James Matthew Wilson

James Matthew Wilson
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James Matthew Wilson is Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Augustinian Traditions at Villanova University. An award-winning scholar of philosophical-theology and literature, he has authored dozens of essays, articles, and reviews on subjects ranging from art, ethics, and politics, to meter and poetic form, from the importance of local culture to the nature of truth, goodness, and beauty. Wilson is also a poet and critic of contemporary poetry, whose work appears regularly in such magazines and journals as First Things, Modern Age, The New Criterion, Dappled Things, Measure, The Weekly Standard, Front Porch Republic, The Raintown Review, and The American Conservative. He has published five books, including most recently, a collection of poems, Some Permanent Things and a monograph, The Catholic Imagination in Modern American Poetry (both Wiseblood Books, 2014). Raised in the Great Lakes State, baptised in the parish of St. Thomas Aquinas, seasoned by summers on Lake Wawasee (Indiana), and educated under the Golden Dome, Wilson is scion of a family of Hoosiers dating back to the early nineteenth century, and an offspring of Southside Chicago Poles whose tavern kept the city wet through the Depression (and prohibition) years.  He now lives under the same sentence of reluctant exile as many another native son of the Midwest, but has dug himself in for good on the margins of the Main Line in Pennsylvania with his beautiful wife, dangerous daughter, and saintly sons. For information on Wilson's scholarship and a selection of his published work, click here. See books written and recommended by James Matthew Wilson.

Recent Essays

Libertarian Solutions to Communal Difficulties

Devon, PA. R.R. Reno writes on the First Things website this morning, I’m no libertarian. St. Paul was clear that government is ordained by God,...

Dare We Conform to Our Natures?

Mecosta, MI.  A FPR reader has written a fine essay dilating on a theme introduced in my own most recent piece (which was, in...

Marriage Ends in New York, An Ancient Struggle Continues

Devon, PA. As my latest pair of essays on FPR scrolled across the screen, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was keeping the family legacy...

Measuring the World Whole

Devon, PA.  Mark A. Signorelli's superb essay, "Poetry and the Common Language," appeared on FPR last month, and made to my mind a fine...

The Death of the Family

Devon, PA.  In my previous essay, a sort of preface, I mentioned a two-part essay I published in the wake of the 2008 presidential election, called...

Arguments about the Meaning of Family

Devon, PA.  Scott Yenor, Associate Professor of Political Science at Boise State University, has provided two dispassionate and informative articles on the historical function...

Grand Rapids and the Day the Music Died

Devon, PA.  Newsweek listed Grand Rapids as one of America's top-ten dying cities sometime ago.  This prompted the city to come together in a...

Surprise! “Free Trade Agreements” Damage the American Economy

Devon, PA.  Paul Craig Roberts reports at The American Conservative the shocking news that a Nobel-prizing-winning economist associated with the Council on Foreign Relations...

Lawler on Entitlement Reform

Devon, PA. Everyone seems to be in on, and to understand, the debate between FPR and Peter Lawler's "postmodern conservatism" except me.  I have...

This Is My Son: Two Years Later

Devon, PA.  Two years ago this week, President Obama delivered the commencement speech at the University of Notre Dame.  Great numbers of students, faculty,...

Abortion and American Federalism

Devon, PA.  Joe Carter, over at the First Things web page, offers a reflection on Ron Paul's pro-life credentials and how they square --...

Counselling in Pornland

Devon, PA.  Mark T. Mitchell's powerful essay on Jane Austen in the age of porn coincides with an interesting news item on Inside Higher...