James Matthew Wilson
James Matthew Wilson is Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Augustinian Traditions at Villanova University.
Articles by James Matthew Wilson
Novel, Myth, Reality: An Anatomy of Make-Believe
For Maureen Drdak, If she will accept it as part of our good conversation. Devon, PA. I shall be returning to the following subject frequently in the next few weeks: the need…
Some Permanent Things
Devon, PA. Here is a poem of mine that has just appeared in the poetry journal The Dark Horse and on Ernest Hilbert's ever amusing daily dose of literature and…
Art and Beauty against the Politicized Aesthetic
Devon, PA. During the next few months, I shall be writing on the centrality of beauty and art to a flourishing human life in general, to a sound theology, and…
Against “American” Home Ownership
Devon, PA. Thomas J. Sugrue's new article in the Wall Street Journal proves considerably more nuanced and insightful than its headline and summary suggest. Sugrue, an University of Pennsylvania historian,…
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 Republic. Aside from heartily endorsing the…
Convolutions in Veritate
Devon, PA. In the near future, I hope to offer a few essays on Catholic Social Doctrine, and, of course, on Caritas in Veritate in particular. I have not yet…
When Lawyers Catch the French Disease
Devon, PA. No observer of American culture grasped its implicit contents better than did Alexis de Tocqueville, and no one since has better grasped its potencies as they have actually…
Foreign Beer at the White House?!
Devon, PA. The Wall Street Journal reports one angle on what I just knew would become a controversy. If it were the New York Times reporting, one could safely expect…
No Angel: Second Thoughts on Sarah Palin
East Lansing, MI. Mark Mitchell's brief essay on Sarah Palin reminded me of a Treasonous Clerk installment I wrote back in November, contemplating the significance of Palin's persona for American…
Southern Adulteration
Devon, PA. I have had only a few hours to appreciate the spectacle of talking-heads devouring the carrion of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's political career, but have heard thrice…
Is Burke Our Intellectual Father?
Devon, PA. Last week, Caleb Stegall's reprinting of his article on Community from the Conservative Encyclopedia excited a small objection that the genealogy of conservatism said article offered was untenable…
The Gain is Gloss: Thanks to FPR and Its Readers
Devon, PA. Much like Jeremy Beer, I have found that FPR has led me to look at 'Blogs almost for the first time in my life. I have run across much…