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
The Need for Autarchy
Devon, PA. Thanks in part to the series of fine essays John Médaille has provided us during the last several weeks, the implicit economic vocabulary on the Front Porch has…
This is My Son
Devon, PA. This is my son. As you see him here, he has been alive for just about one-hundred-forty days and has, this and other ultrasound images suggest, my nose…
James Kalb for Mayor
Devon, PA. When given the opportunity, I have made no secret of my great admiration for James Kalb's The Tyranny of Liberalism. Readers of FPR may, from time to time,…
The Speech of Work and the Work of Speech
Devon, PA. Outside of certain, very particular, Christian circles, one seldom hears much about man's fallen nature anymore; and yet, as G.K. Chesterton once observed, original sin may be the…
Letter from a Traditional Conservative
Devon, PA. Upon reading an essay of Patrick Deneen's, a close and dear relative recently wrote me, protesting the uselessness of the terms "liberal" and "conservative." They are simplifying terms, and inadequate…
Feed Fish to the Leviathan
Devon, PA. Stanley Fish has taken up a lot of public space during his career, but never has he darkened the depths in such monstrous fashion as he does in…
Sex, Eschatology, and Everyday Life
Devon, PA. I have contended that the two most vocal sources of outrage at Pope Benedict XVI's remark about the deleterious role of condoms in Africa did not in fact…
Sex, Technocrats, and Technobrats
Devon, PA. During the last few weeks, Patrick Deneen's posts on Front Porch Republic have drawn our attention to the near identity of the deadly vices of greed and lust. …
Reasoning about Stories
Devon, PA. Here is something for you that no one will dispute: all complaints about modernity, including those that fit under the rubric of "conservative," are arguments about stories. …
Where is Our Perpetual Peace?
Devon, PA. At the root of American and, indeed, western public life rests a fundamental assumption: the specific is dangerous, the particular a menace, the exclusive "unfair." Local government is…
Mr. Herbert’s Sunday Morning Service
Devon, PA. Most people, agrarian or otherwise, do not read poetry anymore. Ours is not merely a forgetful culture, but one that has long since ceased to approve of memory…
An Elegy for South Bend
Devon, PA. Some years ago, early in my graduate student days in South Bend, I was invited to begin an opinion column in the campus newspaper, The Observer. The…