Articles 355
On ‘The Fall’ and That Obama Video
Yes, yes. I know the election is over and, as a third-party voter myself, I don’t believe I’ll smell like sour grapes here regarding the results, but still there’s something…
The Politics of Gratitude: Scale, Place and Community in a Global Age
Here is an excerpt from my recently published book: The Politics of Gratitude: Scale, Place and Community in a Global Age. American politics is broken. One of the few things…
Reflections on the Revolution in America
This article first appeared in Ethika Politika, the Journal of the Center for Morality in Public Life. To all appearances, nothing happened. On Monday, we had a Democratic President, a Democratic…
What’s Wrong with the Republican Party?
An ill-fitting presidential nominee led to an election loss. A better nominee might win next time--but is winning enough?
On Thanks-Giving
Hidden Springs Lane. It’s been a long political season. Some Americans are excited about the prospect of an Obama second term. Others are despondent. Many on both sides are exhausted.…
Life Under Compulsion: If Teachers Were Plumbers
This is Part IV of a series of essays. For previous installments of "Life Under Compulsion," see Part I, Part II, and Part III. “Good morning, Mr. Jones,” says the man…
The View from Your Front Porch
The View from My Front Porch, or Why We Bought the Farm by Andrea Kirk Assaf Remus, Michigan. The view from my gray…
After Romney: Republican Soul-Searching
These remarks were delivered before the Notre Dame College Republicans at a panel devoted to discussing the future of the Republican Party. As an independent, I am not especially interested…
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 ties to Yeshiva University and a…
Memory and the Damming State
The family’s life in this village had come to an end when the lake was dammed in 1958. One wonders who would consider such things worth it.
A Post-Election Symposium
The following is a series of reflections and ruminations on Decision 2012, courtesy of FPR writers-at-large. Winnebago County, IL. Following Standard Operating Procedures, Republican bosses in Washington [and their lackeys…
Post Mortem
Holland, MI Let it be said that there is no longer any politically relevant conservative voice in America. The conservative movement has been thoroughly ghettoized. The only party that paid…
Life Under Compulsion: The Billows Teaching Machine
Charlie Chaplin is working on an assembly line. He tightens bolts with a pair of wrenches. He does this without stop, over and over, for hours on end. The repetitive…
Considering the Alternatives: The Editors on the Election
If Americans don’t vote in record numbers in this year’s election it won’t be because they haven’t been reminded. Bob Schieffer concluded the third debate with an admonishment to vote.…
The View from Your Front Porch
LEXINGTON, Mass. -- It is not a porch, but a long cement slab that stretches the width of our home, which we make on the lower level of a small…
Of Bees and Boys
My brother Brett and I were polite but rambunctious children who made a game of killing bees and dumping their carcasses into buckets of rainwater. Having heard that bees, like…
What’s Paleo About Evangelicalism?
The Baylor University historian, Thomas Kidd, wrote a post recently in his regular column at Patheos about evangelicals who are neither liberal nor comfortable with the GOP. He referred to…
Limits and Conscientious Consumption
Lincoln, I was informed when I was nine years old, freed the slaves. I learned that lesson well; I was an excellent student. Lincoln freed the slaves and, in my…
School Consolidation and Slow Democracy
April in West Virginia smells like wild leeks: pungent and oniony. In the woods, their slim green leaves look like lilies of the valley, but pull the white bulb from…
Slow Democracy
The protestors stood on the Piazza di Spagna in Rome, brandishing bowls of penne pasta. Above them rose the wide marble staircase of the Spanish Steps; nearby, turquoise water spilled…
Not Hurting Anybody
At the film festival in Cannes this past summer and at the Toronto film festival in the fall, Nick Cassavetes brought to the screen his new film Yellow. It is…
Life Under Compulsion: From Schoolhouse to School Bus
“Imagine,” said my friend, “how long it takes the bus to go from Little Anse,” a village at the extreme end of the island where my family and I spend…
Why the Christian Philosopher and Christian College Need Each Other
As Alasdair MacIntyre has shown, human knowledge is both “tradition-constituted” and “tradition-dependent,” as well as “tradition-transcendent.” And as he suggests in his latest book, God, Philosophy, Universities: A Selective History of…