John Cuddeback

John Cuddeback
101 POSTS34 COMMENTS
John A. Cuddeback is a professor and chairman of the Philosophy Department at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, where he has taught since 1995. He received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America under the direction of F. Russell Hittinger. He has lectured on various topics including virtue, culture, natural law, friendship, and household. His book Friendship: The Art of Happiness was republished in 2010 as True Friendship: Where Virtue Becomes Happiness. His writings have appeared in Nova et Vetera, The Thomist, and The Review of Metaphysics, as well as in several volumes published by the American Maritain Association. Though raised in what he calls an ‘archetypical suburb,’ Columbia, Maryland, he and his wife Sofia consider themselves blessed to be raising their six children in the shadow of the Blue Ridge on the banks of the Shenandoah. At the material center of their homesteading projects are heritage breed pigs, which like the pigs of Eumaeus are fattened on acorns, yielding a bacon that too few people ever enjoy. His website dedicated to the philosophy of family and household is baconfromacorns.com.

Recent Essays

Cobbett on Fires

A good fire might even save a marriage... “Fire is a capital article. To have no fire, or a bad fire to sit by, is...

For the Sake of His Children

“But would the father have the heart to work if he didn’t have his children? If it weren’t for the sake of his children. And in...

The Piety of a Pagan

“I am Aeneas, duty-bound, and known Above high air of heaven by my fame, Carrying with me in my ships our gods Of hearth and home, saved...

A Husband in Winter

“At the very moment when the vine has shed Its latest leaves and the cold north wind has shaken The glory from the woods, at that...

Having the Heart to Hope

“Here for the first time he took heart to hope For safety, and to trust his destiny more Even in affliction.” The Aeneid, I, Virgil The great...

A Wish for the New Year

"On New Year's Eve, at about quarter to twelve o'clock at night, the master of the house and all that are with him go...

What We Wish at Christmas

In practicing the rites of worship men hope that they will be vouchsafed a share in the superhuman abundance of life. From time immemorial,...

Belloc on Christmas

How we observe Christmas has a real urgency; at issue is our happiness, and even our sanity. So Belloc argues in A Remaining Christmas. I reflect on his...

Teaching Responsibility

Ischomachus’ wife: “My mother told me that my job was to be responsible.” Ischomachus: “Yes, my dear, of course, my father gave me the same...

Pointless Parties

“There are others too…that pretend to be pleasures, such as gambling and pointless parties; as time goes on, it becomes clear even to the...

Eating Salt Together

“As the proverb says, men cannot know each other until they have eaten salt together.” –Aristotle We don’t need the latest study to show us...

The Significance of Manners

These people will also discover the seemingly insignificant conventions their predecessors have destroyed. Things like this: When it is proper for the young to...