Philosophers & Saints

Christopher Lasch and the Lasting Dilemma of Localism

This past weekend, at the annual Front Porch Republic gathering (this year held at SUNY-Geneseo), three scholars reflected upon the writings of the historian...

Joyless Moderns

The modern age, in almost every detail, began with the flat rejection of joy.  And the modern condition consists in alternately lamenting that there...

Peter Lawler: R.I.P.

Peter Augustine Lawler passed away on Tuesday, leaving a significant void not only in the lives of his friends, family, and students, but in...

Avoiding the Hive

New Directions for Catholic Social and Political Research: Humanity vs. Hyper-Modernity, Guido Preparata, (ed.) Palgrave MacMillan, 319 pages The future is notoriously uncertain but nonetheless,...

A New FPR Book by John Crowe Ransom

Ransom objected to a false dilemma.

On Dreher’s Benedict Option, the Christians and Localists Who Can Live...

Rod Dreher and I aren't close friends, but like many Front Porch Regulars, I've been blessed with the opportunity to associate with and learn...

How Liberalism’s Contradictions Will Save It

In October 2013, Russell Brand wrote a rambling missive for the New Statesman, in which he called for a “total revolution” of the Western...

Against Sentimental Rejections of the Pope

This Lent I have been reading the Letters of Flannery O'Connor: The Habit of Being. They may not seem like proper Lenten reading. The...

Thoughts on Localism and Resilience

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak to the "Resilience Group," an informal gathering of environmentalists, activists, and interested others that meet regularly at...

Monastic Stability: In One Place with God and Others

Some time ago I was asked if I would be willing to participate in a forum on localism. I hesitated. I did not even...