R. J. Snell

R. J. Snell
33 POSTS3 COMMENTS
http://www.agorainstitute.org
R. J. Snell lives and gardens (or at least watches his children garden) just outside of Philadelphia in Havertown, a place where Sinatra, baseball games, and cigar smoke waft from his neighbors' porches onto his own. If Philadelphia had colder and longer winters, as this Canadian thinks natural and fitting, it would be almost perfect. The fact that his four children and wife live there (almost) redeems the overly warm weather. He directs the philosophy program at Eastern University, in St. Davids, PA. He also co-directs the Agora Insitute for Civic Virtue and the Common Good, a research center devoted to understanding and sustaining the virtues and institutions of human flourishing. The author of Through a Glass Darkly: Bernard Lonergan and Richard Rorty on Knowing without a God's-Eye View, and the forthcoming (with Steve Cone) Authentic Cosmopolitanism, he writes and teaches on Thomas Aquinas and contemporary Thomism, Bernard Lonergan, natural law, decent life, and the liberal arts.

Recent Essays

Interview about Education

You can find a short interview about education and my new book at Coffee and Markets here.

The Locale and Grace of Teaching

I’ve not yet decided if I’ve succumbed to despair (a sin) or prudence, but I no longer participate in any of the forums at...

My New Book is Out–Authentic Cosmopolitanism

I'm pleased to announce that my new book, Authentic Cosmopolitanism: Love, Sin, and Grace in the Christian University, co-authored with Steve Cone, is now...

A Prophet of Goodness: Review of Mark T. Mitchell’s The Politics of Gratitude: Scale, Place and Community in a Global Age

At my worst moments, I succumb to thinking that we have become utterly trite, absorbed by ephemera, thin of character, quick but scattered of...

The Mouse with Tusks: Speech, Power, Perversity

Earlier this week, Terry Gross interviewed Emily Anthes, author of Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts, on recent development in bioengineering,...

Lives Lived Worthily: On Hunting

A little over a year ago, after hearing my bitter protests about another pathetic talk by some expert on education whose vision of life...

Modesty’s Retreat

Over a drink with a fellow Canadian ex-pat about a month ago, I rather wistfully (and irresponsibly) indulged in some wishful thinking as I...

Adam and Eve on the Porch: The Place of Majestic Man

Lately I’ve had the privilege of working through The Lonely Man of Faith (1965) by Joseph Soloveitchik (1903-1993), an influential Orthodox rabbi with deep...

Tories are Persons, and Persons are Tories (but so too is Labour)

All too many weeks ago, I promised a series of posts on foundations for a new religious right . . .  and then I...

Thoughts towards a New Religious Right

Given my background, beliefs, and practices, I should be an enthusiastic supporter of the religious right—but I can’t do it. I’m religious. I’m conservative....

Childhood without a Harness

Just a few days back, I arrived home to find a mound of muddy clothes at my front entrance and the sounds of children...

Frat Boys and the Household

If you follow college "culture" at all, you'll find little new or surprising in the recent discussions of the abusive hazing rituals at Dartmouth,...