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John Cuddeback

John A. Cuddeback is a professor and chairman of the Philosophy Department at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, where he has taught since 1995. He received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America under the direction of F. Russell Hittinger. He has lectured on various topics including virtue, culture, natural law, friendship, and household. His book Friendship: The Art of Happiness was republished in 2010 as True Friendship: Where Virtue Becomes Happiness. His writings have appeared in Nova et Vetera, The Thomist, and The Review of Metaphysics, as well as in several volumes published by the American Maritain Association. Though raised in what he calls an ‘archetypical suburb,’ Columbia, Maryland, he and his wife Sofia consider themselves blessed to be raising their six children in the shadow of the Blue Ridge on the banks of the Shenandoah. At the material center of their homesteading projects are heritage breed pigs, which like the pigs of Eumaeus are fattened on acorns, yielding a bacon that too few people ever enjoy. His website dedicated to the philosophy of family and household is baconfromacorns.com.

Articles by John Cuddeback

The Land of Storybooks

At evening when the lamp is lit, Around the fire my parents sit; They sit at home and talk and sing, And do not play at anything. Now, with my…
November 19, 2014

If Sartre is Right

“If man…is indefinable, it is because at first he is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he will himself have made what he will be. Thus, there is…
November 12, 2014

Slaughtering Pigs Today

Today begins the annual pig slaughter at my home. It is always a momentous occasion. Of its many unforgettable moments I think my favorite is when the pig’s carcass has…
November 7, 2014

Gestures: A Meeting of Body and Soul

“Imitations practiced from youth become part of nature and settle into habits of gesture, voice, and thought.” Plato, Republic III Plato showed great concern about how people move and use…
October 29, 2014

Silence of Monks

“For it becomes the master to speak and to teach, but it beseems the disciple to be silent and to listen.” The Rule of St. Benedict Fall break. I am…
October 22, 2014

Discussing Virtue, Daily

“It is the greatest good for a man to discuss virtue every day and those other things about which you hear me conversing and testing myself and others…” Socrates, The…
October 15, 2014

Who’s Hiding from Whom

“The real nature of things is accustomed to hide itself.” Heraclitus Heraclitus seems to imply that reality strives to veil itself. Is there a latent cruelty in reality—that it recedes…
October 8, 2014

Texting: Why I Resolve to Avoid It

Recently I travelled to Louisville to attend the Front Porch Republic conference. The experience was memorable in several ways—not least of all in the outstanding presentations and remarkable fellowship. It…
October 1, 2014

Discipline and Silence

“And when it comes to action, put your trust in discipline and silence; in every kind of warfare they count a lot, and particularly in naval engagement.” Phormio, Athenian naval…
September 24, 2014

The Fall of Acorns

“When the oak-tree is felled, the whole forest echoes with it; but a hundred acorns are planted silently by some unnoticed breeze.” Thomas Carlyle That time of year is almost…
September 3, 2014

Last Chance to Plant

"Do remember that each kind of work has its season..." Hesiod, Works and Days A simple, mundane truth about the end of August. The mid-Atlantic growing season is moving toward…
August 27, 2014

Hearing the Shenandoah

“Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you…” American Folk Song, traditional What is it about hearing a river? This past spring I stood next to the flooding Mississippi in St.…
August 20, 2014