, 2019|Categories: Education, Philosophy, Rhetoric, Socrates|

I’ve been coaching debate for five years now, and as I’ve taught students how to play the game, the benefits of debate become obvious. At the same time, a danger lurks. Could debate inherently be an activity devoted to sophistry? Back from summer break, the varsity debate team gathers to determine an important part of [...]

The Madness of Jacques Derrida

By |2019-04-05T16:22:57-05:00April 1st, 2019|Categories: Books, Language, Philosophy|

In Of Grammatology, Jacques Derrida’s prose functions as a deadly siren call; he appeals to the contradictions of language, summoning the reader to see in his thought a new system of thought never before brought before man. Just as with the Homeric sirens, however, following Derrida’s thought leads to destruction. Of Grammatology, by Jacques Derrida (560 [...]

Liberal Education: The Foundation and Preservation of a Free Society

By |2019-02-28T15:50:32-06:00February 27th, 2019|Categories: Classical Education, Freedom, Liberal Arts, Liberal Learning, Liberty, Tradition, Western Tradition, Wisdom|

In a time of economic uncertainty, liberal education holds out the promise of joy in learning, contentment in contemplating truth, and satisfaction in community. These things are available to all people, rich or poor. Liberal education and the free society have always been intimately connected. A liberal education, an education which prepares one for freedom, [...]

End-of-the-Year Awards Ceremony: A Formative Practice

By |2018-05-24T13:45:29-05:00May 24th, 2018|Categories: Character, Christianity, Education, Virtue|

By ending the year with an awards ceremony, the school shows that education is more than knowledge transfer; education involves forming the human person to have the capacities to value what should be valued… Grades are in, lockers clean, report cards sent home. But, in the words of Aladdin’s Genie, “We’re not through yet!” The [...]

“On the Banks of the Neuse River”

By |2018-04-08T13:49:29-05:00April 8th, 2018|Categories: Christianity, Philosophy, Poetry|

Long, long ago this riverside tale starts No more the praise of divine holiness The land altered virgin to whore at heart Cities dot the plain praising only bliss Rise up! The divine oppressor has died! Nietzsche, Darwin, Derrida are your gods Like cancer their prophets are multiplied Their cities, bulbous and gross, the weak [...]

No One Way to School: Pluralism and American Public Education

By |2019-01-11T20:44:57-06:00December 20th, 2017|Categories: American Republic, Books, Culture, Education|

In No One Way to School, Ashley Rogers Berner shows that a variety of schools cultivate civic virtue in students and argues that public schools are inferior to their charter and private counterparts in this endeavor… No One Way to School: Pluralism and the American Public Education by Ashley Rogers Berner (185 pages, Palmgrave Macmillan, 2017) [...]

What the Boy Scouts & the #Metoo Hashtag Have in Common

By |2017-12-28T14:59:52-06:00October 24th, 2017|Categories: Culture, Featured, Myth, Secularism|

Both the Boy Scouts of America announcement and the #metoo phenomenon indicate a cultural problem: We have difficulty understanding the role distinctions play in our interactions with one another… “The most portentous general event of our time is the steady obliteration of those distinctions which create society.”[1] Richard Weaver penned these words in his 1948 book, Ideas [...]

The Cultivation of Complexity: Reading Wendell Berry

By |2021-04-28T15:04:31-05:00July 13th, 2017|Categories: Aristotle, Civilization, Featured, Liberal Learning, Richard Weaver, Social Order, Southern Agrarians, Wendell Berry|

Wendell Berry’s poetry sings with the love of a man for his home, enticing the reader to embrace his vision of local agrarian economy as sufficient for the good life. “From knowledge of the forest comes/at last knowledge of forestry:/what, without permanent damage,/can be spared and carefully removed,/leaving the whole forest whole. This learning/’takes decades. [...]

After Orlando Can America Still Tolerate Islam?

By |2022-03-31T18:12:36-05:00June 13th, 2016|Categories: Christendom, Christianity, Islam, Politics, Religion, Terrorism|

This week, tragedy struck America. By now, the news of fifty murdered patrons of a gay bar in Orlando has circulated throughout the world; the Orlando shooting dominates news websites, social media streams, and the thought of American politicians looking for quick capital gains. Motivations for the attack are not yet fully clear: ISIS has [...]

A Return to Faerie: A Positive Review of “Maleficent”

By |2016-02-12T15:28:11-06:00June 19th, 2014|Categories: Bruce Frohnen, Christianity, Film, J.R.R. Tolkien|

I love reading The Imaginative Conservative. This online journal welcomes a variety of authors representing the spectrum of conservatism who converse on topics related to truth, beauty, and goodness. Sometimes, however, conservatism rightly deserves its reputation for nay-­saying. Such is my response to Bruce Frohnen’s essay, “Malevolent?…No…Maleficent?…Whatever.” Mr. Frohnen detects a feminist reading underlying the plot that [...]

Go to Top