In Defense of Patriarchy

By |2020-08-10T10:03:43-05:00August 9th, 2020|Categories: Christendom, Christian Humanism, Christianity, Christopher Dawson, Family, Marriage|Tags: |

“Patriarchy” is a word that has almost ceased to communicate a definable meaning in contemporary discourse. Feminist theory deploys the term so loosely that it may be applied to any institution or instance in which men dominate women or are perceived to do so. “Most feminist criticism,” Heather Jones avers, “tends to represent the family [...]

The Economics of Marriage in Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women”

By |2020-06-09T09:57:01-05:00June 9th, 2020|Categories: Culture, Fiction, Film, Literature, Marriage|

Director Greta Gerwig’s film “Little Women” ends as Louisa May Alcott’s novel does, with a family-centered fall festival at Plumfield. Perhaps unintentionally, Ms. Gerwig captures the spirit of Alcott’s beautiful ending to her novel. Not only has she married off the heroine, but she has shown marriage to be far more than an economic arrangement. [...]

Sex and the Cancerous Married Girl

By |2020-04-03T12:05:30-05:00April 3rd, 2020|Categories: Christian Living, Christianity, Culture, David Deavel, Marriage, Senior Contributors|

Some articles must be published at one time and not another, either because their stories are simply of the moment or because circumstances reveal them to be impossible for the moment. “‘Dying for Sex’ podcast follows terminal cancer patient’s wild sexcapades” is one of them. Published in the New York Post on March 4, a [...]

Sacred Truths in a Profane World

By |2020-10-13T12:53:34-05:00February 2nd, 2020|Categories: Christianity, Culture, Homosexual Unions, Islam, Marriage, Religion, Roger Scruton, Timeless Essays, Truth|

By and large the educated elites in the Western world today are without religious belief and often animated by what I call a “culture of repudiation,” keen to banish old ideas of the sacred from public life and to remake the institutions and structures of civil society so as to reflect their own liberated lifestyle. [...]

The Romantic Theology of Charles Williams

By |2023-02-14T10:14:14-06:00December 4th, 2019|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Christianity, Culture, Inklings, Love, Marriage, Religion, Senior Contributors, Theology|

Just as we consume the Eucharist at Mass, recognizing the holiness of the act, so some marriages become profound examples and witnesses of holiness. By habit and faith, Charles Williams contended, the serious Christian begins to see all meals as a shadow of the Eucharist and all love as a shadow of Holy Matrimony. A [...]

The Accidental Marriage

By |2019-10-25T11:04:29-05:00October 25th, 2019|Categories: Books, Dwight Longenecker, Homosexual Unions, Imagination, Marriage, Senior Contributors|

Roger B. Thomas’ novels are refreshing because they are not overtly religious. Instead, as in “The Accidental Marriage,” he creates compelling tales of real people struggling with the pressures created by the decay of morality, the decline of religion, and the desert of relativism. The Accidental Marriage: A Novel, by Roger B. Thomas (219 pages, [...]

Solomon on Sex

By |2023-05-11T23:09:41-05:00July 30th, 2019|Categories: Christianity, Culture, Letters From Dante Series, Louis Markos, Love, Marriage, Senior Contributors, Sexuality|

Love is as strong as death and unyielding as the grave. It is not something to be indulged in lightly or casually. The lover and beloved move out of themselves toward the other, making themselves as vulnerable as children. They give all that is in their heart, for they trust that the other will receive [...]

The Nature of Marital Happiness in “Pride & Prejudice”

By |2023-07-18T13:06:45-05:00July 23rd, 2019|Categories: Character, Great Books, Happiness, Jane Austen, Literature, Marriage|

In “Pride and Prejudice,” Elizabeth Bennet is vehement that the character of the person must be determined in order to make a good choice. While spouses may change over time in superficial ways, the essentials remain constant. While one may hope for the conversion of a scoundrel or a fool, it is not worth banking [...]

Idle Hands, Women’s Wages, and Unmarried Men

By |2019-09-02T10:23:45-05:00May 9th, 2019|Categories: Civil Society, Labor/Work, Marriage, Modernity, Progressivism, Social Institutions|

Recently, several statistical studies have shown that a decline in marriage rates may be associated with declining male success and male wages, relative to female wages. Do our men need to learn to deal with this, or will this shift in power between the sexes have significant and serious consequences? In January of 2019, Fox [...]

Real Families Don’t Need Government Programs

By |2019-09-05T14:36:00-05:00March 24th, 2019|Categories: Community, Family, Liberalism, Marriage, Politics, Tradition|

Studies confirm that traditional families result in less delinquency, criminality, illness, drug use, sexual promiscuity and stress. The best family policy is carried out by the family itself. Those who need the “family” aid offered by liberal policymakers are not truly “families.” As the next national elections loom on the horizon, many liberal candidates are [...]

The State vs. the Normal Good of Normal People

By |2019-07-11T10:46:37-05:00December 22nd, 2018|Categories: Abortion, Books, Civil Society, Culture War, Ethics, Family, Fr. James Schall, Homosexual Unions, Marriage, Modernity, Morality, Social Institutions|

What happens when our nation’s fundamental principles or standards are rejected? Jennifer Roback Morse’s new book, The Sexual State, is a lively and forceful examination of where we came from, where we are now, and where we ought to be on matters of human life… Genesis tells us that man was created “male and female.” The [...]

Love, Ancient and Modern

By |2018-12-08T21:36:00-06:00December 8th, 2018|Categories: Aeneid, Dante, Family, Love, Marriage, Odyssey|

“Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy.” The opening words to Homer’s Odyssey are among the most famous and recognizable in Western literature. That beginning stanza captures so much of the human condition and [...]

“The Wedding Knell”

By |2022-11-02T12:11:48-05:00October 21st, 2018|Categories: Culture, Fiction, Imagination, Literature, Marriage|

How shall the widow’s horror be represented? It gave her the ghastliness of a dead man’s bride. Her youthful friends stood apart, shuddering at the mourners, the shrouded bridegroom, and herself; the whole scene expressed, by the strongest imagery, the vain struggle of the gilded vanities of this world, when opposed to age, infirmity, sorrow, [...]

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