Philosophers & Saints

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...

Big Societies, Christian Communities, and Tories (Red or Otherwise)

Whatever the results of the British election, the Red Tory ideal remains promising...and yet, absent a robust civic religion, also probably wanting.

The Alternative Tradition in America

Alexandria, VA Since Caleb has posted his lecture from a legendary conference a few years ago that a number of future Front Porchers attended...

Another Irrelevant Conversion

Many folks--including Rod and the guys at Plumb Lines, just to cite two from our own blogroll--have taken notice of Newt Gingrich's impending conversion...

A New FPR Book by John Crowe Ransom

Ransom objected to a false dilemma.

The Homeless Modern

The disposition that characterizes the modern mind--a disposition that favors as its ideal a skeptical “view from nowhere,”--serves to undermine the very elements that make community possible.

David Brooks Does (In) Edmund Burke

SOUTH BEND, IN. Edmund Burke's reputation has suffered much among conservatives during the past few years. Russell Kirk, of course, held him up as...

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...

Simplicity “Bleg”

I'd like to call upon the collective wisdom of the Front Porch Republic, to help me with a new class I'll be teaching in...

Thoughts on Elshtain

Jean Bethke Elshtain, a profound and important political theorist and ethicist, died yesterday I was lucky enough to have met her perhaps a handful...