Philosophers & Saints

First They Came for the Horses

  Jefferson County, Kansas. The following is a short excerpt from a longer essay in the forthcoming book The Humane Vision of Wendell Berry, co-edited by...

On Memories as a Starting Point: A Review of “Encounters” by...

(An Eastern-European Reading). In a scene from a great movie called Transsiberian, a Russian traveler tells some innocent American tourists about the “Gulag” and...

The Eccentricity of the Saints

Devon, PA.  Earlier this week, some devout and worthy reader on the Porch proposed G.K. Chesterton as the patron saint of the Front Porch...

Benedict on Business: What’s Love Got to Do With It?

Irving, Texas. Since its beginnings with Aristotle and Plato, the study of economics has always been regarded as a branch of philosophy, a colony...

Buddhist Economics: The Eight-Fold Path

Cold Spring, N.Y. In order to get people thinking rightly about economists, Fritz Schumacher used to tell the story of an architect, a priest,...

Cleanup in Pew 16

I have just returned from two weeks in England, were I was more or less out of touch with the internet. The occasion was...

Lessons from a Motorcycle Mechanic

Wichita, KS Let's pause a moment and be grateful that the job market for political theorists is so bad. Because if it wasn't, Matthew Crawford,...

Recognition and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Matt Crawford is a good friend of mine, and I read and commented on early drafts of Shop Class as Soulcraft, and so I...

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...

Civilizing the Economy

Pope Benedict XVI's eagerly awaited third encyclical was released today:  "Charity in Truth."  I'll be reading it over the next few days, but here's...