Articles 355
Tom Fleming Retires
Rockford, Illinois. After thirty-one years at Chronicles Magazine—thirty of them as editor—classicist, poet and polemicist Tom Fleming has retired. During his tenure at this small but influential magazine of the…
Witchcraft in Church? Against Glamorous Worship
Recently, our local Trappist Monastery, the Abbey of the Genesee, unveiled a renovation of the sanctuary of the Abbey church. To the shock of some — those who often claim to…
The Soul of Facebook Venting: Empowered Alternatives to Ranting Online
In the old days, when you saw something in your morning newspaper that bothered you, you could vent your ballooning anger with a minute or two of hearty breakfast-table grumbling.…
Hanging Out with, and Learning from, Some Thoroughly Material Benedictines
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] A few weeks ago I was able to, once again, do something that I enjoy doing immensely--take a group of students out on a local…
Remembering a Good Oak
Trees cannot talk, but they do speak. With our eyes focused on franticly flickering screens, perhaps our ears have grown dull to their still small voices, yet they whisper on.…
The Trouble with Limits
Modern persons have a problem with limits, three in fact. They want every good thing to be unlimitedly available for their desires, and scarcity is taken for a cause of…
How Beauty Fits
The most fashionable and defensible position on aesthetics is to maintain that beauty is entirely subjective. Beauty doesn't exist, we are assured, at least as a quality uniting such diverse…
Contemplation and the Empire of Desire
Philadelphia, PA R. R. Reno of First Things has recently identified the “Empire of Desire” by its odd combination of regulation and libertinism. On the one hand, we cannot ride…
Conversations with Bronze Age Warlords
Pop quiz: What ancient Greek legend begins with the kidnapping of Helen of Troy, and ends with Greeks sneaking into Troy inside a hollow wooden horse? If you said “The…
Garage Sales, Yard Sales, Estate Sales: The Putrefaction of America
What used to be called garage sales and are now also called "yard" and "estate" sale are the scourge of the neighborhood and a major contributor to the putrefaction of America.…
Thoreau’s Walden: Embracing a Restorative Experience of Nature
Windswept and partially covered in snow, winter debris still clinging to its banks, Walden Pond offered no glamorous window into the preeminent beauty of nature when I visited in early…
The Socialist Party and the Old Right
A slightly edited version of this talk was delivered at a forum at the National Press Club on April 9, 2015, entitled "American Socialism Reconsidered," on the occasion of Jack Ross's…
The Parish and the Papacy
This is the fourth of a five-part series of essays on "Localism and the Universal Church." You may find the previous installments here. As I was saying . . .…
From the Multiversity Cave: Aquinas and Synthesis
Saginaw, MI This post is part of a series that will explore what prominent thinkers can teach us about today’s public multiversity, the modern university with its many colleges, departments,…
Wendell Berry Opts Out of the ‘Culture of Violence’
Our Only World: Ten Essays. By Wendell Berry. Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2015. In January of 2012, Wendell Berry delivered a speech at Georgetown College that explained his support for legalizing gay…
Alienated Children and Inalienable Rights
We describe the most fundamental principles of American politics in terms of “rights.” According to the Declaration of Independence, which constitutes the philosophical foundation of American politics, it is “self-evident”…
When Your Hometown Goes International
New York City is not an American city; it’s an Arab nation filled with a thousand different tribes who grudgingly live amongst each other. Through its history, parts have tried…
Why Cities Ought to, Sometimes, Challenge Their States
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] On next Tuesday’s ballot here in Wichita, KS, voters will be able to, whether they realize it or not, directly contribute to an ongoing struggle…
The Lure of Unreason
It is a pedestrian fact of logic that one may not consistently argue to a correct conclusion from an incorrect premise. There are exceptions to this fact, as in the…
Freedom and Four-Year Olds
Holland, MI In public policy, few things are ever entirely right or wrong. Like economics, we are often dealing with trade-offs. Ignoring the trade-offs blinds us to some of the…
The Low Standards of Norman Rockwell’s Critics
All too many people are entirely settled in their opinion that Norman Rockwell’s art presents a “falsification” of reality: in short, he is charged with utopianism. This opinion is false,…
Was 1964 the Most Important Year — Ever?
Ask an American of even above-average intelligence what happened in 1964, and the predictable answer would be “Beatlemania” (although the politically sensitive conservative might cite the stirring defeat of Barry…
The Letter to Iran and Bipartisan Hype
Sioux Center, Iowa. Most Republican members of the U.S. Senate have signed a public letter to the Iranian government warning that any agreement with President Obama that is not approved…
