In the long battle for the human soul, there are finally only two alternatives laid out long ago by God: life or death. What we need, theologian Philip Rolnick says, is “the gospel that has never ceased offering its life-giving alternative.” The Long Battle for the Human Soul, by Philip A. Rolnick (171 pages, Baylor, [...]
Susan Treacy's "The Music of Christendom" serves as a useful introduction to whet one’s appetite, but it could have been considerably more fleshed out. Ultimately this book is a primer, something to spark interest in the rich world of classical music in a primarily religious audience. The Music of Christendom, by Susan Treacy (Ignatius Press, [...]
Modernity, by God’s grace, may be the site of a new synthesis, the transcending of stale categories of thought and practice, in which a new Christendom can emerge, one in which the reign of God in His glory and love emerges side-by-side with the full dignity and flourishing of man. The Immanent Frame and Great [...]
In our world of recriminating hatreds—in which we desire more to label those we don’t like as sexist, imperialist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, and, simultaneously, mark ourselves as victims—we often forget some important historical truths. Here’s one we conveniently ignore, dismiss, or mock: Nothing in the world has brought about more equality and justice than has [...]
No better champion of justice, fairness, liberty, truth, and human flourishing exists than the complex and poorly known entity we call Western Civilization. The West’s weakening or demise would pose a threat to many human virtues. Recovering and extending Western principles remain our best hope for a more humane world. Where did “Western” Civilization come [...]
“Why is it that so few realize the seriousness of our present crisis?” Fulton Sheen asked in 1947. “Partly because men do not want to believe their own times are wicked, partly because it involves too much self-accusation, and principally because they have no standards outside of themselves by which to measure their times. Only [...]
The times lacerate us, crucify us. Can we tease out the meanings, or are the meanings beyond us? Someone has to watch while the world is burning and toll the bell. Is there still the possibility for love in the ruins? (from a memoir, The Man Who Balanced A Tea Cup On His Head and other [...]
Several centuries before Edmund Burke, Thomas More warned against theorizing about the perfect society and advised statesmen to do their best with the form of government their people have passed on to them. Though he himself favored one form of government over another, he admitted that we rarely have the power to create the government [...]
Christ was not only born on the level of the world, but even lower than the world. The first act of the divine drama was enacted, not only on no stage set up above the sightseer, but on a dark and curtained stage sunken out of sight. This sketch of the human story began in [...]
No matter how corrupt and bleak and depressing the world may appear, we can always turn to the many Cecilias of the world and see the goodness that is possible through grace and love. Properly remembered, these true symbols and true myths can re-orient our souls, our cultures, and perhaps even the world itself toward [...]
In spite of modern man’s spiritual failure, historian Christopher Dawson believed it possible to return to that vitality which for many centuries built Western culture: Christianity. Jesus Christ came to reveal to men that they have no enemies but themselves. –Pascal It is this vital tension between two worlds and two planes of reality which [...]
Christopher Dawson set himself the task of surveying the history of Western Civilization in the light of a master-idea: that religion is the dynamic force, the basic constituent and the inspiration of all higher human activity, and that therefore the culture of an era depends upon its religion. Looking back over the vast ruins and [...]
Christopher Columbus offers us the example of those virtues that the old Romans called fortitude and constancy; and the example of those virtues that the early Christians called faith and hope. Half a millennium ago, a Genoese navigator with three caravels and Spanish crews groped his way among the islands of the Caribbean. Thus commenced [...]
Methodist minister Joseph Cross, a South Carolina native, traveled in Europe in the late 1850s, emerging as a nationalist committed to democracy, material progress, and enthusiastic Evangelical Protestantism. With the publication of I’ll Take My Stand in 1930 the southern conservative intellectual tradition definitively entered into consciousness of the American academy and the American literati. [...]