“Sarah Byng, Who Could Not Read & Was Tossed into a Thorny Hedge by a Bull”
Some years ago you heard me sing My doubts on Alexander Byng. His sister Sarah now inspires My jaded Muse, my failing fires. […]
Turning Employees into Business Owners
How do employee-owned companies fare in the wider economy? How do they compete in the dog-eat-dog world of business?… Many years ago, back in England and long before my conversion, I stumbled upon a book called The Man Who Gave His Company Away. It was a biography of Ernest Bader, a very successful entrepreneur in [...]
Solzhenitsyn on Russia and the West
There are moves afoot to whip up the old Cold War angst and anger and to resurrect enmity towards Russia. Liberals in the West, outraged at Russia’s resistance to their decadent agenda, are caricaturing Russia as an enemy of Western “values.” In 1998 I had the inestimable pleasure and honour of interviewing Alexander Solzhenitsyn at [...]
What Is Capitalism?
“Capitalism” needs to be pinned down by definition; it needs to be circumscribed so that it doesn’t lead us off in increasingly meaningless and therefore futile lines of reasoning… If words are to have any value they must have definite and definable meanings. If too many meanings are ascribed to a single word, the word [...]
Laughter and the Love of Friends
Ultimately the reason we should rejoice in the love of laughter as we rejoice in the love of friends is that laughter, like love, is a gift of God. There’s nothing worth the wear of winning Than laughter and the love for friends. These famous lines by Hilaire Belloc are personal favourites of mine but, [...]
G.K. Chesterton: Eighty Years On
Over the past few weeks, I’ve written essays on some significant anniversaries that fall in 2016, including the centenary of the Battle of the Somme and the nine-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. Now, as this year falls into Fall and prepares to go the same way as all its predecessors, I thought I’d remember another [...]
In Memory of The Battle of The Somme
This year marks the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest conflagrations in human history in which more than a million men were killed or wounded. One of the lucky survivors was J.R.R. Tolkien, who described the battle as being an “animal horror.” Bearing the psychological scars of this horror for [...]
Belloc vs. Tolkien: Two Views of Anglo-Saxon England
Although Hilaire Belloc and J.R.R. Tolkien had much in common, not least of which was their shared and impassioned Catholicism, it is intriguing that they should differ so profoundly on the importance of the Anglo-Saxons. Picture the scene. An expectant audience, which includes the great Catholic writer, J.R.R. Tolkien, awaits the arrival of another great [...]
Hilaire Belloc & G.K. Chesterton: Romanticizing the Middle Ages?
One of the wonderful things about The Imaginative Conservative is the way in which it has become a powerful forum for thoughtful and thought-provoking writers to exchange thoughtful and thought-provoking ideas. There’s none of the knee-jerk and thoughtless reaction to events to be found on other cultural and political journals. Deo gratias! This does not mean, [...]
Should Christians Romanticize the Middle Ages?
Many Catholics treat the High Middle Ages as a veritable ideal of civilization. But the medieval period produced problematic ideas about aesthetics, eccentric theories of economics, and dangerous assumptions about politics. Over a decade ago a then-acquaintance of mine inquired as to my economic views, my response being that I was “a distributist by default.” [...]
Ballade of Modest Confession
My reading is extremely deep and wide; And as our modern education goes— Unique I think, and skilfully applied To Art and Industry and Autres Choses Through many years of scholarly repose. But there is one thing where I disappoint My numerous admirers (and my foes). Painting on Vellum is my weakest point. [...]
Merrie England: Hilaire Belloc in the South Country
Editor’s Note: This essay is a chapter in the soon-to-be-released Merrie England: A Journey Through the Shire by Joseph Pearce (TAN Books, June 20, 2016), and is published here exclusively by gracious permission of the author. The great hills of the South Country They stand along the sea; And it’s there walking in the high woods That I could [...]
“Remembering Belloc”: Prolific, Versatile, & Controversial Author
Considering the unjustified neglect of Hilaire Belloc and the more recent renewal of interest, Fr. James Schall’s book, “Remembering Belloc,” which remembers the man and his genius, is most welcome. Remembering Belloc by James V. Schall, S.J. (192 pages, St. Augustine’s Press, 2013) […]
What is Multiculturalism and Should We Embrace It?
Multiculturalism is a thorny topic. It is also a topic on which any truly rational discussion is very difficult. The problem is that many people equate criticism of multiculturalism with racism. Since nobody wants to be accused of racism (quite rightly), it is easier and safer to avoid talking about anything that might get one [...]